What makes an act of violence 'political'?

The concept of terrorism is notorious for eluding definition despite extensive efforts to find one. The “political” is one of the most common, if not the most common, element included in definitions of terrorism, and it is seen as the main trait that separates terrorism from other forms of violence such as acts committed for material gain or personal reasons. Oddly enough, this aspect of the definition is almost entirely unaddressed, especially with regards to how to what determines which acts should be considered political in nature. Through engagements with critical and feminist theories of violence, this is paper wishes to demonstrate that defining the political nature of the act is far from a simple question. Definitions of terrorism suggest different criteria for evaluating it and the inclusion or exclusion of cases from the analysis seem often unsystematic. Furthermore, the current implicit understanding of the political in terrorism studies is in many ways outdated and simplistic. These issues are illustrated with examples from the debates on lone actor terrorism.