While the resort to terror is as old as recorded history, the start of the age of modern terrorism may be exemplified by the horrors of the Munich Massacre in 1972. During that tragedy a small dedicated group of terrorists were able through the mass media to seize the world's headlines and spread a message of fear and intimidation to a global audience. The revolution in communications coupled with the introduction of commercial jet aircraft enabled the modern practitioners of terrorism to strike at targets of opportunity on an international basis. This capacity was not shared by even the most committed terrorist of the past.

Within the discipline of political science, terrorism until the 70's was largely studied under the areas of war and revolution along with the growing field of comparative political violence, international terrorism was not studied as an individual subject until Munich, when the countless skyjackings, bombings and assassinations served to underscore that contemporary terrorism had indeed become “A New Mode of Conflict.“