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Efforts to achieve comprehensive international agreement on measures against international terrorism through the United Nations have failed until now. In a review of United Nations proceedings on the subject since 1972 the author sets forth the principal issues that have occupied the minds of the participants. Chief among them was the question of the scope and effect of a condemnation of international terrorism. Agreement on what the term itself included couki not be reached because of fears of the adverse effect of a condemnation on existing struggles for national liberation and self-determination. Nor could agreement be had that violence for the achievement of political ends should be confined to the areas of actual tension. Hence, there could be no common understanding on the question of who were to be regarded as "innocent" victims. The author concludes with a suggestion that a step-by-step effort might have yielded a better outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]