By using qualifying words like “non-state,” “clandestine” and “nonmilitary”, all governments define themselves out of the debate and establish a monopoly on violence.

In The City of God, St. Augustine describes Alexander The Great questioning a captured pirate, asking how he dares to “molest the sea.” “How dare you molest the whole world?” the pirate replies. “Because I do it with a little ship only, I am called a thief; you, doing it with a great navy, are called an emperor.”

An unspoken tenet of any terrorism definition is that it does not apply to the systemic violence of people in positions of power against the powerless. It only applies when the flow of violence is redirected upstream, against government. A bomb detonated by a guerrilla, killing dozens of civilians, is an act of terrorism. A bomb dropped by a military airplane, killing tens of thousands, is foreign policy.