Irish terrorism, British counter-terrorism and United States foreign policy, 1865--1922

During the six decades after the Civil War, the United States government encountered various forms of modern international terrorism. Irish terrorists attempting to end or alter British colonial domination of Ireland provides historians a unique opportunity to explore how Americans perceived and reacted to the phenomenon of modern international terrorism. From Reconstruction through the Progressive era, Irish terrorists did not directly threaten United States national security or represent a serious military consideration for Americans, but Irish nationalist and agrarian terrorists in the second half of the nineteenth century introduced the complexities of a large terrorist network conspiracy that operated in the United States and created real diplomatic difficulties for Anglo-American relations. Strains of Anglophobia and Irish prejudice influence American perceptions of Irish terrorism and British counterterrorism. American began to formulate an ideological opposition to terrorism, but did not actively cooperate with British counter-terrorism. As Irish nationalist terrorism became more violent in the final decades of the nineteenth century and in the immediate years after World War I, the United States not only became a vocal critic of terrorism, but State Department and Executive officials, who increasingly sympathized with the British, also became critical of their counterterrorism policy. In the years 1865 to 1922, the United States government never articulated or adopted a clear, decisive or comprehensive policy towards Irish terrorism, but it is evident that America citizens, territory and institutions were entangled with this early expression of modern international terrorism. By the end of World War I the United States government not only crystallized its ideological opposition to terrorism as a method of political change, but also began laying the foundations for future Anglo-American cooperation in the prevention of international terrorism. Besides establishing a common language to identify terrorist acts, the United States also followed the British lead in establishing intelligence capabilities to monitor and analyze terrorist groups. American observations of Irish terrorism and British responses in the half-century before World War I provided the antecedents of United States' policies and perceptions of international terrorism through the remainder of the twentieth century.