En gemensam fiende? : -En jämförande studie om olika staters syn på terrorism

Even though terrorism has been on the political agenda for several years there is no general accepted definition of the phenomena of terrorism. Several scientist do also apply that terrorism have changed after the 9/11-attacks. The purpose with this thesis was to analyze and compare the image of terrorism represented by the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway, in an attempt to draw conclusions about similarities and differentials. The material that was used was these four nations individual counter terrorism strategy. This was made by using idea analysis and self constructed dimensions based on earlier science about security, terrorism and international law. A result of this study showed that there is a consensus about terrorism as a high existential threat because of the religious extremism that is related to Al Qaeda and justifies mass murder and have showed attempt to acquire weapons of mass destruction. On this adoption the nations in this study justifies extraordinary actions in cooperation against global terrorism. It is however some differentials about the means to counter this threat. The United States, United Kingdom and Norway describes in their strategy that the threat of Al Qaeda and its allies should be met by military force. United Kingdom describes that the military action is to consider as an exception based on the extraordinary threat that Al Qaeda poses. Sweden on the other hand shows a description of terrorism as a criminal act that should be met by national measures