Interrogating Armed Conflict in the Context of Terrorism

Abstract

Not all acts of terrorism amount to armed conflict while terrorism may be committed both at peacetime and in the time of war; several local and international instruments delimit the scope of what amounts to terrorism in no uniform standard. Thus the dividing line between terrorism and other acts of violence is hazy and that has created so many controversies in application. This paper, therefore is aimed at interrogating \armed conflict in the context of terrorism by examining how armed conflict influences terrorist activities globally. The paper is an attempt to resolve the questions whether there is nexus between terrorist activities and armed conflict. The writer adopts the doctrinal paper methods and relies majorly on primary sources of materials like treaties and customary international humanitarian Law and secondary materials like opinions of learned authors. The paper observes that some states have defined terrorism in such a way as to avoid giving international recognition to rebel groups. It further observes that even when terrorist acts by the armed groups no matter how small, the resulting counterterrorism operations by the State armed forces is usually very violent at times with civilian casualties which raises international concerns. The writer suggests a uniform understanding of what amounts to terrorism at international law to ease the application on how armed conflict in the context of terrorism can be better managed. The paper will add to the body of knowledge by identifying the controversial links between terrorism and other acts of violence and the need to arrive at a universal agreement for uniform application of international law.