Here is an excerpt from Dr Robert Lambert's article titled, Nationalists pose bigger threat than al-Qaeda:
"Breivik can claim to have followed a long tradition of terrorism target selection that is intended to send a strong message to politicians in an attempt to persuade them to change policy. As leading terrorism scholar Alex Schmid reminds us, terrorism is a form of communication that "cannot be understood only in terms of violence." Rather, he suggests, "it has to be understood primarily in terms of propaganda" in order to penetrate the terrorist's strategic purpose.
"Breivik appears to understand Schmid's analysis that terrorism is a combination of violence and propaganda. "By using violence against one victim," a terrorist "seeks to coerce and persuade others", Schmid explains. "The immediate victim is merely instrumental, the skin on a drum beaten to achieve a calculated impact on a wider audience." This is certainly the kind of rationalization that perpetrators of political violence have adopted in many contexts in pursuit of diverse political causes for decades.
"Many extremist nationalists in Norway, the rest of Europe, and North America will be appalled by Breivik's resort to terrorism and in particular his target selection. However, Breivik is likely to argue that he has sent a powerful and coercive message to all politicians in the West that will help put the campaign against the "Islamification of Europe" at the top of their agenda.
"Breivik may hope that others will take inspiration from his act and seek to emulate him. Terrorism may be repulsive to many who share Breivik's bigoted anti-Muslim views, but it is a tactic that only requires a small number of adherents to achieve its purpose, whatever the cause. So if even only a handful follow his route, Breivik will count that as a success.
"Finally, it is only necessary to recall the circumstances of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 to be reminded of extremist nationalists' bomb-making capacity and target selection. Timothy McVeigh was able to utilize skills and contacts he acquired in his US military service to build and detonate a bomb that killed 168 victims, injured 680 others, destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a sixteen-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, shattered glass in an additional 258 nearby buildings, and caused at least $652m worth of damage.
"With minimal help, McVeigh was able to inflict more harm and damage with one bomb than four suicide bombers in London operating under an al-Qaeda flag in London ten years later," Dr Robert Lambert concludes.
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