essay on the causes of terrorism

Causes of Terrorism Essay

Introduction, political causes, social causes, economic reasons.

Terrorism activities are spread all over the world. People from various parts of the globe throw bombs and other war devices towards innocent citizens claiming one reason or the other. Terrorism is defined as violent actions that are aimed at instilling fear to people as a means of coercing them to submit to ideologies of a certain group. Though people have argued that terrorism is thriving nowadays because morality, religion and social order have failed, some feel there is more than just that. It should be noted that terrorist attacks do not take into account the welfare of non-combatants and are carried out due to political, social or economical reasons.

Many people feel that they are being oppressed by their governments and that it is their duty to extricate themselves from the repressive regimes. Using labeling theory, it can be noted that some people want to be identified as the ones who liberated the country. As a result, these people will use terrorism to compel other citizens to stop cooperating with the government. The labeling theory further explains that this group considers it an achievement when they are identified as terrorists. This is the kind of terrorism that took place in 2001 in the United States.

Arguably, this is the main cause of terrorism in the world. The neutralizing theory outlines that criminals use various reasons to validate their actions. In this regard, terrorists have been known to use religious teachings in justifying their atrocities. There are those people who believe that their religion is the most upright one. These people would want every other person to accept their definition and opinion about religion. They divide people into we and them where “we” are those who agree with their ideologies and “them” refers to the rest of the people. However, it is important to note that these people do not represent the beliefs of their religion per se, but rather an interpretation of a certain group about religion. On the other hand, differential association theory states that there are people who just join terrorist groups because they will want to be associated with certain people. To these group of people, social solidarity is far much important than anything else.

Economic empowerment has been the cause of resistance since time immemorial. Communists and people who subscribe to Karl Marx’s ideas believe that rich people or governments oppress the poor ones. Therefore, they believe that there is nothing to loose by joining resistance groups. On the contrary, they have a common consensus that they have everything to gain if they fight for their rights. Just as outlined by the self-control theory, people who lack self control easily join the terrorist groups. It is important to note that the availability of old weapons in developing countries, which are easily acquired, has contributed to terrorism. On the same note, rewarding of perpetrators of terrorism by the terrorist groups highly influences terrorism. As depicted by social learning theory, increase in crime rewards leads to increase in criminal activities.

Terrorism is a reality that has to be faced by every nation. Nowadays, it not only occurs in specific nation as it used to be, but rather in the whole world. In fact, terrorism has become very dynamic nowadays and no single explanation can be used to explain it. Gone are the days when it was associated majorly with religion. Consequently, the society should be prepared to address this issue for it is increasingly becoming common.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Terrorism: Perspectives from the Behavioral and Social Sciences (2002)

Chapter: 2. origins and contexts of terrorism, 2 origins and contexts of terrorism.

As seems inevitable, when ambiguous and alarming events occur and unfold, many single and oversimplified explanations appear, and these represent, in part, attempts to reduce uncertainty and anxiety. Thus, the causes of terrorism suggested include “poverty,” “inequality,” “globalization,” “technology,” “energy,” “oil,” “Islam,” “Islamic fundamentalism,” and “psychopathy,” among others. There are also widespread challenges to each of these causes on both scientific and ideological grounds.

In approaching the daunting questions of origins and contexts we are guided by the following first principles:

The search for a single or even a few causes is misguided. The factors influencing contemporary terrorism are a blend of historical, economic, political, cultural, motivational, and technological factors, to name only the most obvious.

The logic of cause-followed-by-effect is inappropriate to the understanding of origins and contexts of terrorism. Causes differ qualitatively in their generality as determinants. Some are remote background conditions, others are facilitating circumstances, others are precipitating factors, and still others are inhibitory factors. The most appropriate way to organize these factors is in a nesting or combinatorial way. Each adds its value at a different level and significance to work toward more complete accounts and explanations.

At the very least it is essential to separate the origins and context issue into two distinguishable levels: (a) the historical, social, political, and cultural conditions that constitute a favorable soil in which terrorism can take root and grow, provide a continuously changing mix of support and discouragement for terrorism, and constitute one of the main audiences for terror-

ists and (b) the immediate motivational, ideological, group, and organizational determinants of terrorist activities themselves. The explanations at each level are separate, though they overlap and articulate with one another as one regards the total picture. We employ this distinction in our own account, treating the more general conditions first and the immediate ones afterward.

IMPERIALISM, COLONIALISM, AND GLOBALIZATION

The impulse for territorial expansion, conquest, and domination is as old as history itself. The ways in which this impulse has expressed itself, however, reveal vast differences. For comparative purposes, we mention three variations.

Imperialism is, above all, a system based on military conquest, territorial occupation, and direct governmental/military control by the dominant imperial power. This characterization clearly applies to the classical Roman, Ottoman, Spanish, and Soviet empires, and it is also evident but not so unequivocal in other cases, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The political sovereignty of occupied regions is not a salient issue; that notion does not apply to militarily occupied and controlled territories. Imperial powers are also dominant economically, but the mechanisms are extraction and exploitation of resources through the mechanisms of expropriation, direct control of economic activities, and coercion (including slavery in some cases).

If we regard the eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century European cases as the major referents, colonialism overlaps with but is distinguishable in important ways from imperialism. Military conquest, settlement, territorial acquisition, and administrative rule—sometimes military, sometimes civil—is the essence, but in practice the administrative rule varied from direct rule resembling imperialism to indirect rule involving a symbiotic relationship between colonial rulers and indigenous authorities. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century colonialism also involved more striking economic contrasts between the technological and industrial superiority of the (developed) colonial powers and the (undeveloped) colonial countries. The resultant pattern was the extraction of primary products necessary for

industrial production (e.g., cotton from India and Egypt) or for consumption in the colonizing countries (e.g., tea, sugar, coffee, spices).

After the effective demise of British, French, Dutch, and Belgian colonialism in the decades after World War II, there was acceleration in the development of the form of international organization described as globalization . Globalization is something of a misnomer, because economic, political, and cultural penetration around relevant parts of the globe is observable through several millennia. Since the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989-1990, the world system has also been called “the American hegemony.” This is also misnamed, because the dominant powers are a complex combination of North American, West European, and East Asian powers. Nevertheless, the role of the United States is paramount. The contemporary global mode is one of economic influence, realized through greater economic productivity (and its concomitant, wealth) based on a superior, science-based technology. This influence is realized and exercised by the mechanisms of trade among nations, capital and financial investment, and power in the international monetary system.

There is also an aspect of military domination, but this is primarily realized not through military conquest and administration of occupied territory, but through a technologically superior arsenal of weaponry, occasional wars and “peacekeeping” interventions, and, above all else, military intimidation. American hegemony also has a less tangible political-ideological ingredient, namely, a conviction of the moral superiority of a particular (American) version of democracy and its accompanying characteristics of personal liberty, constitutional rights of citizens, and mass political participation. This ideological dimension affects U.S. foreign policies toward other nations, generally favoring nations like itself politically and distancing itself from or applying pressures on nations unlike itself. The final aspect is a cultural one, consisting mainly of the effective export of cultural and materialist values through the worldwide American domination of the mass media, especially television.

In that part of the world that currently commands the nation’s special attention—referred to variously as the Arabic or Islamic world—we observe a long period of interaction, penetration, and conflict with the West. Especially in the late eighteenth century, there was exposure to and borrowing of West-

ern military and other technology and such ideas as democracy, nationalism, and the rights of women, as travel, commercial activity, and communication increased. The forces of modernization, however they may be defined, are thus several centuries old; an informative account of the historical process is found in Lewis (2002). Of special subsequent significance was the century-long (1830 through the end of World War I) colonization and political control of North Africa and the Near East countries of Syria, Lebanon, and modern Iraq, Jordan, and the Palestine mandate. In the twentieth-century, commercial and cultural penetration and influences have accelerated, dramatically in the case of the exploitation of oil but more generally as well.

IMPACTS ON “RECEIVING” SOCIETIES

The general impacts of the complex of influences imposed by more powerful societies are both to dislocate and to provide alternatives to the traditional ways of life in the affected societies. Economic production is transformed, systems of wagelabor increased, existing patterns of inequality altered, economic expectations stirred, and political institutions modified or displaced. Traditional and authoritarian political values and institutions are shaken by exposure to ideas of freedom, rights, and democracy. Competing religious forces, especially nonreligious secularism, are introduced. And especially recently, commercial and cultural penetration has exposed the world, and notably the non-Western world, to a range of materialistic values and aspirations that are evidently unattainable in those societies in the historical short run.

A political corollary of these modernizing influences is that, under conditions of domination by and acculturation to a more powerful society, the receiving society experiences an increase in the growth, complexity, and magnitude of political divisions. Some of these are “class” in nature, as new groups—for example, a new middle class, a paid laboring class, or the unemployed—come into being and develop interests in common. Other divisions are cultural in nature, as groups crystallize along the dimension of how much and in what ways they want to be modernizers (e.g., democratic, capitalistic, secular) and how

much and in what ways they want to preserve a traditional way of life.

All these impacts are observable in dramatic form in the world’s Islamic societies. They combine with several additional features of these societies to make for very high levels of discontent and combustibility.

Almost all of the Islamic societies in the world fall into the category of rapidly growing populations that have relatively high proportions of young people compared with those of working age, but low proportions of elderly people. The Muslim population is the most rapidly growing religiously defined category in the world, doubling perhaps every 25 years at current rates. These populations have been growing on an average of more than 3 percent per year, although fertility is declining in many of them (Roudi, 2002). These patterns yield large families in which younger siblings in particular are likely to suffer from lack of parental investment of resources and emotional care.

Such societies have few resources to devote to education, so their high numbers of young people cannot be trained to participate in advanced economic activities. It is hard for such countries to guarantee employment for their youth, who experience high rates of unemployment, engage in criminal activity or gang violence, or must otherwise migrate to the richer countries, where they work in low-level jobs. Such poor countries are also often obliged to spend substantial sums on police control and national defense against neighboring poor countries, in which they employ local youth in low-level military jobs.

