Terrorism refers to the intentional use of violence by a non-state actor to intimidate civilians for political or religious reasons and generally takes the forms of plane hijackings, bombings, arson, mass shootings and hostage taking by an armed groups.
Generally, we at libsoc wiki do not define state actions as terrorism because of the fundamentally different character of state violence. This is for the purpose of analysis and should not be confused with endorsement of state violence. We also do not think militancy by non-state actors counts as terrorism, which needs to be based specifically around the spreading of fear through a civilian population.
Terrorism has a notably high failure rate and is probably the least productive form of political activism.
History
See Also: Left-Wing Terrorism, Right-Wing Terrorism, Islamic Terrorism