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Perpetrators of terrorism understand this specific form of violence as a legitimate form of power negotiation because they operate on a non nation-to-nation level. Rarely operating outside the norms of the target audience, terrorism has grown since the fall of the Soviet Union as ‘the’ form of power negotiation due to the absence of authentic opportunities to engage with traditional methods of negotiation between nations – physical negotiation, defined by army-to-army conflict, and oral negotiation, defined by diplomatic engagement and resolution. This article highlights some issues related to understanding terrorism and explores the ramifications of this idea in the aftermath of 9/11.Stephen R. Di Rienzo is part-time Lecturer at the Department of Science Political and International Relations of the University of Aberdeen (Scotland).