Special to The Japan Times
In the closing days of the millennium, U.S. President Bill Clinton mused about how the technology embedded in the Palm Pilot hand-held organizers can be used to carry out acts of terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction. In May 1998, the issue of nuclear prolifera-tion returned to the top of the international security agenda as a result of nuclear-weapons tests on the Indian subcontinent. Now concern in the same region has switched to international terrorism. What if the two anxieties were joined?
Terrorism can be defined as the use of violence, the primary targets of which are civilians, to spread terror. Political goals are sought through the exploitation of such terror. This definition includes state-sponsored terrorism. Indeed the most common form of terrorism is that by the state against its own citizens, including the use of chemical weapons.