Terrorism Research: The Record

Looking back at the beginnings of academic research on terrorism just over 40 years ago, it is extraordinary to see that what was once a marginal subject for social science has developed into a full-fledged program of “terrorism studies.” In fact, recently a sociologist considered the subject of sufficient importance to write a doctoral dissertation and then a book on the “social construction” of the field (Stampnitzky 2013). This essay highlights some examples of the contributions scholars from different disciplines have made to understanding terrorism. There is no consensus on any general theoretical laws of terrorism (there is no equivalent of a democratic peace theory, for example), but researchers have defined key concepts and deepened explanations of cause, effect, and process.What follows identifies four interrelated areas of explanatory inquiry into terrorism that have emerged over years of research: the effectiveness of terrorism as a strategy of opposition, the determinants and consequences of counterterrorism policies, how campaigns or waves of terrorism end, and how analysis of terrorism can be situated in a broader theoretical framework rather than treated as a phenomenon sui generis. Particular emphasis is placed on studies that are comparative and/or that situate the specific case of terrorism in a general theoretical perspective.

[1]  Darcy K. Leach.  Clandestine Political Violence , 2016 .

[2]  Colin Atkinson.  Evaluating counterterrorism performance: a comparative study , 2015 .

[3]  Matthew E. Brashears.  Disciplining Terror: How Experts Invented “Terrorism” , 2015 .

[4]  James M Lutz,et al.  How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns , 2014 .

[5]  Jacob N. Shapiro.  The Terrorist's Dilemma , 2013 .

[6]  Erik J. Dahl.  Intelligence and Surprise Attack: Failure and Success from Pearl Harbor to 9/11 and Beyond , 2013 .

[7]  Frank Foley.  Countering Terrorism in Britain and France: Institutions, Norms and the Shadow of the Past , 2013 .

[8]  Peter Krause.  The Political Effectiveness of Non-State Violence: A Two-Level Framework to Transform a Deceptive Debate , 2013 .

[9]  Thomas Hegghammer.  Should I Stay or Should I Go? Explaining Variation in Western Jihadists' Choice between Domestic and Foreign Fighting , 2013, American Political Science Review.

[10]  Bryan C. Price,et al.  Targeting Top Terrorists: How Leadership Decapitation Contributes to Counterterrorism , 2012, International Security.

[11]  Max Abrahms.  The Political Effectiveness of Terrorism Revisited , 2012 .

[12]  L. Weinberg.  The End of Terrorism , 2011 .

[13]  S. Malthaner.  Mobilizing the Faithful: Militant Islamist Groups and Their Constituencies , 2011 .

[14]  S. Kirby.  Multilateral Counter‐terrorism: The Global Politics of Cooperation and Contestation , 2011 .

[15]  Clark McCauley,et al.  Friction: How Radicalization Happens to Them and Us , 2011 .

[16]  Leena Malkki.  How terrorist campaigns end : The Rode Jeugd in the Netherlands and the Symbionese Liberation Army in the United States , 2010 .

[17]  Ariel Merari,et al.  Driven to Death: Psychological and Social Aspects of Suicide Terrorism , 2010 .

[18]  M. Mazarr.  The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of Suicide Attacks . By Assaf Moghadam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. 360p. $45.00. , 2009, Perspectives on Politics.

[19]  Eli Berman,et al.  Radical, Religious, and Violent: The New Economics of Terrorism , 2009 .

[20]  Barak Mendelsohn.  Combating Jihadism: American Hegemony and Interstate Cooperation in the War on Terrorism , 2009 .

[21]  L. Donohue.  The Cost of Counterterrorism: Power, Politics, and Liberty , 2008 .

[22]  Max Abrahms.  Why Democracies Make Superior Counterterrorists , 2007 .

[23]  M. Kenney.  From Pablo to Osama: Trafficking and Terrorist Networks, Government Bureaucracies, and Competitive Adaptation , 2007 .

[24]  Max Abrahms,et al.  Why Terrorism Does Not Work , 2006, International Security.

[25]  Mia Bloom,et al.  Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror , 2005 .

[26]  Mark Waugh,et al.  Dying To Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism , 2005 .

[27]  Quintan Wiktorowicz.  Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach , 2003 .

[28]  Barbara F. Walter,et al.  You have printed the following article : Sabotaging the Peace : The Politics of Extremist Violence , 2007 .

[29]  Paul Wilkinson,et al.  Terrorism Versus Democracy: The Liberal State Response , 2000 .

[30]  Christian Karner,et al.  Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence , 2000 .

[31]  M. Juergensmeyer,et al.  Terror in the mind of God: the global rise of religious violence , 2000 .

[32]  D. Porta.  Social movements, political violence, and the state: Political violence in Italy and Germany: a periodization , 1995 .

[33]  Martha Crenshaw,et al.  How terrorism declines , 1991 .

[34]  Jeffrey Ian Ross,et al.  Why Terrorism Subsides: A Comparative Study of Canada and the United States , 1989 .

[35]  David C. Rapoport.  Fear and Trembling: Terrorism in Three Religious Traditions , 1983, American Political Science Review.

[36]  Peter R. Knauss.  Revolutionary Terrorism: The FLN in Algeria, 1954–1962 . By Martha Crenshaw Hutchinson. (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1978. Pp. xvi + 178. $10.95.) , 1980, American Political Science Review.

[37]  Audrey Kurth Cronin,et al.  The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism , 2019, Transnational Terrorism.

[38]  Tim Krieger,et al.  What causes terrorism? , 2011 .

[39]  Leena Malkki.  How terrorist campaigns end: the campaigns of the Rode Jeugd in the Netherlands and the Symbionese Liberation Army in the United States , 2010 .

[40]  M. Crenshaw.  The Consequences of Counterterrorism , 2010 .

[41]  A. Moghadam,et al.  The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of Suicide Attacks , 2008 .

[42]  Martin C. Libicki,et al.  How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida , 2008 .

[43]  R. Art,et al.  Democracy and Counterterrorism: Lessons from the Past , 2007 .

[44]  Amy B. Zegart,et al.  Spying Blind , 2009 .

[45]  M. Wieviorka.  The Making of Terrorism , 1993 .

[46]  Martha Crenshaw,et al.  Current research on terrorism: The academic perspective , 1992 .

[47]  O. Ayalon.  Coping with Terrorism , 1989 .

[48]  S. J. Sinclair,et al.  Coping with Terrorism , 2012 .

[49]  F. Alonso Fernández,et al.  [Psychology of terrorism]. , 1980, Anales de la Real Academia Nacional de Medicina.

[50]  Martha Crenshaw Hutchinson.  Revolutionary terrorism: The FLN in Algeria, 1954-1962 , 1978 .

[51]  P. Paret,et al.  Guerrillas in the 1960's , 1962 .