In guerrilla war without lines there is territory that neither side controls; both sides exert military leverage over the same place at the same time. This makes guerrilla wars extremely painful for civilians because conventional armies fighting guerrillas often cannot distinguish them from civilians and so punish both. This aspect allows non-state actors to exploit international law—a concept known as Lawfare. Guerrillas operate from bases established in remote and inaccessible terrain, such as forests, mountains, and jungles. They depend on the support from the local inhabitants in the form of recruits, food, shelter, and information. Striking swiftly and unexpectedly, guerrillas raid supply depots and installations, ambush patrols and convoys, and sever lines of communication with the goal being the disruption of the state’s activities and the capture of equipment and supplies for their own use.

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What is a Terrorist? This is a bit tougher to pin down since there are literally hundreds of definitions for terrorists out there. We’ll go with Princeton University’s WordNet on this one. A terrorist is a radical who employs terror as a political weapon, usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells, and often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities. For this one we envision a Guy Fawkes–type of character packing the sewers under the Parliament with gunpowder with the plan of blowing up the place while in session, or maybe we see the skulking PLO gunman, complete with full face ski mask, patrolling the roof of the Olympic Village in Munich.

What is Terrorism? We’ll stick with Princeton University’s WordNet. Terrorism is the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear. Terrorism requires violence that provokes psychological impact and fear that is perpetrated for a political goal. Terrorism deliberately targets non-combatants, is executed (at least in part) incognito, and is viewed as unlawful by the population at large.

All in all, terrorists and guerrillas are quite a bit alike … and yet are somewhat different. Both represent weak forces taking on much stronger opponents and because of that, the guerrilla and terrorist are forced to resort to asymmetric warfare techniques. Historically, guerrillas tend to focus locally. They attack state sources of power in pursuit of a pragmatic goal while trying to win over the populace. Terrorists, on the other hand, tend to be more sporadic and are willing to strike anywhere if it promotes their cause. They seek the de-legitimization of the state through coercion of the public. Much like a protection racket, they’ll protect you from their own attacks if you turn on the police who are supposed to protect you. Guerrillas resort to terrorism as a tactic from time to time when they are weak, while terrorists typically cannot resort to guerrilla tactics and thus rely almost exclusively on public displays of violence. Let’s do a hasty comparative analysis to see if we can sort out one from the other.

When we think of guerrillas we think of Lawrence of Arabia, Mao, and Ernesto "Che" Guevara. When we think of guerrilla wars the Vendee Uprising in the early days of the French Republic comes to mind—if you do a little homework—or more likely, you’d conjure up the Boer War, the Malayan Emergency, the Battle for Algeria, or the mujahedeen of Afghanistan. All of these scenarios are familiar. They remind us of partisans, freedom fighters, and communist insurgents. We approve of some guerrilla movements and we oppose some, but they all seem conventional and somewhat respectable—at least we understand them. Guerrillas are hard but rational. They negotiate, and even the sectarian guerrillas will strike a deal if concessions are made that address their perceived grievances.

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