自911伊斯蘭教恐怖主義者對美國的攻擊起，每一個國家對恐怖主義的恐懼感不斷地增加。一些國家從很久以來一直在面對恐怖主義，一些國家剛開始面對這種犯罪行為。由於其已經影響到全世界的安全，因此我們不得不重視這個問題，而且加以理解。 本文將要回到恐怖主義在歷史上的出發點。我們的歷史研究法是依照Foucault的研究法。Foucault(1975)在Surveiller et punir(監護與處罰)一書的第一章有說明歷史研究法的兩個趨向。第一，「用現代的概念研究過去」，意思是指，用今天的眼光去理解昨天的狀況。第二，「做出今天的歷史」，意思是指，通過過去的發展而瞭解今天的狀況:我們如何到達今天的狀況。本文的目標是理解今天的狀況。由於最完整的恐怖主義行動是在法國出現(拿破崙1800年)，而且由於恐怖主義也是在法國發展與成為殺戮行為(阿爾及利亞戰爭時代的恐怖主義)，所以本研究的對象將是法國恐怖主義的歷史。 第二部分將要區分恐怖主義的類型，以及研究這些類型的困境與弱點。本研究目的是濚入瞭解這個現象。我們必須先理解一個犯罪行為，才能夠開始思考預防、調查範圍與懲罰犯人的最好方式。

Since 911 and the Islamic terrorist attack on the USA, ‘Terrorism’ has become a focus of increasing scholarly interest. Some states have had terrorism for a long time, some other countries are new to this kind of criminal act. But it already influences the safety of the world, and has become a phenomenon that we need to understand more deeply. This article adopts a Foucauldian approach to understanding contemporary terrorism (Foucault, 1975) in the first chapter of Surveiller et punir argued that there are two kinds of historical research. The first “uses today’s concepts to study yesterday”; the second “builds the history of today” it means using the past to understand the contemporary situation.). The present article seeks to understand the contemporary situation and uses the second method as advocated by Foucault.we concentrate the research on French history, because arguably the oldest terrorism in history is based in France-Napoleon was the first one who used this term in 1800). France also had domestic civilian deaths (Algerian war). The second part of the article establishes a typology, and sets out to understand the limitations of any typology on terrorism. The objective is to understand the basic question of terrorism, because, if we want to establish good prevention or appropriate punishment, we first need to know what is the real nature of terrorism.