A Blast from the Past: Lessons from a Largely Forgotten Incident of State-Sponsored Terrorism

We sometimes believe that state-sponsored terrorism is a modern phenomenon and generally a weapon of rogue regimes. When we do so, however, we are forgetting the lessons of the past; these demonstrate that it had been used almost two centuries ago by what at that time was considered to be a liberal democracy. Examining these now largely forgotten incidents reminds us that state-sponsored terrorism is not an end it itself but a tool that can be used by any state if the circumstances are right Examining how this threat was met and overcome can be instructive for us today and is in line with some of today’s holistic approaches to counterterrorism.