Hopefully, the article below will shed some light on the term & its use, as well as the reasoning behind actions so labelled. While political motives & government policies are often factors, further thought (& the latest act of domestic terrorism reported in today’s news) may remind us that the term is also frequently used to describe entirely apolitical actions, which have little or nothing to do with government policies.
As reported again earlier today (Oct. 1, 2015), a shooter enters a school to conduct “10 minutes of terror.” Whether or not associated in the shooter’s mind with political &/or religious content, the majority of such actions are carried out for more or less purely psychological motives, with no attempt to change institutional or government policies. The motive is far more personal in such cases, to get back at the world for some perceived slight, to show “them” you were someone of consequence, to bask in the thoughts of the limelight to follow, to achieve fame, to live out the excitement of the violent video game or follow the compulsive directions of an inner voice disassociated from the human world.
When you think this through a level further, it becomes obvious that these psychological motives also play a role in many politically framed operations, particularly for the lowest level of recruits, who carry out such actions supposedly on behalf of the expressed cause. In some few actual cases, the suicide bomber, for example, may actually believe (however strategically naive or misled) that the contemplated action will have such-&-such a political influence. In many other cases, however, the disassociated state of mind, whatever its cloaks of dogma & quasi-religious rallying cries, is not much different from that of the delusional warrior who kills his mama & then shoots up an elementary school.
If there’s a political or sectarian veneer, in other words, it’s often not the critical element that draws the sacrifice on the ground. The political & sectarian objectives may be more significant for those higher up the operational chain–not the ones who blow themselves up, but who recruit, brainwash, & manipulate the psychologically vulnerable.