On September 11, 2001, a massive terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York City precipitated what ex-US President George W. Bush would soon call the “Global War or Terror”. A decade later the leader of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, is dead. Hundreds of thousands more lives have been lost and trillions of dollars have been spent. It is unclear whether the war on terror is near a conclusion, or indeed, even winnable given its existing frames of reference. In the interests of clarity it is helpful to define the terms ‘terrorism’ and ‘strategic communication’. Terrorism may be defined as the deliberate application of violence against civilians to induce terror-based behaviour. It does not matter whether the perpetrators are individuals or states, or whether their motivation is political, religious or ideological. In short, it is a very brutal tool for changing behaviour.
