Early popular and scholarly use of the word 'terrorism' included both violence by non-state groups and individuals and by states. But over time, and especially through the consolidation of terrorism as a legal category, the idea of terrorism increasingly excluded state violence. This talk discusses how the notion of terrorism developed in U.S. and international law since the 1970s, from the earliest debates at the United Nations over state violence, to the 1980s focus on 'state sponsors of terrorism' in U.S. law, to the post-9/11 international enforcement regime that facilitated state repression of political dissent.

Sponsored by the Research Institute of CCSRE.