Research On The Definition Of Terrorism From The Perspective Of Constructivism

The definition of terrorism has always been a problem that hard to solve for scholars.There are little consensus between countries and scholars.The obscurity of the definition of terrorism made it very difficult to answer the question that what is terrorism,let alone with the questions of why and how.The reason of such obscurity is embedded in the flaws of using rationalism in social science.In contrast with rationalism,constructionism doesn't acknowledge the real existence of terrorism.constructionism believes that terrorism was constructed by human beings.By using the meaning of metaphors in discourse construction,I compared the similarities and differences between traditional terrorism and new terrorism,so that I reached a conclusion that denied the existence of new terrorism.By analyzing the metaphors that American government and western medias imposed on terrorism,the thesis had proved that the western understandings of the implications of terrorism suited the constructionism theory about identity,interest and culture.My conclusion is that the definition of terrorism is decided by identity,so western identities excluded the option that we can negotiate with terrorists.It is counter-productive for realizing the roots of terrorism which is about social injustice.It also restricted the range of counter-terrorism strategies.In the mean time,the America constructed terrorism culture has spread worldwide and was used by some countries,which diminished the efforts that the world has made on counter-terrorism.Last but not least,this paper re-defined terrorism by excluding common misunderstandings of terrorism for maintaining the neutrality of the academic research and for the effectiveness of counter-terrorism policies.