Alex P. Schmid

Last updated

Alex Schmid at CSTPV, University of St. Andrews in September 2014 Alexschmid.jpg
Alex Schmid at CSTPV, University of St. Andrews in September 2014

Alex Peter Schmid (born 1943) is a scholar in terrorism studies, who from 1999 to 2005 was Officer-in-Charge of the Terrorism Prevention Branch of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna. He is particularly known for his work on the definition of terrorism.

Contents

Schmid has lived and worked mostly in the Netherlands, and as of 2021, he is research fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) in The Hague, and among his many other roles, is a director of the Terrorism Research Initiative and editor-in-chief of its journal, Perspectives on Terrorism .

Early life and education

Alex Peter Schmid [1] was born in Chur, Switzerland, in 1943. [2] He studied history at the University of Zürich [3] and was awarded a PhD from that institution. [2]

Career

From 1978 until 2018 Schmid worked in various roles at Leiden University in the Netherlands. [4]

His first major work on terrorism, Political terrorism: A research guide to concepts, theories, data bases, and literature, was published in 1984. [5]

Schmid was an Einstein Fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University (as part of a program funded via the Albert Einstein Institution [6] ), Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1986–87, [7] [8] during which time he worked on a revised and expanded edition of his 1984 book Political Terrorism, published in 1988. [9] [6]

In 1992 Schmid was associate professor of International Relations at Leiden University, and a senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Conflicts, and research director at the PIOOM Foundation (Interdisciplinary Research Programme on Root Causes of Human Rights Violations, 1988–2001 [10] ). [3]

He held the Synthesis Chair on Conflict Resolution at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam in the 1990s, [8] before serving as Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations' Terrorism Prevention Branch, within the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna from 1999 to 2005. [7] [11]

In May 2006 he was appointed to a chair in International Relations at St Andrews University, [8] and was at the same time Director of its Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV), holding both posts until 2009. [12] [11] [7]

From 1 September 2010 to 30 June 2011, he was a research fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, or KNAW), where he investigated "how courts in a number of countries have been dealing with political offenders in the recent past and how those accused of acts of terrorism have performed in courts". [2] [12] [7]

He served on the executive board of the International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council (ISPAC) of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme Network. [8]

Schmid is a member of the World Society of Victimology and a Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) since 2003 or 2004. [13] [7] He is a Member of the European Commission's Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation, [8] and has been an advisor to Europol's TE-SAT (annual Terrorism Situation and Trend Report) since 2010. [7]

As of 2021, he is research fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) in The Hague. [4] He is also one of three directors of the Terrorism Research Initiative, a non-profit organisation based in North Carolina. [14]

Journals

Schmid was previously co-editor of the Taylor & Francis journal Terrorism and Political Violence , [15] and remains on the editorial board. [16]

In 2009 he began editing the journal Perspectives on Terrorism , a publication of the Terrorism Research Initiative, [4] he is as of 2021 editor-in-chief of the journal. [14]

Definitions of terrorism

Schmid's academic consensus definition of terrorism was first published in 1988 in the revised edition of Political Terrorism (Schmid and Jongman): [7] [17]

"Terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby – in contrast to assassination – the direct targets of violence are not the main targets. The immediate human victims of violence are generally chosen randomly (targets of opportunity) or selectively (representative or symbolic targets) from a target population, and serve as message generators. Threat- and violence-based communication processes between terrorist (organization), (imperilled) victims, and main targets are used to manipulate the main target (audience(s)), turning it into a target of terror, a target of demands, or a target of attention, depending on whether intimidation, coercion, or propaganda is primarily sought".

