The Reign in Spain: The State, ETA, and Terrorism.

This paper examines the case of Basque separatist movement (ETA) in Spain utilizing a theoretical framework that highlights the influence of human rights conditions in the origins of terrorist activity. The paper provides a historical overview of the Basque movement, highlighting their terrorist activity as well as human rights violations carried out be the state. In our analysis, we go beyond examining the role of the individual or terrorist entrepreneurs in ETA, to examine the attributes at the state and international level, which contribute to terrorism. We posit that terrorism is likely to ferment in middle areas of subsistence and security rights where they feel other options of dissent are limited due to the low levels of political rights. In fact, we argue that the denial of security rights is a necessary condition for terrorist activity. This paper examines the human rights conditions within Spain to ascertain the levels of political, subsistence, and security rights over the years and apply these conditions to the theoretical framework of terrorist activity presented. This analysis will then be compared to our previous cases on the IRA in Northern Ireland and the terrorist activity associated with the Chechen separatist movement. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]