Asking the Right Questions About Terrorism

The chapter poses the question: How safe are we? In the process, it assesses the nature of the terrorist threat, especially that from al-Qaeda and ISIS, and concludes that, although the threat from terrorism to the United States and to much of the West generates much fear, it is quite limited. While security measures put in place after 2001 should be given some credit for this desirable outcome, it is not at all clear they have made a great deal of difference: while some targets have been made secure, there are legions of others for terrorists to choose from. Nor is it clear that airliners and airports have been peculiarly targeted by terrorists. At any rate, averaged over the past 44 years, the chance worldwide that an individual airline passenger will be killed by terrorists on an individual flight is 1 in 25 million; for the post-9/11 period, the odds are 1 in 110 million.

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