THE WAYS AND MEANS OF PEACE

THE WAYS AND MEANS OF PEACE ~ 55 ~ waged unavoidably in self-defence. Any other kind of war, for instance, aggressive war, proxy war, guerrilla war, undeclared war–are all totally unlawful according to international ethics. On no consideration can these wars be held lawful. According to the above definition, any movement based on terrorism is certainly unlawful. It cannot be justified simply by giving it a high-sounding name. Any attempt to achieve human objectives by engaging in terrorism, rather than using lawful means to do so, is to transgress all bounds. Modern terrorism must, therefore, be brought to an end. But this cannot be done through counter attacks. For one thing, this would be like trying to quell non-state terrorism by state terrorism. And for another, modern terrorism derives its strength less from guns and bombs than from its ideology. That is why a counter ideology rather than counterbombing would the more effectively put an end to terrorism. The terrorists’ self-styled ideology gives them the conviction that, by dying in battle, they become martyrs and that, as such, they will have a new and