Terrorism

Terrorism is an enormously contested concept. While it is often suggested that ‘one person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fi ghter’ it is also a fact that Nelson Mandela, Gerry Adams and Xanana Gusmão were all branded as terrorists by the states that imprisoned them and where they later became internationally respected statesmen. Conversely, while the Mujahideen of Afghanistan were celebrated (and aided) by the West as freedom fi ghters when they were fi ghting a guerrilla war against the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 80s, their progeny the Taliban have, since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, been defi ned as terrorists by Western states, in many of which it is a terrorist offence to recruit for them or otherwise provide material support.