Terrorism has many meanings, as well as it serves for multiple purposes. There are different variations on how to define terrorism, the FBI defines terrorism as; “Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance or social objectives.” Terrorism associates with the crime specific conditions of a country or place that reveal the opportunities that allow criminal behavior to become possible. This is insightful as it correlates with the activities of many terrorist organizations like ISIS, whose goal is to establish a state ruled by a single political and religions leader through the use of violence.

The essential features of terrorism ensures it’s importance within international relations because even though terrorism is a transnational crime, all transnational crimes are of international concern and can become an international crime. This raises concerns for security between borders and states. Some of these concerns can be described as, the risk of an attack by criminal groups that can move in between states and spread to several parts of the world. As a result, this threat of security has led to the several responses, like the creation of new criminal offences, broadened legal definitions of terrorism, improved funding for state agencies involved in countering terrorism and the grant of greater authority of the detention and arrest.

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