The Mega-Terrorism - The Challenge of the Third Millennium

• Main Author: Daniel Andrișan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Danubius University 2011-06-01
• Series: Acta Universitatis Danubius: Relationes Internationales
• Subjects: terrorism; weapon; defense; global security; intelligence
• Online Access: http://journals.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/internationalis/article/view/1231/1018

The aim of this article is to describe the "new face" of terrorism in the twenty-first centuryindicating the transition to mass destruction weapons (nuclear terrorism, chemical, biological), toethnic-religious terrorism, the occurrence of massive gray area phenomena of terrorism and how thisphenomenon became a strategic weapon. Mega-terrorism has been existing, at a conceptual level,ever since the 70’s, when the experts of this phenomenon tried to find a semantic cover for thesituations that certain organizations, groups or terrorist or extremist sections would get someWeapons of Mass Destruction Systems. Actually, the 11th of September tragedy proves that megaterrorismrepresents the premeditated destruction, the lack of negotiations, of a tactical goal that wasto be accomplished by means of a threat. The mega-terrorism actors do not intend to get themselvesknown to the public, do not require anything, do not see the threat as means or device to reach theirpurpose. The 21 st century mega-terrorism simple logic is materialized in the systemic destroying ofthe enemy, no longer representing a political power or a government, but an entire ‘disobeying’,‘corrupted’, ‘unfaithful’ population indifferent to the mega-terrorist actors’ desires. New dimensionagainst mega-terrorism determines not only a rethinking of how to combat it, but also the realizationof a conceptual legal framework and measures established to materialize the political decision.