Terrorist activity in Germany: approaches to defining the term and structure, nature and features.

Vasilev Artem Alekseevich ORCID: 0009-0000-2740-7378 PhD in History Student; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 117198, Russia, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 6 vasilevart0@gmail.com

Mansur Dariya Numman ORCID: 0000-0002-8397-0955 PhD in History Assistant Professor; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 117198, Russia, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 6 mansur_dn@rudn.ru

Introduction

The relevance of this research topic is due to the increased threat of terrorist attacks around the world. The object of the research presented in the article is terrorism. The subject of the study is terrorist activity in the Federal Republic of Germany. The purpose of the article is to characterize the phenomenon of terrorism in Germany by analyzing theoretical and conceptual approaches to its definition and organizational structures after the Second World War. Research objectives: to define the term "terrorism", to analyze the structure of terrorism based on theoretical and conceptual approaches, to determine the characteristics and nature of terrorism in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The research is based on the network theory proposed by S. Stoll and M. Stoll. The article uses various approaches to the definition of the term and structure of terrorism, as well as identifies the characteristics and distinctive features of terrorist activity in Germany. The study uses statistical data, analytical reports and scientific literature on terrorism in Germany.

Definition of the term

There is currently no unambiguous approach to the definition of terrorism. The French National Convention declared in September 1793 that "terror is the order of the day." Maximilian Robespierre, the leader of the French Revolution, proclaimed in 1794 that "terror is nothing but justice, swift, harsh, inflexible"^[1]. Agents The Committee of Public Security, which pursued a policy of "terror", were called "terrorists".

According to Wilkinson, terrorism is the use of violence or the threat of violence in order to cause fear and force governments or society to submit to political, religious or ideological demands ^[2].

Researcher D. Pipes pointed out that terrorism is based on the phenomena of intimidation, intimidation and violence in order to influence political opponents ^[3].

The difficulty of defining terrorism, among other things, is that it has different types, levels, methods, means and ideological content. This complexity can be demonstrated by the example of dividing terrorism by levels of scale. But even this division is not accurate, since the first one includes a specific form of international terrorism that arose in the twentieth century and developed in the 2000s.

The first level is global or international. One of the forms of this level is modern Islamic terrorism. The main characteristic of terrorism at the global level is that the actions committed by terrorists affect the interests of two or more countries, but at the same time, the activities must go beyond one region and have a global character. Global terrorist organizations include Al-Qaeda (the organization's activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation by a decision of the Supreme Court of November 13, 2008), ISIS (the organization's activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation by a decision of the Supreme Court of December 29, 2014) and the Taliban (The organization's activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation by a decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated February 14, 2003). In December 1994 The United Nations General Assembly condemned terrorist acts using the following description of terrorism in the Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism (UNGA resolution 49/60) ^[4]: "Criminal acts aimed or calculated to provoke a state of terror among the general public, a group of individuals or specific individuals for political purposes cannot under any circumstances be justified, regardless of considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that they can be used to justify them," the declaration says.

The second level is regional, which is considered within the framework of the EU. Article 1 of the Council's Framework Decision defines terrorist crimes as actions that can cause serious damage to a country or an international organization. These crimes are aimed at spreading fear, forcing Governments and destroying fundamental structures. Examples include attacks on life, destruction of public facilities, and possession of weapons or explosives. Actions such as the release of dangerous substances or the destruction of vital resources are also considered terrorist crimes ^[5]. The Report on terrorism by country 2019 the US state Department allocates a separate regional level terrorism: "Indian CT forces, at the federal and state levels, were active in detecting and disrupting transnational and regional terrorist groups such as ISIS (an organization banned in Russia by the Supreme court of 29 December 2014), its local affiliate of ISIS-Bangladesh (organization banned in Russia by the decision of the Supreme court on December 29, 2014), and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) (The organization was prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation by the decision of the Leninsky district court of Astrakhan on October 19, 2007) (Rus. Indian armed forces at the Federal level and at the level of States actively participated in the detection and elimination of transnational and regional terrorist groups such as ISIL (organization banned in Russia by the Supreme court of 29 December 2014), his local branch of ISIS-Bangladesh (organization of zapresheno on the territory of the Russian Federation by the decision of the Supreme court of 29 December 2014) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahedin Bangladesh (JMB) (organization banned in Russia by the decision of the Leninsky district court of Astrakhan on October 19, 2007)"; "Meanwhile, regional terrorist groups such as the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Shining Path were active in the hemisphere, including in Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru (Rus. Meanwhile, regional terrorist groups such as the national liberation Army (ELN) and the Shining path had been active in the Western hemisphere, including in Colombia, Venezuela and Peru"; "The G5 combats terrorism and promotes regional development and governance within and across member countries Sahel (Rus. The big five is fighting regional terrorism and contributes to the development and management within the member countries of the Sahel and beyond)," reads the report. That is, regional "branches" of terrorist organizations determine the existence of a regional level of terrorism by their existence ^[6].

