Mishandling suicide terrorism

@article{Atr2004MishandlingST,
  title={Mishandling suicide terrorism},
  author={Scott Atr},
  journal={The Washington Quarterly},
  year={2004},
  volume={27},
  pages={65 - 90},
  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:155714216}
}
  • Scott Atr
  • Published 1 June 2004
  • Political Science
  • The Washington Quarterly
Suicide terrorism is becoming more prominent as well as more frequently motivated by religion. To attract potential recruits away from jihadist martyrdom requires addressing basic grievances, not applying military force. Those root causes and how to address them, however, are woefully misunderstood. 
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28 Citations
Background Citations
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28 Citations

The moral logic and growth of suicide terrorism

    S. Atran
    Political Science, Sociology
  • 2006
Despite common misconceptions, suicide terrorists today are not motivated primarily by foreign occupation, are not directed by a central organization, and are not nihilistic. Better understanding the…

A Supply-Side View of Suicide Terrorism: A Cross-National Study

The recent literature on the root causes of suicide terrorism yields several testable hypotheses, most notably that suicide attacks are a strategic response by terrorist groups confronting foreign…

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ABSTRACT Pape [2005. Dying to win: The strategic logic of suicide terrorism. New York: Random House] famously argued that suicide terrorism is specifically designed to coerce democracies. However,…

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ABSTRACT In recent years, an upward trend in terrorist attacks has mirrored an increase in suicide attacks. According to our preliminary analysis, the events of September 11th marked a sea change in…

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In recent years, much has been learned about the strategic and organizational contexts of suicide attacks. However, motivations of the agents who commit them remain difficult to explain. In part this…

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This article explores the impact that belief in an infinite afterlife has on end-of-life decisions, specifically on those viewed at the extreme, such as martyrs, suicide bombers and self-immolators.…

Psychological factors in terrorism and counterterrorism: Individual, group, and organizational levels of analysis.

This article explores psychological factors involved in terrorism and counter-terrorism on individual, group, and organizational levels of analysis. On the individual level, we describe attempts to…

A Cultural‐Psychological Theory of Contemporary Islamic Martyrdom

What political, economic, religious, and emotional factors are involved in a person's decision to kill civilians and military personnel through the sacrifice of his or her own life? Data for this…

17 References

Genesis of Suicide Terrorism

A first line of defense is to get the communities from which suicide attackers stem to stop the attacks by learning how to minimize the receptivity of mostly ordinary people to recruiting organizations.

Who Wants to be a Martyr

As logical as the poverty-breeds-terrorism argument may seem, study after study shows that suicide attackers and their supporters are rarely ignorant or impoverished. Nor are they crazed, cowardly,…

Individual Factors in Suicide Terrorism

It is perplexing that in his otherwise compelling Review “Genesis of suicide terrorism” (7 March 2003, p. [1534][1]), S. Atran fails to address the most conspicuous case in recent memory: the…

Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill

For four years, Jessica Stern interviewed extremist members of three religions around the world: Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Traveling extensively-to refugee camps in Lebanon, to religious schools…

The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism

Suicide terrorism is rising around the world, but the most common explanations do not help us understand why. Religious fanaticism does not explain why the world leader in suicide terrorism is the…

Terrorists and Suicide Attacks

Abstract : Suicide attacks by terrorist organizations have become more prevalent globally, and assessing the threat of suicide attacks against the United States and its interests at home and abroad…

Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions

The "Me" generation has justified itself by appealing to social scientists who see selfishness as the only rational basis for action. But what are we to make of selfless acts in business, personal…

Do Islamic Orientations Influence Attitudes Toward Democracy in the Arab World? Evidence from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Algeria

Research on democratic transitions and consolidation has emphasized the importance not only of structural factors, such as institutional reform and economic development, but also political culture.…

Obedience to Authority

In order to take a close look at the act of obeying, I set up a simple experiment at Yale University. Eventually, the experiment was to involve more than a thousand participants and would be repeated…

Book Review: Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics

soft power has been produced by Hollywood, Har vard, Microsoft and Michael Jordan (p. 17)." Soft power waxes and wanes based on world geopolitical events and the world's perception, rightly or…