When R. M. Hare decided to write his article “On Terrorism,” first published in 1979, he was by no means the first philosopher to write down his reflections on the subject of terrorism. But by the end of the 1970s, terrorism was once more in history a major subject in the media, and academic interest from philosophy scholars grew. Groups like the RAF, the IRA, the Black September, the Brigate Rosse and many others like them all over the world gave the impression of a universal rising of terrorism in the 1970s.
Even though the historian, and one of the first academic specialists on terrorism, Walter Laqueur, believes in his famous book from 1977 that the world was about to witness a decline in terrorism, it was only at that moment in history that terrorism in itself was perceived as a worthy subject by philosophers.
