Bell: Assassination since JFK: Retaliation, prevention and dissidents

President John F. Kennedy’s assassination may be the most-remembered assassination in modern history. As the 58th anniversary of that fateful day in Dallas approaches, it seems appropriate to examine the use of this method of political violence in the ensuing decades.

Assassination, by definition, is an act of political violence and motivations vary, but these killings are intended to alter the political environment. Terrorists engage in assassination in pursuit of their goals and sometimes as an act of retaliation, such as the killing of British military attaché Stephan Saunders in Greece by the 17 November group. He was shot and killed in 2000 over his alleged role in the NATO bombing of Serbia.

Political leaders have been targets of retaliation as well, such as the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. Gandhi was shot to death by two of her Sikh bodyguards because of her decision to use force to take back the Golden Temple from Sikh extremists, resulting in the deaths of hundreds.

Others have been targeted because of their desire to return to office. In 2005, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a car bombing in Beirut. This assassination led to the first-ever international tribunal tasked with investigating a terrorist assassination—the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan was shot and killed while campaigning for office in 2007. Like Hariri, Bhutto was a former Prime Minister and both were seeking a return to office at the time of their deaths.

States also engage in assassination. In fact, the world has witnessed multiple state-sponsored assassinations in recent years. The European Court of Human Rights recently found Russia responsible for the radiation poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. Russia is likely responsible for the attempt on the life of dissident Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the U.K. in 2018. Both were poisoned with a nerve agent known as Novichok. Luckily, both survived.

These are but two examples of attempts on the lives of those who oppose authoritarian regimes.

Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident of the Saudi Arabian regime, was killed in Istanbul in 2018. Intent on marrying his Turkish fiancé, Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate to obtain proof of his divorce and was never seen again.

The half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was killed with the VX nerve agent in the Kuala Lampur airport in 2017. A recent report by Freedom House counts 26 transnational assassinations between 2014 and 2020. States such as Burundi, China, Nicaragua, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Thailand are all identified in the report as engaging in or attempting at least one assassination in that six-year span.

Most recently, Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated at his home in July by multiple gunmen. His death is under investigation while Haiti teeters on the edge of state collapse. Other assassination plots this year include an attempt in Madagascar to kill President Andry Rajoelina and an attempt on the former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed. The plot is Madagascar was uncovered in time to prevent the attack and in the Maldives, Nasheed survived the bombing attempt on his life.

Assassinations may have different perpetrators and motivations—from retaliation for policy decisions to preventing a leader from returning to office to silencing dissidents—but these acts of political violence endanger lives across the globe and increase the risk of political instability.

Fortunately, the Kennedy assassination was not a mass casualty event such as Hariri’s in Lebanon and the stability of the U.S. was never at risk. Yet, the manner and timing of his death left an indelible mark on the memories of millions and remains a seminal event in U.S. history.

Dr. Laura N. Bell is an assistant professor of political science at West Texas A&M University and the author of the newly released “Targets of Terror: Contemporary Assassination.” The comments here represent her own opinions and not those of WT.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Laura Bell assassination since JFK: Retaliation, prevention dissidents