Online Terrorism and the Advent of The Online State

How does the advent of online terrorism change our traditional understanding of statehood? If the presence of terrorism predicates the existence of a state, can we say that an online state exists if online terrorism does? What are the implications of that assertion? These are the questions that I aim to answer in my senior thesis project. In this project, I will argue that we are in the age, or on the precipice, of an online state. This shift in the manifestation of the state calls for a reconfiguration of the classical definition of statehood. Through an analysis of classical political philosophy, comparison of online violence in the 21^st century to the incorporation of violence in the French Revolution and World Wars I and II, and assessment of contemporary manifestations of the state, the traditional concept of the state will be redefined in four parts. These four criteria, generally, are what define both the classical state according to traditional philosophers, as well as the new online state created through the rise of online terrorism. However, the order in which they matter for the definition are not the same across manifestations of the state. The four aspects I am considering for the criteria of a state are territory, monopoly of violence, individuals, and authority.