The majority of the world’s Muslims are poor and live in countries characterized by great inequalities of wealth (World Bank, 2002). The ratio of children to workers in the Muslim world is very high, especially because there are so few women in the labor force, so the actual ratios of children to workers are almost double the child to adult ratio. Finally, high growth ratio produces large numbers of children in families, and this may spread thin the family’s financial and emotional resources. Some research suggests that later-born children in families are more rebellious. This suggests the possibility that in a population in which many families have many children, the level of rebelliousness in the society may be higher (Sulloway, 1996; Skinner, 1992; Paulhus et al., 1999; Zweigenhaft and Von Ammon, 2000).

The relevance of these outcomes to an understanding of

social unrest is clear. Unemployed young males with poor local prospects will feel angry and frustrated. They can seek a future in military endeavors, emigrate to take menial work, or become involved in criminal activity in a foreign and often culturally inhospitable environment. Sexual frustration may also be part of the picture. Marriage is often a high-cost matter in these countries because it requires substantial outlays for parents and elaborate ceremonies. Young women have restricted choices in the local marriage market because of the male exodus and little hope of employment themselves unless they also emigrate (especially if local customs deter them from entering the labor market).

Looking at these demographic and economic realities, it is clear that the majority of Muslims in the world experience a high level of absolute poverty. These poor compare themselves with the rich in their own societies and with an unrealistic view of Western culture gleaned from films and television, and thus they also experience a high level of relative deprivation. This combination is a sure recipe for social unrest in general. Insofar as these conditions are blamed on the United States and the West in general—as they typically are—they also provide a favorable atmosphere for supporting violence against these enemies, as well as a potential recruiting ground for recruits to this cause. To note this is not to argue that poverty causes terrorism, but that it is one ingredient in a volatile mix of causes.

REACTIONS TO IMPACTS

It is a reasonable historical generalization that those who are dominated—or who believe themselves to be dominated—by stronger outside powers come to resent and oppose their oppressors. Especially under conditions of imperialist and colonial domination, in which direct force is used against the population, this discontent can often be held in check, at least temporarily. When societies experience economic and cultural domination without direct military occupation and political control, the opportunities to express discontent publicly are usually more readily available.

This rejection of outside domination is not surprising and can be readily appreciated. It is not as frequently appreciated

that the hatred of outside domination is typically only half the picture. The other half is conveyed by the idea of ambivalence .

To bring the point closer to home, anticolonial ideologies are mainly negative toward the colonial powers. But they also contain the seeds of positive attraction. A remote but telling instance of this is found in the cargo cults, a widespread religious phenomenon mainly in colonial Melanesia. These movements, which were millenarian, envisioned the end of the world accompanied by the arrival of Western ships or airplanes loaded with tinned foods, transistor radios, and other Western items. At the millenarian moment, too, white Westerners would be destroyed, and the true believers would survive in a world of Western plenty (Worsley, 1957). Further evidence of this type of ambivalence is provided by the fact that colonial societies, once independent, frequently establish institutions and retain political and other values resembling those of their former conquerors.

A similar ambivalence toward the United States is now found throughout the world, including (perhaps especially) Muslim societies. On one hand there is America the demon, the rich, godless, morally and sexually corrupt, imperialist country that has come to its wealth by exploitation, a power that dominates the world and forms alliances with the ruling elites in their own societies, a nation that is hypocritical in its assertions of equality when it is plagued with racism and poverty, and the power that is primarily responsible for the existence and support of Israel. Side by side with this, however, is a utopian America, as the immigrant communities of Detroit, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles typify. America is a place to come to, a place of wealth and consumption where the payoff for hard work is leisure and opportunity, and where freedom is buttressed by myriad choices in both the market and in the polity. This positive side of the ambivalence, moreover, stands in stark contrast to what almost all Muslims can realistically aspire to in their own societies.

Typically, it is psychologically difficult to hold both sides of an ambivalent attitude at the same time, and it usually is resolved by rigidly accentuating one side to the exclusion of the other. In anti-American Muslim ideologies this appears to be the case, with vitriolic hostility as the conspicuous and exclusive element and the admiration and envy suppressed. Insights that

take account of this element of ambivalence signal a potential chink in the armor of what appear to be exclusively hostile attitudes, yield a more realistic grasp of the social psychology of protest and resentment, and instruct Americans as to the half-truth of the question asked by some in the wake of September 11: “Why do they hate us so much?”

CULTURAL CONTEXT

The complex of economic, political, and cultural penetration does not occur in a vacuum. It is always interpreted and reacted to in the framework of the cultural milieu it affects—accepted, altered, synthesized, or rejected, all in complex ways. An inevitable accompaniment of the process is the widespread perception that the domestic culture is under threat of extinction. The reactions to this perception are, as indicated, multiple, but, in light of the religious character of much of recent terrorism, we take special note of what have been called revivalist or fundamentalist reactions. This variant of terrorism in particular has developed in the context of a wider Islamic revival.

Revivalist or fundamentalist movements are efforts to restore an often-imagined indigenous culture, especially its religion, to a pure and unadulterated form. Their elements have been found in American Indian movements such as the ghost dance (Mooney, 1896) and peyote religion (Slotkin, 1956), revivalist cults, nationalist movements in colonial societies, revivalist and fundamentalist Christian movements, and in some extreme Western political movements such as fascism. The typical ingredients of such movements are:

A totalistic worldview rooted in a sacred religious system.

A profound sense of threat, angst, and apprehension about the destruction of their society, culture, and way of life.

A specification of certain agents who are assigned total responsibility for this deterioration.

An unqualified, and absolute, sense of rage that is felt to be morally legitimate.

A utopian view of their own culture and society—perhaps referring to an imagined, glorious past—standing in

point-by-point opposition to the decaying and threatening world they confront (Smelser, 1962:120-29; Juergensmeyer, 2000).

The historical picture in many Muslim societies is not different from this general pattern. The analogy is not between cults and terrorism as such, but between nativistic movements and Islamic revivalism, which provides a fertile ground for religiously based terrorism. The penetration of Muslim societies by Western values during the past few centuries has occurred in the context of Islam, one of the world’s great religions, dedicated to the transcendence of God and the observance of Islamic law. It is also a religion with a proselytizing tradition and a centuries-long history of both conquest of and humiliation by Western Christian and Eastern Orthodox powers—a history actively remembered in detail in Muslim societies to this day. It is, finally, a religion with a keen sense of infidels, both inside and outside Islam. All these features have conditioned the reactions to the West in Muslim societies, including the Islamic revival.

Revivalist-like movements of a totalistic sort—i.e., to “Islamize” the religious community by imposing Islamic norms throughout all spheres of life—antedate deep Western influences. Among these are the Safavid movement that eventually became the basis of the Shiite state in Iran. There were also a number of nineteenth-century antecedents, and the early twentieth century witnessed the rise and consolidation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and its subsequent underground offshoots (Voll, 1994).

The widespread Islamic revival in contemporary times partakes of elements of these earlier movements but has added new and different ingredients (Maddy-Weitzman, 1996). Some of these ingredients include: (a) It expresses the feelings of humiliation at the loss of the supremacy of Islam, the imposition of European commercial and colonial power, and the Euro-American domination in world affairs. Its enemies are foreign infidels, non-Muslims in their midst, representatives of more moderate forms of Islam, and secular dictatorial regimes in their own societies. (b) It expresses a fear of cultural extinction by the spread of an American consumerist lifestyle, and of individualistic values disrespectful of the old hierarchies of society. (c) It typically takes hold in countries ruled by regimes that repress

even legitimate forms of domestic political opposition (Abootalebi, 1999).

On the more constructive side, the goal of the revivalist movements is the creation of an ideal Islamic society, in which morals are pure and the community just, and all live in a state that protects a Muslim way of life, defends it against enemies, and aggrandizes the domain of Islam. Revivalists regard this envisioned society as a comprehensive alternative to nationalism or capitalism. In the main, the movements are carried by self-declared charismatic teachers, ideologues, community organizers, and political activists. The followers are diverse, consisting of petit bourgeois bazaaris (small businessmen, peddlers, craftsmen, and workers) and maktabis (clerks, teachers, and students) and sometimes the professional middle classes (McCauley, in press; Library of Congress, 1999; Maddy-Weitzman, 1996; Hamzeh, 1997; Sivan, 1997; Abootalebi, 1999; Alam, 2000). The movements have become extensively institutionalized in schools, mosques, clinics, study groups, women’s auxiliaries, and economic enterprises. Some groups take the form of political lobbies and parties, and some have paramilitary forces (Hamzeh, 1997). They constitute opposition movements to domestic governments, as in Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, and Indonesia, or to foreign rulers or occupiers, as in Palestine, Chechnya, Xinjiang, and Kashmir (Sivan, 1997; Alam, 2000).

The revivalist movements represent a small part of Islam in general. It is not difficult to appreciate, however, why Muslim terrorists have taken on the ideology of militant revivalism as their major guiding belief system. It provides a meaningful account of what is wrong in their world and legitimizes their extreme and violent political actions. To say this is neither to assert that Islam “causes” terrorist behavior nor to say that terrorists are simply “exploiting” Islamic beliefs to rationalize their destructive ends. Rather, the presence of extreme Islamic fundamentalism, like the demographic, economic, and political realities found in most Muslim societies, is part of the fertile seedbed in which a particular ideologically based brand of terrorism finds a supportive audience and some recruits. We emphasize, however, that Islam-inspired terrorists are a minority of terrorists, considered worldwide, and that the vast majority of Islamic peoples have no connection with and do not sympathize with terrorism; this relationship is represented in Figure 2-1.

FIGURE 1 Islam and Terrorism*

*Indicative only: Not to scale

STATELESSNESS AND STATES

Recent terrorist activity in general and the particular organization of Al Qaeda have cemented the view that the “new terrorism” involves a distinctive asymmetry: a stateless and nonterritorially bounded organization that wages war against a state, and vice versa. In domestic terrorism the terrorist organization typically operates within a state but itself is not a state. In international terrorism, the organization may operate within the confines of a single state, but it typically involves a far-flung organization or network of organizations, operating out of the territories of whatever states will harbor, tolerate, or cannot detect it. Corollaries of this view are: (a) that these organizations are out of range of institutions of truce, international diplomacy, alliances, and treaties, all of which are peaceful alternatives to warlike violence; (b) that, unlike states, these organizations do not face the “conservatizing” influences imposed by the state’s necessity to maintain law and order and manage politically negotiated relationships among diverse groups (except in the most totalitarian of societies, and to a limited degree in these); and (c) that they are relatively unreach-

able militarily because they are moving and semivisible targets, forever changing their form and moving from state to state and from place to place within states. This view contains much truth, but it must be qualified in two ways: first, that all “states” are not states as we understand them, and, second, that the relations between states and terrorist organizations are highly variable.

