The United States has been fighting an international war on terror for the past four years, but the official definition of what constitutes a terrorist act is debatable. To clarify the need for a formal definition and update students on recent efforts to create one, Wilson School professor Robert Keohane led a discussion on Monday called "Towards a Definition of Terrorism."
Whig-Clio and the Princeton Community Against Terrorism jointly coordinated the talk, which centered on the U.N.'s recent debate on the issue.
Keohane said that the U.N.'s decisions are of utmost importance because they determine the standard of world opinion.
"One of the U.N.'s major functions has always been to legitimize or de-legitimize certain types of actions," Keohane said. "[A set definition] could be the platform for sanctions against a state supporting terrorism."
Keohane acknowledged, however, that no definition for terrorism can be perfect, as there will always be intricacies and debates that no law can solve absolutely. "[A definition] does narrow the grounds for disagreement, which is all that a set of rules can do," he said.
Discussions initiated by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan two years ago have led to a proposed definition of terrorism.
But Keohane pointed specifically to recent U.N. documents that do not include the earlier distinction, noting that one can either view this absence as a "debacle" or a nuance in the general discussion that could lead to a more effective definition in the future.
After speaking freely for about 15 minutes, Keohane opened the floor to questions. Students in attendance asked him about topics including the International Criminal Court, what effect a terrorism definition might have had on the war in Iraq and the application of official definitions to other topics, such as genocide in the Sudan.
"Whatever's happening [in Darfur] is probably not worse than what's happened in 100 other places in the last 300 years," Keohane said, after suggesting that the international attitude towards genocide has changed significantly, demonstrated by international notice of the issue.
He asserted that the creation of a definition of genocide is more a "symptom" of this change than a cause.
"The world is dramatically different than the world eight years ago," he said. "Without the political movement, the genocide convention would have no effect."
Keohane, a renowned expert on international relations, joined the University faculty in February of last year after teaching at Duke and Harvard.
He recently won the prestigious Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science and will travel to Sweden this weekend to accept the award. He also won the 1989 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World order for his 1984 work, "After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy."
Keohane, who referred to acquaintances in the State Department and the Supreme Court during the speech, made the speech accessible to students as well.
"He's renowned in international law," Whig-Clio Vice President Jonathon Elist '07 said. "He has a way of breaking down international politics in a way that's palatable to undergraduates."
Matt MacDonald '07, president of Whig-Clio, said that the society aims "to provide reasoned discussion of recent political issues."
"This [discussion] exemplified what we are trying to do," he added.
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