He proposed a definition to the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) in 1992, based on the already internationally accepted definition of war crimes, with the crucial words "peacetime equivalents of war crimes", [18] but his proposal was not accepted. [11] The Supreme Court of India referenced Schmid's this definition in a 2003 ruling (Madan Singh v. State of Bihar), "defin[ing] acts of terrorism veritably as 'peacetime equivalents of war crimes'". [19] [20]

The 1988 definition was updated in 2011 after "three rounds of consultations among academics and other professionals" and published in The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research. The revised definition is longer than most, after suggesting that the previous attempts, in its quest for consensus, had reduced the level of complexity in the definition, and ended up with "a high level of abstraction". The 2011 revised definition includes 12 points, the first of which is: [21] [7]

1. Terrorism refers, on the one hand, to a doctrine about the presumed effectiveness of a special form or tactic of fear-generating, coercive political violence and, on the other hand, to a conspiratorial practice of calculated, demonstrative, direct violent action without legal or moral restraints, targeting mainly civilians and non-combatants, performed for its propagandistic and psychological effects on various audiences and conflict parties;...

In an article published in Contemporary Voices in 2020, Schmid revisits the many challenges associated with defining terrorism, outlining six main reasons why this is the case: [11]

  1. It is a complex phenomenon.
  2. Confusion exists in the terminology, specifically the terms “terror” and “terrorism” and the relationship between the two.
  3. Terrorism often has more than one ultimate target.
  4. Related to 3. above, there may be as many as 10 audiences for whom the terrorists are performing their acts.
  5. There is confusion between terrorism and certain other forms of political violence.
  6. There are many forms of terrorism; Schmid previously (1988) identified 12 types, but in recent years references to new types, such as cyberterrorism (arguably belonging to the definition) have been identified.

In this article, he also outlines the history of the search for a consensus definition, and the failure of international efforts, including a series of attempts by the UN since the 1972 Munich attack. [11]

In his most recent major publication, the Handbook of Terrorism Prevention and Preparedness (2020–2021), Schmid again returns to the problem of the lack of acceptance of a common legal definition by all countries, because "the broader a definition, the more terrorism there is that ought to be countered and the more difficult it becomes to prevent it. If countries have different definitions of terrorism, extradition of terrorist suspects and mutual legal assistance become more difficult and often impossible...”. However the 2011 academic definition of terrorism, which is social-scientific rather than legal in nature, has gained a fair degree of acceptance among scholars. [22]

Recognition

The first edition of Political Terrorism (1984) won a national award for the best book in political science. [23] [24]

Schmid has been described as "a leading orthodox terrorism scholar". [25]

Selected works

Schmid has authored and edited over 200 publications, [11] including:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State terrorism</span> Acts of terrorism conducted by a state

State terrorism is terrorism that a state conducts against another state or against its own citizens. Acts accused of being state terrorism typically involve the use or threat of violence by state agents, including military, police, or intelligence agencies, and targets can be domestic or foreign individuals or groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrorism</span> Use of violence against non-combatants to achieve aims

Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war against non-combatants. There are various different definitions of terrorism, with no universal agreement about it. Different definitions of terrorism emphasize its randomness, its aim to instill fear, and its broader impact beyond its immediate victims.

There is no consensus, scholarly or legal, on the definition of terrorism.

A lone wolf attack, or lone actor attack, is a particular kind of mass murder, committed in a public setting by an individual who plans and commits the act on their own. In the United States, such attacks are usually committed with firearms. In other countries, knives are sometimes used to commit mass stabbings. Although definitions vary, most databases require a minimum of four victims for the event to be considered a mass murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime</span> Intergovernmental organization

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is a United Nations office that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention by combining the United Nations International Drug Control Program (UNDCP) and the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Division in the United Nations Office at Vienna, adopting the current name in 2002.

Armand Albert (Bert) Eriksson was a leading Flemish nationalist.

The Red Armenian Army (RAA), also known as the Armenian Red Army, was a small militant organization, which organized a single unsuccessful attack against the Turkish Consul General, Kemalettin Demirer, on 1 July 1982 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The group used a gun in the assassination attempt.

New Armenian Resistance (NAR) was an Armenian militant group known since 1977 which has been responsible for bombings in Belgium, France, Italy and Switzerland. The main targets were Turkish, Soviet, British, and Israeli travel agencies.