The standard Western model of a state is that it is a discrete, territorially bounded, politically sovereign unit with a legal monopoly over force and violence, responsible for law and order in its domestic population, and the focus of the solidarity, culture, and identity of its citizens. Regarding the panoply of states and other organizations in the contemporary world, we must conclude that the state is not a unitary thing that is either present or absent but is a continuum. The West still has many states that approximate the model—despite the intrusions of globalization on all states—but Afghanistan, Algeria, Colombia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, the former Yugoslavia, and Zaire, while in the United Nations as states, do not, for various reasons, meet the understood conditions. Much has been made recently of the notion of “failed states” to describe the nondevelopment of modern states in the non-Western (including the Muslim) world in the political science literature (Zartman, 1995; Rubin, 2002). Finally, many “nonstate actors” take on state-like roles—United Fruit in Honduras, Aramco in Saudi Arabia—as did the East India Company in an earlier era of British colonialism.

In addition, whatever their approximation to the standard model, states have variable, not fixed, relations with terrorist networks. At one extreme there is the Taliban, which had supportive, hand-in-glove relations with Al Qaeda. Pakistan has had a vacillating relationship with terrorist organizations. Egypt has allowed their terrorists to leave to fight as terrorists in other places but curtailed their activities radically at home. Finally, when Libya at its inception entered the United Nations as a state, it had almost no attributes of a state and has only slowly developed those characteristics. Its international capriciousness during the first two decades of the regime of Muammar al Qaddafi—including some “state terrorism”—drew military attacks from the United States and sanctions from the international community. Since the end of the cold war, Libya has evolved more toward statehood and membership in the world

of states. No longer a pawn in the cold war and facing internal threats from Islamic opposition groups, Libya is not now considered a major part of the worldwide terrorist threat and, indeed, actively collaborated with the United States in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

To realize this double variability—of states themselves and of state-terrorist relations—is at one level heartening. Since all states maintain some kind of relations with terrorist organizations if they are in their midst—supporting, neglecting, opposing, suppressing—this means that foreign policy exercised through state-state relations has variable potential to operate as one form of constraint, albeit uncertain, against terrorism and terrorist activities.

MOTIVATIONS FOR TERRORISM

We now shift from an emphasis on the broader origins and contexts of terrorism to individual terrorists in their group and organizational settings. We have already touched on background reasons for supporting or joining terrorism, such as economic desperation, political repression, and the ready presence of a framing religious ideology. We now turn to more immediate psychological motives, while fully aware of the slipperiness of this exercise. The perils are that (a) human variation is such that there is no single, “typical” terrorist psychology; (b) many terrorists are psychologically inaccessible and when accessible often secretive and nonyielding; and (c) Western psychological concepts and assessments often are not readily exportable and applicable to cultures very different from their own.

I NDIVIDUAL M OTIVATIONS

With respect to motivational profiles, work by Jerrold Post and others has suggested some similarities among members of given terrorist organizations, as well as some differences among the prototypical membership of different organizations. For instance, members of the German Red Army Faction and the Italian Red Brigades were likely to come from broken homes, and members of the Basque ETA group have come dispropor-

tionately from mixed Spanish-Basque parentage. “Comparable data are not available for Shi’ite and Palestinian terrorists, but specialists share the impression that many of their members come from the margins of society and that belonging to these fundamentalist and nationalist groups powerfully contributes to consolidating psychosocial identities at a time of great societal instability and flux” (Post, 1990:31). In all events, generalizations of this sort must always be tempered by the recognition that the composition of terrorist organizations is diverse and that well-educated and wealthy individuals are also represented, particularly in leadership ranks. More recent research on terrorists has rejected the idea that psychopathy is a key feature of terrorist motivations (McCauley and Segal, 1987; Ruby, 2002; Crenshaw, 1981; Post, 2001).

Leaving aside considerations of pathology or normality, the identity conferred by participating in a terrorist organization can be quite glamorous and appealing. As Post observed about one youthful recruit of a terrorist organization, “Before joining the group, he was alone, not particularly successful. Now he is engaged in a life and death struggle with the establishment, his picture on the ‘most wanted’ posters. He sees his leaders as internationally prominent media personalities. Within certain circles he is lionized as a hero” (Post, 1990:36).

Glorification of and personal salvation through violence is not limited to Islamic terrorists. Salvation as a voluntary martyr to violence or suffering has a religious history with roots in the theology of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, as well as analogs in Buddhism. It is only because terrorists and their source populations on one hand, and target populations on the other, share these cultural precepts that such acts have the psychological impact that they do. Self-fulfillment through perpetration of violence also has a history, going back at least to nineteenth-century anarchists, early elements of Soviet communism, and some elements of the cowboy culture. Similarly, utopian visions achieved through apocryphal transformation are not limited to Islam but are common both in mainstream and sectarian aspects of Christianity and Judaism. They are also found in cultures outside the province of the three major Near Eastern religions, although it is not always clear that they have appeared entirely independently of their influence (examples are Melanesian cargo cults and the ghost dance of American Indians).

The glamour of the terrorist identity depends to a large extent on the terrorists’ success. For example, following the tremendous media attention accorded the Palestinian cause in the wake of the killing of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics by the Black September faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, thousands of Palestinians rushed to join the terrorist organizations (Hoffman, 1998:74). It is evident that joining a terrorist group is not related uniquely to any given motivational profile. The search for identity is probably important, but so is the venting of anger, the power motive, and the glamour and aura of heroism and martyrdom—all operating in the context of situational opportunities.

I NSTILLING T ERRORIST O BJECTIVES : T HE P ROCESS OF B ECOMING A T ERRORIST

Why do individuals relinquish the societal values they have been brought up to cherish and adopt an extremist value system that may condone the killing of innocents? Studies of brainwashing, religious conversion, cults, as well as of terrorist groups per se provide a likely answer. It has to do with extreme forms of group influence and social pressures for conformity. The objectives are to isolate the individual from other belief systems, to delegitimize and dehumanize potential targets, to tolerate no uncertainty in rejecting or even killing skeptics, and to adore a leader. All these, taken together, create a separate, closedminded social reality at variance with the social reality of origin or the social reality of alternative cultures.

As Ehud Sprinzak notes: “Ideological terrorism does not emerge from a vacuum or from an inexplicable urge on the part of a few unstable radicals to go berserk. . . . In the main, the process does not involve isolated individuals who become terrorists on their own because their psyche is split or they suffer from low esteem and need extravagant compensation. Rather, it involves a group of true believers. An understanding of this group process seems to be much more important than an understanding of individual terrorists’ personal psychology” (1990:78). Once in the grasp of the group, it matters less what motivation may have brought the individual there in the first place (McCauley, in press).

An extreme illustration of this process is suicide bombing. Ariel Merari, an empirical investigator of suicide terrorism in

the Middle East and Sri Lanka, writes (personal communication, January 10, 2002):

The key to creating a terrorist suicide is the group process. Terrorist suicide is an organizational rather than an individual phenomenon. To the best of my knowledge, there has not been a single case of suicide terrorism which was done on the suicide’s personal whim. In all cases, it was an organization that decided to embark on this tactic, recruited candidates, chose the target and the time, prepared the candidate for the mission, and made sure that he/she would carry it out (often via a back-up detonation device activated via remote control in case the would-be terrorist got cold feet after all). The three critical elements in the preparation are boosting motivation, group pressure (e.g., mutual commitment), and creating a point of no return (public personal commitment) by videotaping the candidate declaring that he is going to do it and having him write last letters to family and friends.

T ERRORISM AS A P UBLIC P HENOMENON

One intrinsic objective for terrorists is the drawing of attention to themselves or their cause, not only among their supportive constituencies but also from the whole world. News of terrorists in the media and in public awareness is omnipresent. It is inconceivable to think of a public event—the Olympics, an economic summit, any official gathering—without worrying about security and the threat of terrorist activity. The amount of publicity and literature devoted to terrorism in the past six months is unprecedented. Osama bin Laden was a contender for Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” status, which was ultimately awarded to New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The basis for inclusion was related to terrorism in both cases.

The tremendous attention-getting potential of terrorism may have given rise in the 1990s to a new brand of terrorism that Ehud Sprinzak (2001) recently called “the megalomaniac hyperterrorist,” by which he means “self-annointed individuals with larger-than-life callings: Ramzi Youssef (the man behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing), Shoko Asahara (leader of Aum Shinrikyo and architect of the 1995 gas attack in Tokyo subway station), Timothy McVeigh (the 1995 Oklahoma City bomber), Osama bin Laden (likely planner of the September 11 carnage),” Igal Amir, who assassinated Itzhak Rabin—all mani-

festing in some degree a desire to use catastrophic attacks in order to write a new chapter in history.

Whereas attention-getting in and of itself may be gratifying to terrorist leaders, successful terrorism sometimes advances terrorists’ real-world objectives. High-casualty suicidal terrorist attacks on U.S. and French targets in Lebanon contributed to the decisions of those countries to withdraw their forces. Hezbollah, or the Party of God, is regarded in Lebanon (nearly universally) as the successful vanquisher of the Israeli occupation. Perhaps not coincidentally, 18 months after the slaughter of the Israeli athletes in Munich, Yasser Arafat was invited to address the UN General Assembly. Attention to Islam and Muslim values and traditional Islamic ways is on the rise among young generations of Muslims worldwide. The interest in Islam as a culture is rising, and the call for reexamination of U.S. foreign policy in regard to Muslim countries is no doubt related to attention that terrorist attacks have drawn to these issues.

ORGANIZATION OF TERRORISM: NETWORKS

The preferred organizational form for terrorism is organizational networks or, perhaps better, networks of network-based organizations (Arquilla and Ronfeldt, 2001; Kerbs, 2001). Like other aspects of terrorism these networks are relatively unfamiliar to those who study organizations, who have focused more on formal organizations, such as corporations, hospitals, universities, civil service bureaucracies, voluntary organizations, and organizations that direct the activities of social movements. As a result, there are only some, mainly indirect insights about terrorist organizations from the literature on formal organizations (Crenshaw, 1987).

