Think global, Act local

by | Oct 15, 2008


Brent Smith, a Professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Arkansas has just published an interesting paper (pdf) on terrorist behaviour. In the course of his research he and his team studied:

– Ten attacks by international groups that involved 93 preparatory acts.
– Fourteen attacks by right-wing groups that involved 55 preparatory acts.
– Twenty-nine attacks by environmental groups that involved 80 preparatory acts.
– Six attacks by left-wing groups that involved eight preparatory acts.

And the results are pretty striking. Terrorists, it seems, hate commuting.* According to Smith:

Terrorists may stay close to home because of new immigration status, lack of transportation, lack of knowledge of the urban landscape or a desire to avoid attention. Among single-issue terrorists in particular, 71 percent of the preparatory acts occurred within 12 miles and 92 percent within 28 miles of the target. This finding may also be attributed to the use of “uncoordinated violence” tactics by these environmental and anti-abortion extremists, which often results in local targeting by “lone wolves” sympathetic to the cause.

*Hat tip the ever insightful

Author

  • Charlie Edwards

    Charlie Edwards is Director of National Security and Resilience Studies at the Royal United Services Institute. Prior to RUSI he was a Research Leader at the RAND Corporation focusing on Defence and Security where he conducted research and analysis on a broad range of subject areas including: the evaluation and implementation of counter-violent extremism programmes in Europe and Africa, UK cyber strategy, European emergency management, and the role of the internet in the process of radicalisation. He has undertaken fieldwork in Iraq, Somalia, and the wider Horn of Africa region.

    View all posts

More from Global Dashboard

Let’s make climate a culture war!

Let’s make climate a culture war!

If the politics of climate change end up polarised, is that so bad?  No – it’s disastrous. Or so I’ve long thought. Look at the US – where climate is even more polarised than abortion. Result: decades of flip flopping. Ambition under Clinton; reversal...