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34 JAG J. 1 (1985)
Legal Analysis of U.S. Military Responses to State-Sponsored International Terrorism

handle is hein.journals/naval34 and id is 5 raw text is: Vol. 34 LEGAL ANALYSIS OF U.S. MILITARY RESPONSES TO STATE-SPONSORED INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM Lieutenant Commander Michael Franklin Lohr, JAGC, USN1 In this article, Lieutenant Commander Lohr examines state-sponsored terrorism and state responsibility in the context of international terrorist acts. He discusses the use of military force as an effective deterrent, while highlighting the many considerations that decisionmakers must address in formulating any Qiable response within the parameters of international law. I. INTRODUCTION In the past fifteen years, terrorism has become a frightening challenge to the free world. During the past decade alone there have been almost 6,500 terrorist incidents. Over 3,500 people have been killed and more than 7,600 injured. American citizens have been the victims in more than 2,500 of these incidents and, while the majority involved members of the U.S. Armed Forces and diplomatic corps, forty percent involved other American citizens.' No continent, no hemisphere, no region, and very few countries have been immune from the plague of terror-violence. Whether state-sponsored, govern- ment-initiated, group organized, or individually perpetrated, the flexibility of the terrorist is evident everywhere.2 Moreover, terrorist targets are as infinitely diverse as the limitless numbers of terrorist groups. Government initiated or regime sponsored terror-violence has all too quickly become commonplace in the contemporary world as a growing number of governments are themselves using terrorist tactics, employing terrorist groups, or exploiting terrorist incidents as a mode of surrogate warfare. Recent examples include the murder of four South Korean cabinet officers by North Korean terrorists in Burma, the killing of a London police officer by personnel from inside the Libyan Embassy and the bombing of the American Embassies in Lebanon and Kuwait. These governments see in terrorism a useful *Lieutenant Commander Lohr is currently assigned to the International Law Division, Of/we of the Judge Advocate General. He received a J.D. degree from the University of Maryland in 1977 and a LLM. degree from George Washington University in 1984. 1. 130 CONG. REC. S5244 (daily ed. May 2, 1984) (President's message to Congress). 2. R. FREIDLANDER, TERRORISM: DOCUMENTS OF INTERNATIONAL AND LEGAL CONTROL, VOL. III, vi& (1981).