The characteristics of terrorist organizations can be understood by tracing out the implications of the fact that terrorism must be simultaneously invisible and at the same time coordinated for preparing and executing terrorist activities. Consistent with these purposes, terrorist organizations must maintain extreme secrecy, avoid record-keeping, and minimize any paper trails that could reveal their internal movements, plans, and intentions. The last is extremely difficult to ensure completely,

because of the necessity to rely on computer and telephone—in addition to handwritten and face-to-face—communication as a part of organizational coordination, and the necessity to rely on financial transaction institutions to shift resources from place to place and on credit cards to facilitate movements of their personnel by cars, buses, trains, and airplanes.

The foreign affairs or external political exigencies of terrorist organizations are limited and concern mainly their relations with the host states in which they are located. If they are unknown to those states—rarely if ever the case—then questions of foreign relations with them are moot, because terrorist organizations avoid routine interactions with governing regimes. However, host states usually know about, tolerate, protect, or promote terrorist organizations for their own political purposes. This means establishing relations with terrorist organizations, taking an interest in and perhaps influencing their activities, thus forcing the terrorist organizations to observe and perhaps play along with various state-related realities (Crenshaw, 1985).

Because much of the glue of terrorist organizations is commitment to an extreme ideology in a group with extreme solidarity, this generates a special range of issues of maintaining internal control. They must recruit those whom they regard as ideologically committed and ideologically correct. While there have been news reports that claim to trace associations between individual terrorists and specific schools or other social ties, the panel is not confident that these purported ties are sufficient evidence to make conclusive statements.

Regardless of where recruits come from, the leaders must dedicate some of their organizational activities to maintaining that loyalty and commitment and preventing backsliding among members who are frequently living in societies with values, ways of life, and institutions that are different from their own and may be found seductive. The need to maintain various kinds of discipline through intense personal ties, hierarchical control, and surveillance is very strong. Organizations must ensure that information flows but also that it is kept secret. They must coordinate extremely complex activities of destruction. And they must ensure steadiness of ideological commitment (Della Porta, 1992).

There are several associated points of vulnerability of terrorist organizations, many of which involve failures of information flow, security of information, and coordination of activities.

One additional vulnerability, characteristic of all ideologically extreme and rigid organizations, is the constant danger of schismatic ideological tendencies from within (Schiller, 2001). Demanding extreme conformity, such organizations constantly face problems of internal deviation, mutual accusations among both leaders and followers that they are less than true believers, the splitting off of factions based on ideological differences, and the political intrigues that are involved in preventing such splits and dealing with them once they have occurred (Ansell, 2002).

Direct knowledge about these organizational dynamics is very frail, mainly because it is so difficult to study organizations that are bent on secret operations and concealment of information. Such knowledge must usually come from defectors, detainees who cooperate, and agents who have been able to infiltrate. However, the world has experienced many other kinds of secret, network-based organizations, and a base of knowledge about them and their operations has accumulated (Kerbs, 2001). Among these organizations are spy networks, gang rings such as the Mafia, drug-trafficking organizations, Communist cells, sabotage operations undertaken during wartime and during the cold war period, and extremist social and political movement organizations. In addition, network analysis as a field of study in sociology, social psychology, and elsewhere has yielded a great deal of theoretical and empirical knowledge during recent decades, and some aspects of this general knowledge might also be brought to bear. See, for example, the work of Carley (2001).

We conclude this long section on origins, contexts, motives, and organization of terrorism by noting a number of potential limitations on and vulnerability of contemporary terrorism: (a) their partial dependence on “domestic” friendly audiences, whose support and applause can wane if the terrorists appear to be inept or gratuitously excessive in their activities; (b) their dependence on states within which they operate—variable in terms of their precise relationship with those states—which may constrain their activities in light of their own “state” interests in the international arena; (c) extreme ideological/religious rigidity and backsliding, both of which have the potential to generate schisms within the terrorist organizations; (d) motivational failings, reversals, and defections, always a possibility when so much psychic energy is invested in an extreme cause; and (e) organizational failures, especially in flows of information in a dispersed, secretive network.

The events and aftermath of September 11, 2001, profoundly changed the course of history of the nation. They also brought the phenomenon known as terrorism to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. As it became thus focused, the limits of scientific understanding of terrorism and the capacity to develop policies to deal with it became even more evident. The objective of this report is to bring behavioral and social science perspectives to bear on the nature, determinants, and domestic responses to contemporary terrorism as a way of making theoretical and practical knowledge more adequate to the task. It also identifies areas of research priorities for the behavioral and social sciences.

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A Department of Homeland Security Emeritus Center of Excellence led by the University of Maryland

A consortium of researchers dedicated to improving the understanding of the human causes and consequences of terrorism

Explaining terrorism: causes, processes and consequences.

This volume comprises some of the key essays by Professor Crenshaw, from 1972 to the present-day, on the causes, processes and consequences of terrorism.

Since the early 1970s, scholars and practitioners have tried to explain terrorism and to assess the effectiveness of government responses to the threat. From its beginnings in a small handful of analytical studies, the research field has expanded to thousands of entries, with an enormous spike following the 9/11 attacks. The field of terrorism studies is now impressive in terms of quantity, scope, and variety. Professor Crenshaw had studied terrorism since the late 1960s, well before it was topical, and this selection of her work represents the development of her thought over time in four areas:

• defining terrorism and identifying its causes
• the different methods used to explain terrorism, including strategic, organisational and psychological approaches
• how campaigns of terrorism end
• how governments can effectively contribute to the ending of terrorism.

This collection of essays by one of the pioneering thinkers in the field of terrorism studies will be essential reading for all students of political violence and terrorism, security studies and IR/politics in general.

Publication Information

Crenshaw, Martha. 2011. Explaining Terrorism: Causes, Processes and Consequences. London and New York: Routledge.

Additional Info

Terrorism Essay for Students and Teacher

500+ words essay on terrorism essay.

Terrorism is an act, which aims to create fear among ordinary people by illegal means. It is a threat to humanity. It includes person or group spreading violence, riots, burglaries, rapes, kidnappings, fighting, bombings, etc. Terrorism is an act of cowardice. Also, terrorism has nothing to do with religion. A terrorist is only a terrorist, not a Hindu or a Muslim.

Types of Terrorism

Terrorism is of two kinds, one is political terrorism which creates panic on a large scale and another one is criminal terrorism which deals in kidnapping to take ransom money. Political terrorism is much more crucial than criminal terrorism because it is done by well-trained persons. It thus becomes difficult for law enforcing agencies to arrest them in time.

Terrorism spread at the national level as well as at international level.  Regional terrorism is the most violent among all. Because the terrorists think that dying as a terrorist is sacred and holy, and thus they are willing to do anything. All these terrorist groups are made with different purposes.

Causes of Terrorism

There are some main causes of terrorism development  or production of large quantities of machine guns, atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, nuclear weapons, missiles, etc. rapid population growth,  Politics, Social, Economic  problems, dissatisfaction of people with the country’s system, lack of education, corruption, racism, economic inequality, linguistic differences, all these are the major  elements of terrorism, and terrorism flourishes after them. People use terrorism as a weapon to prove and justify their point of view.  The riots among Hindus and Muslims are the most famous but there is a difference between caste and terrorism.

The Effects Of Terrorism

Terrorism spreads fear in people, people living in the country feel insecure because of terrorism. Due to terrorist attacks, millions of goods are destroyed, the lives of thousands of innocent people are lost, animals are also killed. Disbelief in humanity raises after seeing a terrorist activity, this gives birth to another terrorist. There exist different types of terrorism in different parts of the country and abroad.

Today, terrorism is not only the problem of India, but in our neighboring country also, and governments across the world are making a lot of effort to deal with it. Attack on world trade center on September 11, 2001, is considered the largest terrorist attack in the world. Osama bin Laden attacked the tallest building in the world’s most powerful country, causing millions of casualties and death of thousands of people.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Terrorist Attacks in India

India has suffered several terrorist attacks which created fear among the public and caused huge destruction. Here are some of the major terrorist attacks that hit India in the last few years: 1991 – Punjab Killings, 1993 – Bombay Bomb Blasts, RSS Bombing in Chennai, 2000 – Church Bombing, Red Fort Terrorist Attack,2001- Indian Parliament Attack, 2002 – Mumbai Bus Bombing, Attack on Akshardham Temple, 2003 – Mumbai Bombing, 2004 – Dhemaji School Bombing in Assam,2005 – Delhi Bombings, Indian Institute of Science Shooting, 2006 – Varanasi Bombings, Mumbai Train Bombings, Malegaon Bombings, 2007 – Samjhauta Express Bombings, Mecca Masjid Bombing, Hyderabad Bombing, Ajmer Dargah Bombing, 2008 – Jaipur Bombings, Bangalore Serial Blasts, Ahmedabad Bombings, Delhi Bombings, Mumbai Attacks, 2010 – Pune Bombing, Varanasi Bombing.

The recent ones include 2011 – Mumbai Bombing, Delhi Bombing, 2012 – Pune Bombing, 2013 – Hyderabad Blasts, Srinagar Attack, Bodh Gaya Bombings, Patna Bombings, 2014 – Chhattisgarh Attack, Jharkhand Blast, Chennai Train Bombing, Assam Violence, Church Street Bomb Blast, Bangalore, 2015 –  Jammu Attack, Gurdaspur Attack, Pathankot Attack, 2016 – Uri Attack, Baramulla Attack, 2017 – Bhopal Ujjain Passenger Train Bombing, Amarnath Yatra Attack, 2018 Sukma Attack, 2019- Pulwama attack.

Agencies fighting Terrorism in India

Many police, intelligence and military organizations in India have formed special agencies to fight terrorism in the country. Major agencies which fight against terrorism in India are Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Terrorism has become a global threat which needs to be controlled from the initial level. Terrorism cannot be controlled by the law enforcing agencies alone. The people in the world will also have to unite in order to face this growing threat of terrorism.

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Defining terrorism is a tedious and confusing task as there is a lack of consensus at the international level. However several efforts have been made in this regard.