The third level is internal or intrastate. A feature of this level is the functioning of individual terrorists and groups within the same country. Most often, these are citizens of the state, not foreigners. Examples of such organizations may be the IRA (Irish Republican Army) or the FKA (Red Army Faction/Rote Armee Faction). The first was active in Ireland in the 20th century and advocated the separation of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom. The second carried out activities from 1968 to 1998 in Germany and West Berlin. Both organizations differ in the nature of terrorist activity, which is political. That is, the IRA and the FKA pursued political goals, which they used terrorist methods to achieve.

Drawing a conclusion from all of the above, we can say that the main difficulty in defining terrorism is that its nature, scale, and goals of participants in groups and organizations vary. Therefore, it is not possible to define the term unambiguously.

Theoretical and conceptual approaches to the analysis of the structure of terrorism

Defining the structure of terrorism, that is, the structure and strategies of terrorist networks, is a key task in the fight against terrorism, since knowledge of the structure helps in developing effective counter-terrorism measures by understanding their operations and hierarchy, allows you to predict and prevent attacks by recognizing patterns in structures, helps to understand how these groups recruit and radicalize individuals. Understanding the structure of terrorism contributes to the development of more effective counter-terrorism strategies.

Malcolm Sparrow provides a complete overview of the network analysis of criminal activity and describes three problems of analysis ^[7]:

1. incompleteness – the inevitability of the absence of nodes and links that investigators will not reveal;

2. Fuzzy boundaries – the difficulty of deciding who to include and who not to include;

3. Dynamic – these networks are not static, they are always changing. Instead of looking at the presence or absence of a connection between two people, Sparrow suggests looking at the growing and waning strength of the connection depending on the time and the task at hand.

Terrorism has a network structure that is extensive and not always open to terrorists. The peculiarity of this structure is that it is not always correct to apply the hierarchy definition approach to it. Not all members of groups and organizations have access to comprehensive information about their place in the terrorist network. In everyday life, it can be ordinary people who are secretly engaged in organizing terrorist activities. Network theory researchers S. Stolem and M. Stolem analyze the structure of terrorism based on its non-hierarchical nature. After analyzing the approach of the US administration to the study of terrorist organizations and conducting their own research, they proposed the following approach to determining the foundations of terrorist networks ^[8].

Assumptions of the US administration:

1. Networks are information systems;

2. Network connections embody complex historical relationships;

3. Networks are hierarchically organized top-down management and control structures;

4. The specification of network boundaries is a political tool;

5. Networks are globalized.

Assumptions of Network Theory:

1. Networks are multifunctional communication systems;

2. Network connections embody complex historically established relationships operating on several levels;

3. Networks are temporary, dynamic, emerging, adaptive, flexible structures;

4. Network Boundary specification is an analytical tool;

5. Networks can be local, global, or heterogeneous.

From this it can be concluded that if, for example, a major leader of a terrorist organization was captured, the media claimed that the “brain” of this organization had been caught, and that now communications would be disrupted. However, in fact, everything turned out to be somewhat different, since many contacts in terrorist organizations do not occur directly, but only indirectly, and by removing an important link in the network, the network subsequently does not collapse, but is modified. In addition, the nature of complex historical relations develops not on one, but on several levels. This is reflected in the growing ties with potential terrorists. Temporary and dynamic, flexible network structures mean that members of terrorist organizations can only be used at the right moment, and if one of them has been caught and imprisoned, then there will always be another in his place. The boundaries of the network are just a formal tool that indicates the end point of the search. The dimension of the network and its level can be completely different, including several characteristics at once, taking into account agents abroad, within the country, reaching the minimum size, including one street or district.

Features and nature of terrorism in Germany

Germany faced the first terrorist attacks in the late 1960s in connection with the actions of the FKA, which, as its members themselves believed, waged a guerrilla war against the state apparatus and the bourgeoisie. A radical group of left-wing activists emerged as a result of student protests in the 1960s and officially founded the FKA after the release of Andreas Baader on May 14, 1970. In the following years, the group radicalized its actions until the so-called "German autumn" of 1977 - a series of significant kidnappings and blackmail, which ended with the suicide of members of the organization in prison. This first chapter of the FCA was followed by two more generations of groups. However, their significance is usually considered less important because of its increasingly ineffective brutality and loss of significance. Since its founding, the FKA has caused a lot of controversy about the political situation in post-war Germany. In the early 1990s, the discussion about the treatment of former members of the organization became a central topic of German media discourse. The consequences of these debates certainly had an impact on the official and belated dissolution of the FKA in 1998 ^[9].

