Terror and counter-terror are forms of conflict resolution. People try to resolve conflicts with minimal force. We engage in terror and counter-terror to avoid having to address our conflicts with deadlier weapons. Paradoxically, terrorism saves lives. Repulsive as terrorist and counter-terrorist acts are, they kill fewer people than other forms of violent conflict resolution, from Second World War-style carpet bombing to First World War-style trench warfare.
As acts of belligerency, terror and counter-terror are the opposite of total war: They’re symbolic and/or narrowly targeted. Their gradual shift from the fringe to the mainstream occurred over the last 40 years as our battlefield weapons became more destructive, our targeting capabilities more precise, and our tolerance for casualties, including enemy casualties, much reduced. By now targeted assassinations are near-acceptable instruments of public policy.
