WHAT IS TERRORISM?• Lots of political violence includes this method: Insurgencies, separatist

movements, counter-insurgencies, coup d’états, • Terrorism is: “unlawful or illegitimate (?) violence directed against

civilians to invoke fear to obtain a political end.” The last bit reflects the fact that much of what we consider to be terrorism is a historically new “norm” or “construction”

• Terrorism is a “means” rather than an “ends”• Are “Irregular combatants” terrorists?• Is political assassination an act of terrorism? Are economic sanctions?

Are “dumb” projectiles? Are landmines?• What is “state terrorism”? What is “state-sponsored terrorism”? The

vast majority of terrorism is not “intl.” or “transnational” because it is poorly suited to deliver

• Why does terrorism work? It needs us to help…

IS TERRORISM ON THE RISE?

SHOULD WE PUT THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE?

• The federal government has spent over $80 billion on aviation security in the past 10 years. Yet "your chance of dying in a bathtub is about one in a million, and from terrorism is about one in 3.5 million" - Ohio State political scientist John Mueller.

Death by 1000 cuts? OBL’s hope

Mueller, cont.

WHO BECOMES A TERRORIST?• How do we know who becomes a terrorist? Methods to answer this question

(states with it, communities that generate, & individual level)• The vast majority of people don’t become terrorists… which means that our

“regression models” completely stink (low r-square).• Why do young males become terrorists (risk, frustration, violence)? Relative

deprivation, biology, and family status• Some common traits among terrorists: foreign occupation (is #1 factor in

predicting suicide terrorism), an oversimplified worldview, frustration (relative deprivation), self-righteousness, social isolation (often in refugee camps), a taste for glamour, indoctrination, and state support?

• Despite Magstadt’s suggestion that only dealing with “injustice despair, and hopelessness” will solve terrorism, people become terrorists only when and where that model works. And, there are almost always productive counter-terrorism strategies that don’t involve social transformation

• Why would anyone “rationally” become a suicide bomber? Ask Hamas or a postmodern political scientist

WILL TERRORISM INCREASE IN THE 21ST CENTURY? PROBABLY

• Why do democratization and a global appreciation for human rights increase terrorism? (Terrorists take advantage of our concerns for everyday people)

• Globalization increases relative deprivation and motivates young people to action

• Globalization and the media: The global village allows fear to move quickly and broadly

• Globalization and spreading ideology: It’s a lot easier to connect nuts together and to make them feel like part of the same community. It also makes it cheaper and more easier than ever for radicals to seem like an alternative

• Financing for terror, and technical know how: The key to Al Qaeda’s and ISIS’s work

WHAT EXACTLY IS AL QAEDA? WHAT CAUSED IT?• Why is empathy so important even if you can’t imagine

ever sympathizing with terrorists?• Sorting the nominally Islamic groups out: Hezbollah

(Shia), Hamas (Palestinian), Al Qaeda (1988, Pan-Wahabi), al-Nusra Front (AQ affiliate in Iraq); ISIS (Similar to AQ: Seeks “caliphate” in Levant region, which approximately covers Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus, and part of southern Turkey

• Is Islam itself the source of terrorism?• Key figures setting up AQ: Sayid Qutb (Muslim

Brotherhood) Ayman Zawahiri Osama Bin Laden• What does AQ and its sucessors want, and why do they

use violence against other Muslims?

WHAT’S AQ’S PROBLEM WITH THE US?

• How do we know? Bin Laden’s declaration of war• Our military presence in the holy lands• Our relationship with Israel• Support for corrupt “apostate” regimes• The “enslavement of Iraq” (what about Iran?)• Subordination of the Muslim world in economic,

cultural, & military terms• Forcing Muslim countries to sell oil at reduced prices.