© 2018. Dr. John Maszka. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecom-mons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A Thorn by any other Name: Definitions, Typologies, and Various Explanations for Terrorism By Dr. John Maszka Al Ain Mens College Abstract- An ancient Chinese parable tells of a poor young farmer who lost his only possession: The horse that he had inherited from his father. The members of the village visited the poor farmer and expressed their condolences for his loss. “How do you know that losing my horse was a misfortune?” Sure enough, about a week later the horse returned with a healthy young mare as its wife. The citizens of the village were shocked, and they all went to visit the farmer to congratulate him on his good fortune. “How do you know that gaining the mare is good fortune?” Again, the young farmer’s words rang true. About two weeks later, as he was breaking the mare, she threw him and he broke his leg. All the people of the village gathered around his bed to console him for his tragedy. “How do you know that breaking my leg was a tragedy?. Later that month, the Japanese invaded. The emperor sent emissaries to every village to find healthy young men. All the young men of the village were sent to the front except the young farmer whose leg had not yet healed. None of the young men returned…all were killed in battle. GJHSS-H Classification: FOR Code: 160899 AThornbyanyotherNameDefinitionsTypologiesandVariousExplanationsforTerrorism Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: Global Journal of HUMAN-SOCIAL SCIENCE: H Interdisciplinary Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Online ISSN: 2249-460x & Print ISSN: 0975-587X Volume 18 Issue 4 Version 1.0 Year 2018