Under the shadow of the Bali bombings, new killings in the Philippines, the Moscow hostage taking, the World Trade Centre, the Washington sniper, and constant acts of horror in many parts of the planet, are we destined to live in world constantly marred by terrorism?

Yes, and it was always so, though terror is not the major threat facing democratic nations.

Terrorism has been a constant over the last four decades. In the developed world, terror has three main sources – nationalists, leftists, and Middle Eastern terrorists, first inspired by politics, now driven by a warped religious view.

Most advance nations have suffered at least minor incidents of all three types of terrorism. Spain, Northern Ireland, and Canada have been the main targets of ethnic nationalists. Canadians often forget the deadly bombings and kidnapping by the Front de liberation du Québec in the 1960s and 1970s.

Germany’s Baader-Meinhof gang and Italy’s Red Brigade have been the main perpetrators of leftwing terrorism in developed nations. The Red Brigade has resurfaced, adopting the rhetoric of the violent anti-globalists demonstrators, but to deadlier purpose.

Various leftwing groups, most notably the Weatherman, and black nationalists, like the Black Panthers, targeted the United States in the 1970s. The United States remains vulnerable to white fringe groups. White racists, like black radicals, have similarities with nationalist groups. They promote some idea of a purged ethnic state – pure white for one set of racists and purified of white devils for the other set.

Terrorism is a cost of freedom. A free society cannot police itself to constrain all deranged citizens or outsiders with evil intent. Yet, in a world of “asymmetric” threats, it’s important to understand how asymmetric the results are.

“Asymmetric” means that powerful, geographically centred nation states are threatened by relatively weak and dispersed terrorist groups. The outcomes are equally asymmetric. The mightiest acts of terror acts have only pinprick affects on the target. Even the 9-11 attacks hardly degraded US military or economic capacity.

Only if citizens become terrorized would these strikes have any significant effect. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said in another context, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

But, this could change. A terrorist act with weapons of mass destruction, whether nuclear or biological, would be more than a pinprick. The fear fall-out would amplify the damage.

Yet, for all the talk of new asymmetric threats, the worst dangers still emanate from nation states. Terror groups can hardly develop weapons of mass destruction without some form of state sponsorship, even if only to provide a safe place for the facilities needed to build such weapons.

But, rogue nations remain a greater threat than the terror groups they sponsor. Were Iraq to develop nuclear weapons, Saddam Hussein would have no compunction about using them. That would make it almost impossible to deal with Saddam militarily while giving him license to terrorize his neighbours.

North Korea is a different story. Since the end of the Korean War, North Korea, unlike Iraq, has shown no imperialistic intentions. It seems content to terrorize its own people in its half of the Hermit Kingdom. Nonetheless, a nuclear North Korea is hardly a comforting thought.

Perhaps the greatest potential danger comes from a nuclear Pakistan. Military dictator Pervez Musharraf is unpopular with just about everyone, including elements of his own military. The Pakistani economy is shrinking. The top “democratic” leaders, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, proved corrupt in office. Law and order has broken down in many places.

Islamic extremists have penetrated all aspects of Pakistani society and its institutions. They dream of creating fundamentalist state, unafraid of using nuclear arms to advance an intolerant version of Islam.

Democracies live under a terrorist peril, but the big threat still comes from a more traditional source – other nation states.