Such questions must be answered if targets of state-sponsored terrorism are adequately to assess the actual threat involved and devise an appropriate response to it. Without an understanding of the nature of state-sponsored terrorism and the relationship between sponsor and sponsored, an accurate assessment is impossible. By refusing to take a historical perspective, by attributing sponsorship only to acts committed by an enemy, and by using the concept of state sponsorship to fight moral and ideological battles, many states have undermined the credibility of attempts to understand and cope with the problem and have inflated the dangers far beyond their actual potential for harm. Alarmist or inaccurate assessments of threat can lead to excessive responses that further the aims of terrorists by undermining public confidence and even democratic institutions and the balance of international relations. 71 footnotes.