In the wake of the DusitD2 Hotel attack, the term terrorism is being bandied around, sometimes with careless abandon.
Even as people deploy the term on social media posts and everyday chatter, not many people know what it means.
It is crucial to note that there is not a universally accepted definition of the emotive term.
The United Nations defines terrorism as "[A]cts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them."
This definition was taken up the General Assembly through consensus.
The Dusit attack is seen as a terrorist attack because it was aimed at innocent members of the public and was waged on the basis of a twisted ideology.
Groups such as Al-Shabaab in Somalia, the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, Boko Haram in Nigeria among others have been accused of engaging in acts of terrorism.
In all definitions of terrorism, there appears to be a running thread, that is, the use of violence on members of the public with the aim of instilling fear.
There is also consensus that there can never be any justification for unleashing violence on innocent people.