Table of Contents

Defining Terrorism

An agreed, comprehensive definition of terrorism has never been created by the international community. The United Nations’ attempts to define the term during the 1970s and 1980s failed mostly because of disagreements among its members over the use of violence in conflicts over self-determination and national liberation. Due to these differences, a conclusion cannot be reached.

According to the FBI: “Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

Causes of Terrorism

There are many causes for terrorism such as:

Political causes

Insurgency and guerrilla warfare, a type of organized conflict, were the contexts in which terrorism was first theorized. A non-state army or organization committing political violence. Because they dislike the current system, they pick terrorism. They oppose the current social structure and wish to change it.

Religious reasons

In the 1990s, experts started to claim that a brand-new sort of terrorism propelled by religious zeal was on the increase. They cited groups like Al Qaeda, the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, and Christian identity movements. Religious concepts like martyrdom were viewed as especially hazardous.

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Socio-Economic

According to socio-economic theories, persons who experience different types of deprivation are more likely to turn to terrorism or are more open to being recruited by groups that use terrorist tactics. Lack of political freedom, lack of access to education, and poverty are a few examples.

Types of Terrorism

The following are the various types of terrorism.

Ethno-Nationalist Terrorism

According to Daniel Byman, ethnic terrorism is the premeditated use of violence by a subnational ethnic group to further its cause. Such violence typically aims at either the establishment of a separate State or elevating one ethnic group above another.

Activities by Tamil nationalist groups in Srilanka are an example of Ethno-Nationalist terrorism.

Hoffman claims that those who engage in terrorism who are either wholly or partially driven by religious imperative view violence as a sacramental or heavenly responsibility. Religious terrorism is more destructive in nature because it adopts different justifications and modes of legitimization than other terrorist organizations.

Ideology oriented

Several ideologies have been used to legitimize terrorism. They include:

Left-Wing Extremism

The idea focuses on overthrowing the state through an armed struggle and establishing a communist state.

Right Wing Terrorism

Right-wing organizations typically aim to preserve the status quo or go back to a scenario from the past that they believe should have been preserved.

They might compel the government to seize a piece of land or to step in to defend the rights of a minority that is being “oppressed” in a neighboring nation.

State Sponsored Terrorism

State-sponsored terrorism and proxy war are as old as organized warfare itself. According to Walter Laqueur, these customs were in place in antiquity in the Eastern Empires, Rome and Byzantium, Asia, and Europe.

Impacts of Terrorism

It seriously jeopardizes global peace and security and undercuts the fundamental principles of growth, peace, and humanity. Terrorist activities not only have a catastrophic human cost in terms of lives lost or permanently changed, but they also endanger political stability and economic and social advancement.

Often, terrorist attacks disregard international boundaries.CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives) materials are used in terrorist attacks that have devastating effects on infrastructure and communities.

Measures To Counter Terrorism

• The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) is responsible for leading and coordinating the UN system’s efforts to prevent and combat terrorism and violent extremism worldwide.
• Under UNOCT, the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) encourages global collaboration in the fight against terrorism and assists the Member States in putting the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy into practice.
• The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) Terrorism Prevention Branch (TPB) is a key player in global efforts.
• International standards are established by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) , a global organization that monitors money laundering and terrorist funding with the goal of preventing these illicit actions and the harm they do to society.

A combined effort at the international level is the need of the hour to tackle the perils of terrorism. Terrorism of any form is unacceptable in a civilized society.

Article written by: Vivek Rajasekharan

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39 The Causes and Consequences of Terrorism in Africa

Professor, Morehouse College

Gregory N. Price, Morehouse College

• Published: 03 November 2014
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African countries have experienced relatively high levels of terrorism. Terrorism has been linked to the theory of deprivation, but the extent to which terrorism is an economic good can be explained using a rational choice model of economic agents. Terrorism is also possibly motivated largely by existential other-worldly goals. If terrorism reflects a solution to a problem with identifiable costs and benefits that accord with the behavior assumed in economic theory, then it may be possible to contain terrorism by altering those costs and benefits. Terrorism as a manifestation of conflict could be a historically persistent phenomena with roots in the past. This chapter examines the causes and consequences of terrorism in Africa, and considers the extent to which existing evidence rationalizes the various explanations for it, and its implications for counterterrorism policy in Africa.

39.1 Introduction

The tragic events of September 11, 2001, changed the landscape and perception of global terrorism. Terrorist activity continues to be a major challenge for policymakers in both developed and developing countries. Africa has been increasingly recognized as a region warranting special counterterrorism attention ( Abrahamsen 2004 ; Cilliers 2003 ). This attention is underscored by the fact that since the late 1980s, sub-state terrorist activity in countries such as Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, and Sudan have resulted in the loss of almost a million lives and significant destruction of physical property ( Cilliers 2004 ). For example, between 1974 and 2008, a total of 4,993 terrorism incidents took place in sub-Saharan Africa, of which 261 groups claimed responsibility ( Elu and Price 2012 ). To the extent that terrorism is fueled by apocalyptic and radical religious beliefs, Abrahamsen (2004) , notes that British counterterrorism objectives in Africa recognize that there are more Muslims in Africa than there are in the Middle East—which may further increase the likelihood of radical Islamist terrorism ( Elu 2012 ). The US Department of Home Land Security has responded to this challenge by implementing changes and tighter security to deal with domestic terrorism possibly catalyzed by radical Islam. However, international terrorism, and in particular African terrorism, continues to pose a challenge to counterterrorism policy.

The counterterrorism policy response of governments when addressing terrorism and its economic impact on national and international security often fail to consider how religion, ethnicity, colonial legacy, and rational choice explain, and interact to condition why some individuals and groups in Africa employ terrorist acts as an approach to justify their mission and objective. Terrorism is the systematic use of violence and terror against the state, government, and those in power. There are alternative definitions of terrorism and all emphasize use or threat of use of violence by individuals or sub-national groups to obtain political or social objectives through intimidation of a large audience beyond that of the immediate victims ( Enders and Sandler 2006 ). In other words, terrorism is viewed as the use of terror and intimidation to gain political and social power and initiate change to achieve specific objectives. It seems a reasonable conjecture that for the median global citizen, terrorism is morally reprehensible, but for some it serves as a mechanism for change and a way to foster their political and economic agenda. Terrorism has become a bloody and robust venture around the world, which is not only a challenge for national and international policy makers, but also an issue for present and future national security.

Earlier analyses of the economics of terrorism have considered terrorism with respect to the weighted probability of success and failure. Using time series and ITERATE 1 data, Enders and Sandler (2006) found that terrorist incidents such as bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and skyjackings were reduced through intervention policies, that lower the benefit–cost ratio of terror, given the high probability of unsuccessful attempts after the implementation of such counterterrorism policies. Rational choice theory has also been applied to the airline industry using a continuous-time survival and logistic regression analysis model to determine the successful number of hijackings ( Dugan, Lafree, and Piquero 2005 ). These studies also find that the frequency of aerial hijackings decline when the probabilities of success decreased. Other studies by Becker (1968) , and Erhlich (2006) , also show that the probability of apprehension, convictions, and long-term incarceration served as a deterrent for terrorist hijacking. Blomberg, Hess, and Weerapana (2002) , also found that fluctuations in the business cycle affect terrorist activities and, in particular, high-income and democratic countries appear to have higher incidences of terrorism, and lower incidences of economic contractions. More recently, Brandt and Sandler (2009) found that terrorist kidnappings are sensitive to whether or not the host country of those being kidnapped make concessions or not. Arce and Sandler (2009) found that inequality appears to increase the cost of religious fundamentalism―one prerequisite for terrorism.

In spite of the various studies on the economics of terrorism and prevention strategies, terrorism as rational choice has not been exhausted in the literature and very little of it considers sub-Saharan Africa. The “Terrorism Knowledge Base” database indicates that the top ten terrorist groups in the world are located in Africa and South Asia. 2 In recent years, both of these regions seem to be fertile breeding and cultivating grounds for terrorist groups that want to relocate. Indeed, a recent study reveals that most lethal effective perpetrators groups from 2009 to 2012 are based in Africa. 3 For example, Boko Haram, which is based in Nigeria, has committed 80 percent of the terrorist acts in Nigeria ( START Report 2013 ).

One can consider terrorism as an existential good―terror motivated purely on political, religious, colonial, and/or other-worldly grounds regardless of tangible costs and benefits, as an economic good that can be explained within a standard rational choice model of optimizing agents—with both perhaps having a genesis in a past historical event which persists through contemporary times. In this chapter, we consider the existing literature on the causes and consequences of terrorism in Africa. We consider what we deem the most relevant existing literature on terrorism and conflict so as to cast insight upon the problems and prospects that terrorism underscores for Africa. In general, research on the causes and consequences of terrorism in Africa currently constitutes a small portion of the economics literature, and it is our hope that this chapter will encourage more research, as constraining the growth of terrorism in Africa would plausibly be beneficial for economic growth. The remainder of the chapter is organized as follows. The first section that follows considers the causes of terrorism in Africa. In the second section, the consequences of terrorism in Africa are considered. The last section offers policy recommendations on how to combat terrorism in Africa.

39.2 Causes of Terrorism in Africa

Terrorism is not new in Africa; however countries such as Algeria, Burundi, Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Rwanda, and others have seen an increase in terrorist acts in recent years. There are many explanations of why terrorist attacks occur and some attribute it to poor economic conditions, which is consistent with the popular theory of deprivation and poverty; low education attainment, and historical events such as slavery and ethnic conflicts have also been used to explain terrorism; however, there are studies that suggest otherwise. The magnitude or scale of destruction show that these acts are properly planned and they have devastating impact for victims with injuries (sometimes death), and promote physical asset destruction. The fact is that members of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas are neither poor nor uneducated, so calculated attacks tend to have severe economic damage.

Viewed as a conflict resolution mechanism, terrorism can be broadly viewed as a strategy deployed by individuals, either singularly or in groups, to resolve disputes. The basis of such disputes could be based on distributional issues (e.g. of political power, income, wealth) or merely existential—based on religious conflict—or have a foundation in the historical past causing persistent conflict. Presumably, discriminating between these various sources can inform optimal counterterrorism policy, and if there is any value in a mode of inquiry dubbed “The Economics of Terrorism”, it should inform the causes and consequences of terrorism. To date, the literature has provided substantive insight, and in this chapter we consider it—not exhaustively by any means—and offer some insight as to how it can inform the causes/consequences of terrorism in Africa.

