Abstract
Nevertheless, there is a longstanding scholarly literature on state terrorism. This research assumes that if terrorism is defined as a particular form or strategy of political violence, then it makes little sense to restrict its application only to non-state actors. In other words, this literature adopts an action-based definition of terrorism rather than an actor-based definition, which means that in addition to groups and individuals, "states can be terrorists too." It then proceeds to explore questions that are also normally applied to the study of non-state terrorism: how can state terrorism be conceptualised? What types of state terrorism are there? Why do states choose to use terrorism? What are the effects and impacts of state terrorism? How should state terrorism be countered?