Criminalizing Insurgents: the United States and Western Europe Response to Terrorism, 1968-1984
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CRIMINALIZING INSURGENTS: THE UNITED STATES AND WESTERN EUROPE RESPONSE TO TERRORISM, 1968-1984 A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Silke Victoria Zoller Diploma Date August 2018 Examining Committee Members: Dr. Richard H. Immerman, Advisory Chair, History Dr. Petra Goedde, History Dr. Orfeo Fioretos, Political Science Dr. David Farber, University of Kansas Dr. Paul T. Chamberlin, External Member, Columbia University ii © Copyright 2018 by Silke Zoller ________________ All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT The United States, Germany, and other Western industrialized countries began seeking multilateral anti-terrorism agreements in the 1970s. In that decade, transnationally operating terroristic actors tapped into the anti-imperialist, anti-colonial global discourse of the 1960s to justify themselves as national liberation fighters. This dissertation is a case study of Western state officials who interacted with one another and with recently independent states in response to the activity of such ostensible insurgents. The dissertation reveals how Western officials worked to define and deploy the terrorism label against these non-state actors. U.S., German, and other Western officials generated international conventions that treated terrorists as ordinary criminals and ignored their political motivations. The resulting multilateral agreements stipulated that terrorism was an illegal and criminal act. These solutions undermined national liberation actors’ claims to protected status as wartime combatants. This dissertation clarifies some of the mechanisms which permitted Western states to shape the norms about who is or is not a terrorist. However, Western efforts to define and regulate terrorism also led to the institutionalization of terrorism as a global security threat without providing long-term solutions. These agreements did not prevent terrorist attacks. In addition, the Western multilateral conventions were deeply controversial. They triggered still unresolved debates amongst states worldwide about the conditions under which non-state actors had rights under international law to commit politically motivated violence. iv To my parents and to Dane v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It takes a village to support any student in their part toward the Ph.D. I am exceedingly grateful to everyone who pushed me to succeed – this dissertation would not exist in its current form without your steadfast encouragement. The Temple University History Department’s faculty and graduate students provided a nourishing academic environment for me throughout my time here. My research was generously supported by the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy, the Center for the Humanities at Temple, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, Temple University’s Global Studies Program, and Temple University’s College of Liberal Arts. My committee members always encouraged me to strive for my personal best work. This dissertation is all the better for it. I could not have reached this point without Richard Immerman. He embodies the best of an academic advisor – masterfully providing both the intellectual space to explore my ideas and the guidance to see me through my studies safely. Thank you for always having my back. My family shows me every day what a love of learning looks like in practice. I am a better person because you celebrate and foster intellectual curiosity. Finally, my husband Dane experienced long nights and mountains of books together with me. He is both my bedrock and the wind beneath my wings. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………………...…… iii DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………………………… iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………………………….. v CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: THE CONCEPT OF TERRORISM AND NEGOTIATIONS ON POLITICAL VIOLENCE ....................................................................................................... 1 2. CRIMES AGAINST CIVIL AVIATION AND DIPLOMATS: U.S.MULTILATERAL EFFORTS TO DELEGITIMIZE TERRORISTIC VIOLENCE, 1968-71 .................................... 26 3. THE 1972 “INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM” DEBATE AT THE UNITED NATIONS ............. 65 4. EUROPEAN MULTILATERAL COLLABORATION AGAINST THE CRIME OF TERRORISM .......................................................................................................................... 105 5. TERRORISM AND EXTRADITION WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION ....................................................................................................................... 149 6. AN IDEOLOGY OF THEIR OWN: THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION’S “TERROR NETWORK” THEORY AND ISOLATED VIEWPOINT ON TERRORISM ............................. 188 7. EPILOGUE ............................................................................................................................ 234 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................... 241 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: THE CONCEPT OF TERRORISM AND NEGOTIATIONS ON POLITICAL VIOLENCE In the 1970s, Western states faced an increased volume of politically-motivated terroristic violence at home and abroad. The perpetrators were non-state actors who operated transnationally across state and regional boundaries. These non-state actors justified themselves as national liberation fighters, tapping into the anti-imperialist, anti-colonial discourse that gained global prominence during the 1960s.1 A sizeable number of recently independent states, many of which celebrated their own recent national independence movements, supported them directly and indirectly. Targeted countries, such as the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and Italy, quickly realized that such terroristic actors crossed national boundaries with impunity. They were a security threat. I am interested in how Western state officials interacted with one another, with recently independent states, and with non-state entities such as national liberation movements in order to respond to the activity of transnationally operating terrorists. Did the United States, European states, and their allies reach out to one another to address terrorism? If so, how and with what results? If not, how did they behave? My dissertation analyzes multilateral anti-terrorism measures in recent history, focusing on those conducted by Western states such as the United States and its European allies. It highlights how state officials interpreted and reacted to non-state actors who crossed borders and seized political agency through terrorist violence. It identifies and assesses the challenges to multilateral strategies designed to combat transnational threats. The dissertation argues that Western anti-terrorism measures were contentious because they addressed not only terroristic violence, but also the agency of national liberation movements and other politically motivated 1 For a succinct history of terroristic violence before 1968, see pp.20-24. 2 non-state actors. Such movements labeled themselves as proto-state organizations and sought the sovereignty associated with nation-state status – often through violent acts. However, the Western states’ multilateral anti-terrorism measures denounced most acts of non-state politically- motivated violence as illegal and illegitimate. Instead, these anti-terrorism measures proclaimed that only established states had the authority to commit, regulate, or even negotiate about violence. Western states’ anti-terrorism strategies thus undermined national liberation efforts to attain sovereignty. This factor made them highly contentious. …………………………………………………. There is already substantial scholarship on national terrorist groups and counterterrorism policies.2 Another literature explores the cultural impact of terrorism around the world. I focus on an underdeveloped historical topic: how state officials utilized international diplomacy to shape worldwide policies and politics on terrorism over time. This dissertation follows the basic tenet of the developing field of critical terrorism studies. It assumes that terrorism is a changing, politically- charged term that many people have used across diverse contexts to describe a broad spectrum violent actors.3 Relying on archival source research, my dissertation takes a historical approach which contributes to the field of international history.4 I show why a range of Western countries and their allies pursued the same kinds of anti-terrorism agreements - and bound themselves to specific policies and interpretations concerning terrorism. In addition, I trace the political consequences of these policies and interpretations for the international system of the 1970s and for our modern world today. The 1970s were the decade in which the label terrorism entered 2 A good overview of this scattered field can be found in Alex P. Schmid, ed., The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research (New York: Routledge, 2011). 3 Richard Jackson, “Introduction: A Decade of Critical Terrorism Studies,” in The Routledge Handbook of Critical Terrorism Studies, ed. Richard Jackson (New York: Routledge, 2016), 1-14, 3. 4 Theoretical overviews addressing international history include Frank Costigliola and Michael J. Hogan, Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations, 3rd ed. (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2016); and Patrick Finney, Palgrave