The Baloch Students Organization-Awami or BSO-Awami was founded in 1972, when it split from the Baloch Students Organization (BSO). It supported Baluch People's Liberation Front, a militant organization in Balochistan against Pakistani control. The organisation was Marxist-Leninist in its ideology. It was against the sardari system in Balochistan.

Genocide definitions include many scholarly and international legal definitions of genocide, a word coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944. The word is a compound of the ancient Greek word γένος and the Latin word caedō ("kill"). While there are various definitions of the term, almost all international bodies of law officially adjudicate the crime of genocide pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sher Mohammad Marri</span>

Sher Mohammad Marri was the chief of the Marri Baloch tribe in Pakistan, and an early leader in the Parrari movement which would lead to the formation of the Baloch Liberation Army, a militant nationalist group. A Marxist, he had close ties to leftist governments in Kabul and Moscow.

Michael Stohl is Professor and a former Chair of the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He researches organizational and political communication with special focus on terrorism, human rights and global relations. He has been a guest commentator on National Public Radio, NBC, and CBS for stories on terrorism and human rights. He has been critical of the George W. Bush administration's understanding of terrorism networks during the War on Terrorism.

Yonah Alexander is an author and lecturer who specializes in the study of terrorism.

James J. F. Forest is an American author and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

General Emilio Tafeng (1910–19??), also Emedio Tafeng, Emedio Tafeng Odongi, was the Commander In Chief of the Anyanya movement and a military commander in the First Sudanese Civil War, fighting on the side of Southern Sudan. In 1963 he established camps across the southern borders of Sudan, in Zaire and Uganda, and waged an intermittent war of sabotage and ambush against government forces. In August 1971, Joseph Lagu captured the leadership from Tafeng and became military and political head of the new South Sudan Liberation Movement.

The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) is an independent think-and-do tank providing multidisciplinary policy advice and practical support focused on prevention, the rule of law and current and emerging threats three important parts of effective counter-terrorism work.

The Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV), also known as the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, is a research centre at the School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews, and is Europe's oldest terrorism research facility. The CSTPV is "dedicated to the study of the causes, dynamics, characteristics and consequences of terrorism and related forms of political violence", while committed to rigorous, independent evidence-based scholarly analysis. In addition, the CSTPV investigates the responses of states, civil society, and international organizations to violent modes of waging conflict. As the basis of its work, the CSTPV maintains databases, manifestations, and consequences of terrorism and other forms of political violence.

Terrorism and Political Violence is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering terrorism and counter-terrorism published by Routledge. It was established in 1989 by David C. Rapoport, who remains editor-in-chief. In the editorial manifesto in its first issue, it is referred to as the Journal of Terrorism Research; however, from its first issue until the present, in editorial statements and elsewhere, it is only ever cited as Terrorism and Political Violence.

Perspectives on Terrorism (PT) is a quarterly peer-reviewed, open-access online academic journal, covering political violence, terrorism and counter-terrorism, It is published jointly by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, in collaboration with Leiden University and the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fifth-generation warfare</span> Warfare conducted without the use of lethal force

Fifth-generation warfare (5GW) is warfare that is conducted primarily through non-kinetic military action, such as social engineering, misinformation, cyberattacks, along with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and fully autonomous systems. Fifth generation warfare has been described by Daniel Abbot as a war of "information and perception". There is no widely agreed upon definition of fifth-generation warfare, and it has been rejected by some scholars, including William S. Lind, who was one of the original theorists of fourth-generation warfare.