From the above facts, it can be concluded that the terrorist activities of the second half of the 20th century in Germany were of a political nature. However, this is not the only example of the actions of terrorist organizations in Germany. In 1972, during the Olympic Games in Munich, members of the Israeli national team were captured by the Palestinian organization Black September. These actions were directed not so much against the state of Germany itself or its citizens, as against the team of a certain country.

Terrorist organizations began to form in the Middle East and South Asia even during the USSR's participation in the war in Afghanistan. On September 11, 2001, the world faced the threat of international terrorism when it became clear that the borders of States were no longer barriers to terrorist organizations. This event marked the beginning of the fight against terrorism around the world. The Taliban (The organization's activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003), having provided asylum to the leader of Al-Qaeda (the organization's activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation by the decision of the Supreme Court of November 13, 2008) Osama bin Laden, who was the "number 1 target" for the United States in the fight against international terrorism terrorism ^[10].

Subsequently, another terrorist organization ISIS appeared in the Middle East (the organization's activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation by the decision of the Supreme Court of December 29, 2014). Since 2014, Germany, as part of the coalition, participated in the fight against this group, providing material support to allied forces with three formally independent units of the Bundeswehr, one of which is located on a Turkish base Figirlik is engaged in reconnaissance flights over Syria and Iraq, extracting intelligence and supplying military equipment.

The unstable situation in the Middle East and South Asia was one of the causes of the migration crisis in 2015. This made it possible for terrorists to move to European countries under the guise of refugees in a simpler way to conduct further activities there. It is noted that the refugee crisis and the government's migration policy influenced the change in the political landscape of Germany, the joining of young people to radical movements in Germany is due to the lack of prospects and leisure, as well as the active agitation of imams and recruiters, Germany is still involved in the fight against ISIS (The organization's activities are prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation December 29, 2014), but the effectiveness of its participation remains questionable ^[11]. Based on this, it is possible to determine the main features of terrorist activity in Germany.

The first feature is the growing threat and the "vindictive" character. The report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Germany highlights the problem of Islamic terrorism more and more often from year to year. From the 2015 report: "it should be assumed that ISIS (the organization's activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation by the decision of the Supreme Court of December 29, 2014) is planning further terrorist attacks in Europe, as well as in Germany." This fact determined the need for German military intervention in Syria and Iraq, since the problem itself carries the character of a security threat. In Syria and Iraq, there was a fight against terrorism, whose members are "taking revenge" on Germany for this, but in their own way ^[12]. In Berlin, on December 19, 2016, a terrorist attack took place at the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz, for which ISIS claimed responsibility (the organization's activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation by a decision of the Supreme Court of December 29, 2014). This case became the "starting point" for counter-terrorism activities in Germany, since there was a real threat emanating from politics "open doors" and migration policy. The transnational nature of terrorism can also be attributed to this feature. Scholars such as Peter Neumann emphasize that Islamic extremism in Germany is often part of global transnational networks. Recruitment, radicalization and attacks are influenced by ideologies and political dynamics far beyond Germany ^[13].

The second feature is the "diasporic" and religious nature of terrorism. The Salafist offshoot of Islam has become widespread in Germany. The basis of such a religious trend is adherence to the traditions and way of life of the early Muslim community. According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Salafi communities openly organize demonstrations, where they call for violence and recruit Muslims arriving in Germany. Lorenzo Vidino, an expert on Islamism and security issues, argues that the influence of the Salafist movement in Germany is a gateway to violent extremism. Salafi sermons, although not inherently violent, often promote a version of Islam that may contribute to the radicalization of some people.

Terrorism plays a minor role in the German National Security Strategy. It is claimed that the risk of a possible attack continues to increase. This increased danger is due to the increased radicalization and reintegration of militant, violent people returning from conflict zones. Despite significant progress in the fight against terrorist organizations and extremist groups, these organizations continue to exist and strengthen international ties. This concerns their funding mechanisms, their operations to recruit followers to gain support, and their terrorist attack planning processes, which further complicates the confrontation with them. This international interconnection accelerates individual radicalization events occurring simultaneously in a virtual and real environment. The problem of countering unique terrorist acts is also getting worse. At the same time, new forms of extremism can lead to the destruction of society and the transition to violence.

Conclusions

The ambiguous interpretation of the term leads, to some extent, to a misunderstanding of what needs to be fought. Having analyzed the legal side of the issue, it can be concluded that it will take more time for the problem of terrorism to receive a clear legal description both in Germany and in international law. A big problem in the fight against terrorism is also its diversity and network structure, and in order to understand it, an extremely large number of funds and resources are needed, not to mention the development of full-fledged conceptual approaches to combating such. The structural feature of terrorist activity in Germany is represented by party organizations that were active in the second half of the twentieth century, as well as diaspora and religious terrorist networks. The characteristics of terrorism are "vindictive", "diasporic" and religious in nature. The German authorities agree that terrorism still poses a threat to German society, as it undermines security and can provoke xenophobia and an increase in intolerance.