Ideology of Peace
THE WAYS AND MEANS OF PEACE
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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 counter-
bombing 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