To the extent that terrorism is caused by distributional issues such as income inequality, the analyses of Krueger and Maleckova (2003) and Krueger (2007) , for example, raise doubts about terrorism being caused by ignorance and poverty, as they find that terrorists are well-educated and typically not members of their society’s poor. On the other hand, Barros, Faria, and Gil-Alana (2008) found that poverty in Africa is associated with terrorism, and is mediated through condition of low political and economic freedom. As for ignorance, several analyses that appeal to rational choice models of terrorism suggest terrorists are quite rational. Two important notions or types of rationality are present-aim and self-interest . 4 Individuals in terrorist groups are present-aim oriented if they are effective and efficient in the pursuit of whatever aims that happens to hold true at the moment of their action ( Parfit 1984 ). Under this condition, no attempt is used to assess whether the aims (terrorist act) makes sense. For example, terrorist groups that prefer self-destructive behavior, the only requirement for making a decision to engage in terror is that they behave in the most efficient and effective destructive way. In contrast, individuals in terrorist groups are self-interested oriented if the choice of terror is conditioned on trade-offs engendered by cost, benefits, and resource constraints. Given self-interest orientation, the choice of terror must pass a tangible cost–benefit test, and under standard conditions there will exist demand and supply functions for terror that are a function of cost, benefits, and resources.

Religious organizations such as Hamas, Taliban, Hezbollah, Al-Shabaab, Al-Qeada, and other radical groups are potentially present-aim oriented as they use lethal suicide approaches as a terrorism strategy. Using the club model, Berman and Laitin (2008) found that radical religious groups are more lethal and choose suicide terrorism more often when they provide benign local public goods. The motives for these terrorist groups are altruism, fidelity to principle, and a desire for justice. The desire to destroy is paramount to their cause and action. In other words, utility maximization or satisfaction comes from massive destruction to justify their cause. However, Kruglanski and Fishman (2006) support the fact that terrorism is psychological in nature, and a given means will be utilized when the expected psychological utility is higher than that of other means, and the expected utility is determined by how well a given means is seen as contributing to the desired objectives. Some studies also show that the need for political freedom and stability can result in terrorism and massive destruction as a means to protest economic and political situations in countries where political instability exists. For example, Abadie (2004) showed that risk of terrorism is not significantly higher for poorer countries, and country-specific characteristics such as political freedom and countries with highly authoritarian regimes such as Iraq and Russia that are undergoing transition have a propensity to engage and sustain terrorist activities.

The benefit from terrorism under a present-aim orientation is purely non-monetary in nature, and these individuals exhibit bizarre behaviors and are contented to die for their cause in some cases. Africa and South Asia have long histories of breeding terrorist groups, and these groups have high-level of activities/incidents. Groups such as Al-Qaeda, Abu Nidal, Algeria’s Armed Islamic Group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, and the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist are housed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Algeria, Sudan, Uganda, and India fall under this category. For these minority groups, rational behavior and utility maximization would probably be based on a present-aim standard, where non-monetary motives such as altruism, fidelity to principle, desire for justice, and political fairness for equalitarian purposes would be their motive. The analyses of Kruglanski (2003) , Crenshaw (2000) , and Combs (1997) suggest that terrorism is a social psychological phenomenon used by minority groups to influence economic, political, and social policies. There is a tendency for these groups to attract the powerless who seek recognition and feel that the dominant class has deprived them of what is rightfully theirs. The motivation for the minority group to become violent is based on relative deprivation theory where outcomes such as income experienced by individuals are inferior to those that they expect to receive or entitled to. Even though the theory of relative deprivation has been the dominate explanation of terrorism, Brush (1996) found that this theory may no longer be considered the primary cause of collective violence, although it may serve as a significant contributing factor under some social circumstances. Using a pooled regression and evidence from inverted U-shaped relationship, Davis (1999) and Crenshaw (2000) also found that there is positive relationship between increased repression and political and collective violence. The strategy for these groups is to choose a target that would inflect maximum harm or injuries on the majority group to demonstrate their power and existence. Their main targets are usually business-related areas with severe economic cost to the government and society. Using panel data, Greenbaum, Dugan, and LaFree (2006) found that terrorist attacks reduced the number of firms and employment in the year following an attack in Italy. The economic cost of terrorism is to deter new business formulation and expansions thereby increasing the unemployment rate in the area following terrorist attack.

The self-interest approach to terrorism on the other hand is based upon trade-offs associated with choices, when all choices are constrained by income/resources. If indeed terrorism is an optimizing choice, it can be conditioned on cost and benefits in a variety of ways. For example, terrorist activities may in some cases offer greater benefits for those with more education, and terrorist organizations (especially suicide bombers) would prefer to select those who have better education since a high level of education attainment is probably a signal of commitment, as well as the ability to carry out terrorist attack with more sophistication for higher income. Krueger and Maleckova (2003) found that there is a positive relationship between investment in human capital and suicide attacks. For example, a suicide bomber would need to be well educated and stable in order to assess and judge the trade-off and likelihood or probability of been caught or captured if poor judgment is exercised. Benmelech and Berrebi (2007) provided empirical evidence to support the theory that higher investment in human capital provides a larger marginal benefit to terrorist groups. Terrorist groups operating under self- interest are optimizing on cost/benefits, and the incentive to destroy is based on the maximum benefit that can be derived from the action considering investment in human capital.

Assume there are two types of terrorist groups with preferences defined over terror and non-terror, where for both types tastes for both terror and non-terror are exogenous. The first type is self-interested, and the second type is present-aim oriented. For the first type the indifference curves are negatively sloped, convex to the origin, and consistent in their preference ranking. This implies that terrorist groups are willing to tolerate a reduction in income in return for terrorist destruction. The indifference curves exhibit diminishing marginal utility (MRS), which indicates that the more resources the terrorist group has, the more they are willing to give up in order to obtain successful operation of the terrorist act. Self-interested terrorists will be willing to engage in an act when their payoff is high—indicating a higher opportunity cost. The marginal rate of substitution between terror and non-terror is positive (MRS T, N > 0) and we assume that the income and substitution effects are such that demand curves for both terror and non-terror are always downward sloping.

For present-aim oriented terrorists, with U = f (T, N), the trade-off between T and N is non-existent or effectively zero (MRS T, N = 0). Such a trade-off follows from the fact that as an alternative to the preferences assumed under self-interest, critical present aim theory as developed by Parfit (1984) and its modification by Savulescu (1998 , 1999 ) makes three minimal claims about choices: (i) for a choice or act to be rational, the state of affairs promoted by that choice or act must be worth promoting. That is, it must promote some objectively valuable state such as wellbeing, achievement, knowledge, justice, and so on. (ii) The state of affairs promoted must have an expected value that is good enough relative to other available alternatives, and (iii) an individual is not rationally required to give up a concern for one objectively valuable state that is good enough for a relevantly different state which is more valuable.

If individuals in terrorist groups are present-aim oriented, choices are essentially “existential,” and are justified not on cost relative to benefit consideration, but more on principles, representing for example idealized political goals ( Savulescu 1999 ). In this context, seemingly irrational choices such as suicide bombings have perhaps infinitesimal afterlife and empirical benefits relative to lost empirical lives, if the act is believed by the actor to have such properties. As such, the choice of terror, if present-aim oriented is not conditioned on tangible and/or observable costs and benefits that typically inform resource constraints in economic theory. The extent to which terrorist activity is an existential or economic good suggests that if terrorists are self-interested, their choices should be conditioned on costs, benefits, and resource constraints. On the other hand, if terrorists are present-aim oriented, terrorism is an existential good, and it is not conditioned on cost, benefits, or resource constraints.

As terrorism is a form of conflict, the extent to which particular historical events drive current conflicts could render history as a cause of terrorism in Africa. Civil wars and ethnic conflicts continue to torment the continent and killed more people than reported. Africa has seen more civil wars since 1960s. For example, the civil war in Nigerian (1967–1970), and the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (1998–2004), violence and disease killed over 5 million people ( Coghlan et al. 2006 ). 5   Fenske and Kala (2014) found that in African regions that were most affected by the slave trade, conflict doubled in the years after the suppression of the slave trade in 1807. This suggests that historical events can induce conflict manifested as terrorism that persists into the future. As for particular mechanisms that would catalyze time-persistent terrorism, the results of Whatley and Gillezeau (2011) suggest that it could be ethnic fragmentation—which has been found to be a source of conflict ( Esteban and Ray 2008 )—caused by the Atlantic Slave Trade. Indeed if ethnic fragmentation is a source of mistrust across ethnicity, religion, and language, terrorism as a form of conflict resolution is likely to emerge in regions exposed to the slave trade, as Nunn and Wantchekon (2011) found that the intensity of the slave trade in the African past explains spatial and individual variation in the level of mistrust among Africans today.

Is terrorism in Africa existential, economic or historically dependent upon exposure to the slave trade? To get some descriptive empirical perspective on this, we consider a sample of 28 terrorist groups in Africa obtained from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) that were active during 1980–2013. The GTD is an open-source database with information on terrorist events around the world since 1970 and includes systematic data on international as well as domestic terrorist incidents that have occurred during this time period, and now includes almost 80,000 cases. For each GTD incident, information is available on the date and location of the incident, the weapons used, and nature of the target, the number of casualties, and―when identifiable―the identity of the perpetrator. Table 39.1 reports for each African country, per capita gross national income (GNI), its Human Development Index (HDI) ranking, and the number of terrorists’ attacks between 1980 and 2013.

The six countries with the highest terrorist attacks during this period in the region are Algeria, Burundi, Nigeria, Egypt, Somalia, and Congo. Dividing the terrorist groups into two segments, one representing the “low-end” groups who commit less than three incidents per year and the “high-end” groups that commit more than 10 incidents per year. In Africa, 18 groups were classified as low-end groups compared to other parts of developing countries. These groups committed three or fewer attacks, and are denoted by zero incidents, and therefore were excluded from the tests because they would not have an impact on the data. The “high-end groups,” with 10 or more incidents, were used to perform the regression analysis. The high-end groups comprised a larger number of incidents, injuries, and fatalities. The sample sets of the high-end groups were the top six groups with ten or more incidents and both regions had 10 high-end groups. Figure 39.1 depicts the trend of terrorism for select African countries.

