The word assassin is often believed to derive from the word hashshashin (Arabic: حشّاشين, ħashshāshīyīn), and shares its etymological roots with hashish (/hæˈʃiːʃ/ or /ˈhæʃiːʃ/; from Arabic: حشيش ḥashīsh). It referred to a group of

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Ancient to medieval times
Assassination is one of the oldest tools of power politics. It dates back at least as far as recorded history.

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As a military and foreign policy doctrine
Assassination for military purposes has long been espoused: Sun Tzu, writing around 500 BC, argued in favor of using assassination in his book The Art of War. Nearly 2000 years later, in his book The Prince,

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Modern methods
With the advent of effective ranged weaponry and later firearms, the position of an assassination target was more precarious. Bodyguards were no longer enough to hold back determined killers, who no longer needed to

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Targeted killing is the intentional killing by a government or its agents of a civilian or "unlawful combatant" who is not in the government's custody. The target is a person asserted to be

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Early forms
One of the earliest forms of defense against assassins was employing bodyguards, who act as a shield for the potential target; keep a

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A major study about assassination attempts in the US in the second half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that most prospective

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