The Power of Terror
| Author | I.M.H. Smart |
| Published date | 01 June 1975 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207503000203 |
| Date | 01 June 1975 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
I.M.H.
SMART
The
power
of
terror
Some
would
hold
the
subject to
be
meaningless.
'Terror,'
says
Hannah Arendt,
'is
not
the
same
as
violence;
it
is,
rather,
the
form
of
government
that
comes
into
being
when
violence,
having
destroyed all power,
does
not
abdicate
but,
on
the contrary,
re-
mains
in
full control
...
Violence
can
destroy
power;
it is
utterly
incapable
of
creating
it."
It
becomes
increasingly
difficult
to have
much
respect for such
a
view
as
occasions
multiply
on
which
in-
ternational
as
well
as
national
politics
are
clearly
affected
by
the
threats
and
actions
of
men
whose
power
depends
not
on
their
numbers
but
only
on the fear aroused
by
their
demonstrated
willingness
and ability
to
use
violence. Power,
if
it
means
any-
thing,
must
be
a
transitive
concept, reflecting
the application
of
some
faculty
for
constraining
the
thoughts
or
motions
of
its
ob-
jects:
'the
capacity to
induce
others
to behave
according
to
pat-
terns
in
one's
own
mind.'
2
To
pretend
that
the
violent criminal,
lunatic,
or
political
terrorist
is
incapable
of
constraining the
ac-
Deputy Director
and
Director
of
Studies
at
the
Royal
Institute
of
International
Affairs
(Chatham
House);
author
of
numerous
articles
and
papers
on
the
technical
and
political
aspects
of nuclear
strategy,
on
arms
control,
and
on
the
relationship
between
military
power
and
politics.
i
Hannah
Arendt,
On
Violence
(New
York,
Harvest
Books,
1970),
pp
55-6.
The
mutually
exclusive
relationship
between
'power'
and
'terror'
asserted
in
this
extraordinary
statement
can
only,
to
be
fair,
be
derived
from
Dr
Arendt's
idiosyncratic
attempt (pp
44-6)
to
define
'power,'
'strength,'
'force,'
'authority,'
and
'violence'
in
ways
which
serve
her
own
thesis,
even
at
the
expense
of
dissociating
words
from
their
conceptual
foundations
and
converting
them
into
mere
algebraic
symbols
to
be
deployed
at
will.
2
Arleigh
Burke,
'Power
and
Peace,'
reprinted
from
Orbis
in
F.R.
Barnett
et
al,
eds,
Peace
and
War
in
the Modern
Age:
Premises, Myths
and
Realities
(Garden
City
NY,
Anchor
Books,
1965),
p
19.
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