Despite the income per capita of US$7,418 (Figure. 39.2 ) which is high compared to other African countries, Algeria experienced the highest number of incidents from 1990 to 2011. This suggests a positive correlation between income and the number of terrorist incidents with the implication that terrorism, being income elastic, is a normal economic good. In general, the trend for Nigeria and Somalia is upward, underscoring perhaps the increasing radicalism of Islamic-based groups in these countries. Thus at least for the African countries considered in Table 39.1 ―which represent a group of countries in which the typical terrorist event took place in Africa―this suggests that the cause of terrorism appears to be existential, as the trend is dominated by the terrorist activities of radical Islamic groups in Nigeria and Somalia. As for the legacy of the slave trade, the countries in Table 39.1 also approximate the countries—particularly the six countries with the highest terrorist attacks during this period in the region—in the sample considered by Fenske and Kala (2014) . This suggests that past exposure to the slave trade may indeed have some explanatory power for terrorism in Africa.

Trend for countries with the most vital incidents.

GNI per capita.

39.3 Consequences of Terrorism in Africa

Terrorism potentially has adverse impacts on economic growth, investment, and tourism. Terrorism incidents worldwide usually result in massive destruction with injuries and casualties. Most terrorist groups have the tendency to physically destroy productive assets as well as redirect resources away from productive uses. Studies have focused more on the direct economic cost such as expenditures on direct attack, to financial markets, defense/national security, and supply chain, which are calculated from direct approaches such as cost to property, productivity loss, and human ( Barth, Li, McCarthy, Phumiwasana, and Yago 2006 ; OECD Report 2002 ). The indirect costs that are not usually measured include the emotional toll suffered by the victims, friends, relatives, other survivors, and the community at large. Businesses associated with the location of the event usually suffer setbacks. Using the “Terrorism Knowledge Base” with more than 20,000 terrorism incidents from various sources, researchers have made several empirical estimates based on cross-sectional and period fixed effects, and generally found that there is a negative correlation between terrorism and real gross domestic product (GDP)—the higher the number of terrorist incidents, the lower the GDP. In addition, GDP seems to be particularly sensitive in an adverse way to terrorist target type—particularly airports, transportation infrastructure, private citizens, and property (Barth, Li, and McCarthy 2006).

As a destructive activity that destroys property, and causes human casualties and fatalities, terrorism has obvious level economic impacts and consequences for countries in general. These measurable impacts include the loss of the productivity for those permanently injured and killed, the loss of productive capacity and for destroyed physical capita, reduction in GDP ( Abadie and Gardeazabel 2008 ; Tavares 2003), and the loss of growth-inducing foreign direct investment ( Powers and Choi 2012 ). Additional evidence for the adverse economic consequences of terrorism has been provided by Blomberg, Hess, and Orphanides (2004) , who found that the incidence of terrorism is negatively and significantly related to GDP growth and foreign direct investment. African countries have experienced a high economic cost due to the activities of Ansaru and Boko Haram. These two groups have been linked to Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and have waged a brutal campaign against military, government, and civilian targets including Christians ( START 2013 ). For developing countries such as Nigeria and Kenya, it makes the investment environment unfriendly as investors shy aware because of compromised safety and weak national security, which affects economic growth.

The potential threat to investors’ confidence in the economy can deter investment, as most investors are risk averse, posing a fear of not been able to remove their investment. The economic cost in Africa is far beyond the direct outlay, because terrorist incidents can deter future investment in affected countries, reduce foreign direct investment (FDI), and deter economic growth ( START 2013 ). The importance of FDI as a source of growth in African economies renders these economies vulnerable to the adverse effects of terrorism as its persistence could constrain growth given terrorisms potential to constrain FDI. The increase in terrorism incidents in countries such as Kenya and Nigeria—two of Africa’s largest economies—could render them less attractive for FDI, causing both economies to shrink. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that in the case of Boko Haram —a jihadist terrorist organization in Nigeria—the increase in the number of terrorist incidents attributed to them has contributed to FDI decline from US$8.28 billion in 2009 to US$6.1 billion in 2010, which constitutes 36 percent decline (Umejei 2011). For investors, national security is important too: they are likely to stay away from regions and countries where security is not guaranteed. For example, Boko Haram, located in the northern part of Nigeria, has the highest poverty rate in the country and has remained relatively unsafe as it is the region in Nigeria experiencing the highest number of terrorist incidents—making it difficult to attract FDI. 6 Investment in counterterrorism efforts, while beneficial in constraining terrorism, can also be costly. It is conceivable that at least for some African countries, counterterrorism and security expenditures are too high. Developing countries such as Algeria, Burundi, Nigeria, Egypt, Somalia, and Congo, which rank high with respect to the number of terrorism incidents, have in recent history been spending on average about 30 percent of their GDP on efforts to combat terrorism and other threats to national security ( OECD 2002 ). In general, it seems likely that terrorism has significant adverse economic consequences for Africa. However, as far as we can determine, the existing economics literature provides no explicit empirical insight into the direct consequences of terrorism in Africa.

As for indirect insight into the consequences of terrorism in Africa, the analysis of Elu and Price (2012) is of potential significance. They report evidence that remittances to sub-Saharan Africa are used at least in part to finance terrorism. Given that remittances otherwise finance productive investments in human and physical capital ( Anyanwu and Erhijakpor 2010 ; Fayissa and Nsiah 2010), this suggests that terrorism in sub-Saharan Africa can possibly crowd out productive investments that are important for economic growth. To the extent that terrorist activity is correlated with or complements other types of growth-reducing conflict, the analyses of Berdal (2005) , Collier, and Hoeffler (2004) , Kaldor (2007) , and Omeje (2007) suggest that the financing of terrorism in sub-Saharan Africa is also important for the promotion, severity, and duration of wars and civil conflicts—which are associated with lower growth in sub-Saharan Africa ( Gyimah-Brempong and Corley 2005 ).

Last but not least, there is some evidence that terrorism in Africa may have some beneficial consequences. Wanta and Kalyango (2007) considered the impact of terrorism in Africa on media events in the USA, and the extent to which it can frame US foreign policy toward Africa. In general, a key finding was that terrorist events in Africa triggered media coverage that was associated with presidential policy initiatives leading to significant inflows of foreign aid in Africa. Thus, to the extent that foreign aid is beneficial for Africa ( Juselius and Moller 2013 ), and its elasticity with respect to growth is larger than its elasticity with respect to terrorist events (e.g. some FDI is channeled into terrorism finance), terrorism is potentially beneficial for Africa, as it could lead to inflows of growth-inducing FDI.

A more stark possibility for terrorism to have a beneficial effect emerges from the recent analysis of Europe’s historical rise to economic prosperity by Voigtlander and Voth (2013) . They found that the high frequency of depopulating wars in Europe prior to 1800 had the effect of increasing the ratio of land and capital relative to the population, which catalyzed increases in per capita income for war survivors that has persisted. Such a finding is hardly a policy prescription for economic growth in developing countries, as the findings of Voigtlander and Voth (2013) are an intellectual exercise in cliometrics, and are offered as an account and explanation of Europe’s rise in living standards. As for practicality, the weapons of modern warfare are far more destructive of both physical capital and individuals than in the past, and with the exception of poor countries, land–labor ratios are not significant determinants of per capita income. However, to the extent that terrorism takes hold and persists in poor African countries where land–labor ratios are important determinants of per capita income, if terrorism complements war, the destructive effects could be similar to that of Europe. If for example terrorism in poor African countries induces depopulation due to a mass exodus of individuals seeking safety elsewhere, the ratio of land and capital relative to population could increase. This would cause a rise in per capita incomes and living standards, possibly with persistence as in the case of Europe.

39.4 Conclusion

We have provided an overview on the causes and consequences of terrorism in Africa by considering the extent to which terrorism in these regions can be explained as rational optimizing behavior, as a political existential good, or as a legacy of history—in particular the effect of exposure to slave trading on contemporary conflict. The existing literature provides support for and against all these notions for countries in general, but actual and compelling evidence for Africa is sparse. As such, our examination is based mostly on what can be at least weakly inferred from the existing literate, both direct parameter estimates and indirect inferences and implications from descriptive data. Given the lack of attention to Africa in the existing literature on the economics of terrorism, more research on the causes and consequences of terrorism in Africa is clearly needed. Such research would inform the design of effective counterterrorism policy interventions, given that on average; the consequences of terrorism are likely to be adverse for Africa.

Notwithstanding the sparse literature on terrorism in Africa that would inform effective counterterrorism policy, some recent results regarding governance and regional integration in Africa are perhaps of policy significance. Elu and Price (2013) found that in West Africa, regional currency integration seems to increase the cost of terrorism, as countries sharing membership in currency unions have fewer terrorists relative to non-member countries. This suggests that regional economic integration in Africa is one policy intervention that can deliver not just higher living standards, but can also affect a reduction in terrorism. Elu and Price (2012) found that terrorists in Africa use remittances to finance terrorism. As remittances are also used to finance growth-inducing investments in physical and human capital, this suggests that terrorism can significantly crowd-out growth, and that stronger counterterrorism measures that monitor and scrutinize remittance inflows into Africa could be an effective way to combat terrorism.

Bodea and Elbadwi (2008) found that ethnic fractionalization has a negative and direct effect on growth and a positive effect on organized political violence with both effects ameliorated by the institutions specific to a non-factional democratic society. Li (2005) found that democratic participation reduces transnational terrorist incidents in a country, government constraints increase the number of those incidents, a proportional representation system experiences fewer transnational terrorist incidents than either the majoritarian or a mixed system. In Africa, where democratic institutions are weak and/or non-existent, such findings suggest that improved governance could potentially have large effects on terrorism. Moreover, strong institutions, enhanced democracy, good governance, and respect for the rule of law and can prevent and enhance the effective and efficient response before and after a terrorist incident. For example, it is estimated that after September 11, the USA spent over US$20 billion on direct costs, 21.8 billion on loss of property, which is about 0.2 percent of GDP, US$14 billion on private sector, US$0.7 billion from the Federal government, while the clean-up was US$11 billion ( OECD 2002 ). This suggests that the development of non-factional inclusive democracy in Africa could reduce the frequency and level of conflict such as terror incidents. Last but not least, Bolaji (2010) makes convincing arguments―but provides no empirical evidence―that improvements in Africa’s governance capability/quality and security infrastructure would have an effective counterterrorism strategy. This seems a productive area for future research on terrorism in Africa―a consideration of how governance type (e.g. democratic, authoritarian), capacity/quality and security infrastructure condition the causes/consequences of terrorism.