References

  1. ↑ "Schmid, Alex Peter". Trove . National Library of Australia . Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 "Schmid, A.P." Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study . Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  3. 1 2 "Notes on contributors". Terrorism and Political Violence . 4 (4). Informa UK Limited: 352–356. 1992. doi:10.1080/09546559208427191. ISSN   0954-6553.
  4. 1 2 3 "Dr. Alex P. Schmid". International Centre for Counter-Terrorism . Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  5. ↑ Schmid, Alex Peter; Jongman, A. J. (1984), Political terrorism: A research guide to concepts, theories, data bases and literature, Amsterdam, ISBN   978-0-444-85602-9, [By] Alex P. Schmid; with a bibliography by the author and a world directory of "Terrorist" organizations by A.J. Jongman.
  6. 1 2 The First Five Years: 1983–1988 and Plans for the Future: President's report (PDF) (Report). The Albert Einstein Institution. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 May 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Schmid, Alex P., ed. (2011). The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research (PDF). Routledge Handbooks. Routledge. p. xii,74, 1–718. ISBN   978-0-203-82873-1.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "SCHMID Alex P." World Who's Who. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  9. 1 2 Schmid, Alex Peter; Jongman, A. J (2005), Political terrorism: a new guide to actors, authors, concepts, data bases, theories, and literature [Catalogue entry] (Rev., expanded and updated ed.), New Brunswick (USA): North-Holland Pub. Co., ISBN   978-0-444-85659-3
  10. ↑ "PIOOM Foundation – Interdisciplinary Research Programme on Root Causes of Human Rights Violations". Union of International Associations. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Schmid, Alex P. (7 October 2020). Brunton, Gillian; Wilson, Tim (eds.). "Discussion 1 – Revisiting the wicked problem of defining terrorism". Contemporary Voices: St Andrews Journal of International Relations . 1 (1). Issue title: Terrorism: Its Past, Present & Future Study – A Special Issue to Commemorate CSTPV at 25. doi: 10.15664/jtr.1601 . ISSN   2516-3159. CC-BY icon.svg Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under a Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. (Per this page.
  12. 1 2 "Dr. Alex P. Schmid". ICCT. 24 January 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  13. ↑ "Alex Schmid". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  14. 1 2 "About". Terrorism Research Initiative. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  15. ↑ "List of Contributors". Oxford Handbooks . 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  16. ↑ "Terrorism and Political Violence Editorial Board". Taylor & Francis Online. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  17. ↑ "Definitions of Terrorism". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Archived from the original on 27 May 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
  18. ↑ Siegel, Larry (2 January 2008). Criminology . Cengage Learning. ISBN   978-0-495-39102-9 . Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  19. ↑ "In the Supreme Court of India, Criminal Appelate Jurisdiction, Criminal Appeal No. 1285 of 2003 Madan Singh vs. State of Bihar". 2003.
  20. ↑ "Terrorism: Indian Law & Practise: Judgment of the Supreme Court of India in Madan Singh v State of Bihar". TamilNation. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  21. ↑ Schmid, Alex P. (16 May 2012). "The Revised Academic Consensus Definition of Terrorism". Perspectives on Terrorism . 6 (2). Retrieved 31 March 2021. A description how it was arrived at can be found on pp. 39-98 of Alex P. Schmid (Ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research. London and New York: Routledge, 2011. The same volume also contains 260 other definitions compiled by Joseph J. Easson and Alex P. Schmid on pp. 99-200. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
  22. 1 2 Schmid, Alex P., ed. (November 2020 – June 2021). Handbook of Terrorism Prevention and Preparedness. International Centre for Counter-Terrorism. doi:10.19165/2020.6.01. ISBN   9789090339771. ISSN   2468-0486 . Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  23. ↑ "Political terrorism: a new guide to actors, authors, concepts, data bases, theories, and literature". SearchWorks catalog (Stanford Libraries). Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  24. ↑ Speckhard, Anne (11 August 2015). "Alex P. Schmid (Ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research [Book review]". Terrorism and Political Violence . 27 (4). doi:10.1080/09546553.2015.1068090. S2CID   142793067 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
  25. ↑ Mills, Tom; Massoumi, Narzanin; Miller, David (16 September 2019). "The ethics of researching 'terrorism' and political violence: a sociological approach". Contemporary Social Science. 15 (2). Informa UK Limited: 119–133. doi: 10.1080/21582041.2019.1660399 . hdl: 10871/38996 . ISSN   2158-2041.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.