Global Issues/Worldofchallengesterrorism

Terrorism is a global issue that attracts a large amount of media coverage. The unpredictability of terrorist attacks provokes great fear for many people, a fear that is sometimes disproportionate to the actual level of risk. This in turn, leads to nations expending vast resources to address the threat of terror. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001, for example, led to the 'War on Terror', on which the US and its allies have spent billions of dollars, arguably with little resulting reduction in the risk of terrorism.

The issue of terrorism is complex and multifaceted, but in this module we examine two key questions: first, the motivations that lead to an individual becoming a terrorist, and second, if terrorism is an effective political strategy.

Listen to the following audio presentation: (57:02)

Read:

Max Abrahms, ‘The Political Effectiveness of Terrorism Revisited', Comparative Political Studies 45, 2012, p. 366, Available at:

http://www.gwern.net/docs/terrorism/2012-abrahms.pdf