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ITERATE refers to the International Terrorism: Attributes of Terrorist Events. The ITERATE uses information from printed media to construct the chronology of transnational terrorist events.

The top ten groups in South Asia are the Communist Party of Nepal, Taliban, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eel am, Communist Party of India-Maoist, United Liberation Front of Assam, Al-Gama’al Islamiyaa, Al-Qaeda, National Liberation Front of Tripura, Hizbul-Mujahideen, and Purbo Banglar Communist Party.

From 2009 to 2012: the most lethal perpetrator groups are Taliban, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Boko Haram, Al-Qa’ida in Iraq, Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), Islamic State of Iraq (IS), Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Al-Shabaab, Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC).

See Robe R. Frank, Microeconomics and Behavior (2006) .

For an overview of how historical events such as conflict and war can condition current levels of economic development, see Nunn (2009) .

The Northern States are Burno, Bauchi, Taraba, Adamawa, Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Niger, and Kwara.

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Essay on Terrorism

India has a lengthy history of terrorism. It is a cowardly act by terrorist organisations that want to sabotage the nation's tranquillity. It seeks to instil fear among the population. They seek to maintain a permanent climate of dread among the populace to prevent the nation from prospering. Here are a few sample essays on Terrorism .

100 Words Essay on Terrorism

Terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political and personal aims. It is a global phenomenon that has affected countries worldwide, causing harm to innocent civilians, damaging economies, and destabilizing governments. The causes of terrorism are complex and can include religious extremism, political oppression, and economic inequality.

Terrorist groups use a variety of tactics, including bombings, kidnappings, and hijackings, to achieve their goals. They often target symbols of government and military power, as well as civilians in crowded public spaces. The impact of terrorism on society is devastating, leading to loss of life, injury, and psychological trauma.

Combating terrorism requires a multifaceted approach, including intelligence gathering, law enforcement, and military action. Additionally, addressing underlying issues such as poverty and political marginalization is crucial in preventing the radicalization of individuals and the emergence of terrorist groups.

200 Words Essay on Terrorism

Terrorism is a complex and ever-evolving threat that affects countries and communities around the world. It involves the use of violence and intimidation to achieve political or ideological goals. The causes of terrorism can vary, but often include religious extremism, political oppression, and economic inequality.

To truly understand the impact of terrorism, it's important to consider not only the physical harm caused by terrorist attacks but also the emotional and psychological toll it takes on individuals and communities. The loss of life and injury caused to innocent civilians is devastating and can leave families and communities reeling for years to come. In addition, terrorism can cause physical damage to infrastructure and buildings, as well as economic disruption, leading to decreased tourism and investment.

To effectively combat terrorism, it's important to take a holistic approach that addresses not only the immediate threat of terrorist attacks but also the underlying issues that can lead to radicalization and the emergence of terrorist groups. This can include addressing poverty and economic inequality, promoting political and religious tolerance, and providing support and resources to individuals and communities at risk of radicalization.

It's also important to remember that the fight against terrorism is not just the responsibility of governments and law enforcement agencies, but also of individuals and communities. By promoting understanding and compassion, and by standing up against hate and extremism, we can all play a role in preventing terrorism and creating a more peaceful world.

500 Words Essay on Terrorism

According to a United Nations Security Council report from November 2004, terrorism is any act that is "intended to result in the death or serious bodily harm of civilians or non-combatants to intimidate the population or to compel the government or an international organisation to do or abstain from doing any act."

The Origins of Terrorism

The development or production of massive numbers of machine guns, atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, nuclear weapons, missiles, and other weapons fuels terrorism. Rapid population growth, political, social, and economic problems, widespread discontent with the political system, a lack of education, racism, economic inequality, and linguistic discrepancies are all important contributors to the emergence of terrorism. Sometimes one uses terrorism to take a position and stick with it.

The Effects Of Terrorism

People become afraid of terrorism and feel unsafe in their nation. Terrorist attacks result in the destruction of millions of items, the death of thousands of innocent people, and the slaughter of animals. After seeing a terrorist incident, people become less inclined to believe in humanity, which breeds more terrorists.

Different forms of terrorism can be found both domestically and overseas. Today, governments worldwide are working hard to combat terrorism, which is an issue in India and our neighbouring nations. The 9/11 World Trade Centre attack is considered the worst terrorist act ever. Osama bin Laden attacked the tallest building in the world’s most powerful country, causing millions of casualties and the death of thousands of people.

The major incidents of the terrorist attack in India are—

12 March 1993 - A series of 13 bombs go off, killing 257

14 March 2003 - A bomb goes off in a train in Mulund, killing 10

29 October 2005 Delhi bombings

2005 Ram Janmabhoomi attack in Ayodhya

2006 Varanasi bombings

11 July 2006 - A series of seven bombs go off in trains, killing

26 November 2008 to 29 November 2008 - A series of coordinated attacks killed at least 170.

According to this data, India has experienced an upsurge in terrorist activity since 1980. India has fought four wars against terrorism , losing more than 6000 persons in total. Already, we have lost around 70000 citizens. Furthermore, we lost over 9000 security staff. In this country, about 6 lakh individuals have undergone.

Agencies In India Fighting Terrorism

There are numerous organisations working to rid our nation of terrorism. These organizations operate continuously, from the municipal to the national levels. To stop local terrorist activity, police forces have various divisions.

The police departments have a specialized intelligence and anti-terrorism division that is in charge of eliminating Naxalites and other terrorist organizations. The military is in charge of bombing terrorist targets outside of our country. These departments engage in counterinsurgency and other similar operations to dismantle various terrorist organisations.

There are numerous organisations that work to prevent terrorism. Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) , National Investigation Agency (NIA) , and Research and Analysis Wing are a few of the top organizations (RAW) . These are some of the main organizations working to rid India of terrorism.

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Essay on Terrorism

Students are often asked to write an essay on Terrorism in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Terrorism

Understanding terrorism.

Terrorism refers to the use of violence, often against civilians, to achieve political goals. It’s a form of fear-based manipulation, aiming to create panic and disrupt peace.

Impacts of Terrorism

Terrorism harms societies both physically and psychologically. It leads to loss of lives, property, and can cause trauma. It also hampers economic growth and societal harmony.

Countering Terrorism

Countering terrorism requires global cooperation. Nations must share intelligence, enforce strict laws, and promote education and understanding to prevent radicalization. Remember, peace and unity are our best defenses against terrorism.

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250 Words Essay on Terrorism

Terrorism, a term that sends chills down the spine, is an act of violence primarily intended to create fear, disrupt societal structures, and promote political or ideological agendas. It is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, which has been escalating in frequency and intensity worldwide.

The Root Causes

The root causes of terrorism are multifarious. It can be triggered by political instability, socio-economic disparities, religious fanaticism, or ethnic tensions. Often, it is a combination of these factors, creating a fertile breeding ground for extremist ideologies.

The Impact of Terrorism

The impacts of terrorism are far-reaching and devastating. Beyond the immediate human toll, it disrupts economic stability, social harmony, and political structures. It instills fear, leading to changes in behavior and attitudes, and can even alter the course of history.

Counter-Terrorism Strategies

Counter-terrorism strategies are as diverse as the causes of terrorism. They range from military interventions to intelligence operations, from diplomatic negotiations to socio-economic reforms. However, the most effective strategies are those that address the root causes of terrorism, rather than merely responding to its symptoms.

Terrorism, a grave threat to global peace and security, requires a comprehensive and holistic approach to be effectively countered. By understanding its root causes and impacts, we can devise strategies to combat it, ensuring a safer world for future generations.

500 Words Essay on Terrorism

Introduction to terrorism.

Terrorism, a term that sends chills down the spine of many, is a complex phenomenon that has been the subject of extensive study and debate. It is characterized by acts of violence or threats aimed at creating fear, disrupting societal order, and advancing political, religious, or ideological goals.

The Evolution of Terrorism

Historically, terrorism was primarily a tool of the weak against the strong, a way to destabilize oppressive regimes or draw attention to a cause. However, the advent of the 21st century has seen its evolution into a more global menace, with the rise of transnational terrorist networks like Al-Qaeda and ISIS. The digital age has made it easier for these groups to recruit, radicalize, and coordinate attacks, making terrorism a borderless problem.

The Psychology of Terrorism

Understanding the psychology of terrorism is crucial in tackling it. Many terrorists are not psychopaths or inherently evil people, but individuals manipulated into believing that their violent actions are justified. Factors such as social exclusion, economic deprivation, political oppression, and religious indoctrination can contribute to this mindset. This underscores the importance of addressing root causes to prevent terrorism.

Terrorism’s impacts are multifaceted. The immediate effect is loss of life and property, but the ripple effects are far-reaching. It instills fear and insecurity, disrupts economic activity, and can lead to restrictive security measures that infringe on civil liberties. Moreover, it can exacerbate social divisions and fuel cycles of violence and retaliation.

Counter-terrorism strategies must be as multifaceted as the problem they aim to solve. Military and law enforcement responses are necessary to protect citizens and bring perpetrators to justice. However, these approaches should be paired with efforts to address the underlying social, economic, and political conditions that breed terrorism.

Preventive measures include promoting social inclusion, economic development, and political reforms. Moreover, countering extremist narratives online and offline is crucial to prevent radicalization. International cooperation is also essential given the transnational nature of modern terrorism.

Conclusion: The Future of Counter-Terrorism

The future of counter-terrorism lies in a balanced approach that combines hard and soft power. While military and law enforcement measures are necessary, they are not sufficient on their own. The fight against terrorism must also be a fight for hearts and minds, addressing the root causes of terrorism, and building inclusive societies where extremist narratives find no fertile ground.

In conclusion, terrorism is a complex problem that requires a nuanced understanding and multifaceted response. It is not just a security issue, but a social, economic, and political one. By addressing it in this holistic manner, we can hope to make progress in the ongoing struggle against this global menace.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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