• How it works

Useful Links

How much will your dissertation cost?

Have an expert academic write your dissertation paper!

Dissertation Services

Dissertation Services

Get unlimited topic ideas and a dissertation plan for just £45.00

Order topics and plan

Order topics and plan

Get 1 free topic in your area of study with aim and justification

Yes I want the free topic

Yes I want the free topic

Terrorism Dissertation Topics Ideas

Published by Owen Ingram at January 5th, 2023 , Revised On March 24, 2023

Introduction

Terrorism is a major global threat to public safety and security. It is an unlawful use of violence and intimidation to achieve political, ideological or religious goals. Terrorist attacks are always extremely devastating and have the potential to cause significant destruction, fear, injury and even death.

Terrorists employ many tactics, including bombings, hijackings, hostage takings, assassinations, cyber-attacks and more. The impact of terrorism on society is widespread, as it can cause economic damage by disrupting financial markets, creating social unrest through fear-mongering and creating long-term psychological trauma for affected individuals or communities.

Governments worldwide have implemented various initiatives designed to tackle this type of crime, but terrorist groups continue to operate across international borders with impunity.

Conducting research on terrorism is an essential aspect of a student’s dissertation and understanding of terrorism-related topics. In order to develop a comprehensive understanding of this complex field, students should dedicate time to researching the phenomenon of terrorism and its implications for national security.

In today’s world, terrorism has become one of the most pressing issues faced by countries all over the globe. Thus, it is important for students to be knowledgeable about current events and how they relate to global security.

Developing a solid analytical outlook towards terrorist groups, their goals, and objectives can open up new opportunities in the realm of national security policy-making and counter-terrorism initiatives. Moreover, it can help in developing comprehensive solutions which are aimed at curbing terrorist activity in areas around the world that are prone to violence.

How Should Students Choose Terrorism-Related Dissertation Topics?

When it comes to topics related to terrorism, this task becomes even more difficult as many complex and diverse topics can be investigated. Students should consider certain factors while choosing their dissertation topic to ensure they have chosen an appropriate and practical research area.

First, students should identify what area or field they wish to focus on for their dissertation. For example, suppose a student is interested in researching international terrorism. In that case, they should look for potential research topics related to this field, such as analysing terrorist networks or understanding state responses towards transnational terrorist organisations.

Students can also look on more specific areas, such as examining the role of social media in recruiting individuals into terror networks or looking at counter-terrorism strategies employed by different countries around the world.

Terrorism Dissertation Topics List

  • Are counter-terrorism strategies effective? The results of the Campbell systematic review on counter-terrorism evaluation research
  •  Combating terrorism: strategies of ten countries
  • Rethinking Nigeria’s counter-terrorism strategy
  • Common threat and common response? The European Union’s counter-terrorism strategy and its problems
  • Credibility in the global war on terrorism: Strategic principles and research agenda
  • A strategic framework for terrorism prevention and mitigation in tourism destinations
  • From convergence to deep integration: Evaluating the impact of EU counter-terrorism strategies on domestic arenas
  • Counter-terrorism strategies in Indonesia, Algeria and Saudi Arabia
  • Hard versus soft measures to security: Explaining the failure of counter-terrorism strategy in Nigeria
  • Putting terrorism in context: Lessons from the Global Terrorism Database
  • What is domestic terrorism? A method for classifying events from the global terrorism database
  • Characterising chemical terrorism incidents collected by the global terrorism database, 1970-2015
  • Machine learning techniques to visualise and predict terrorist attacks worldwide using the global terrorism database
  • The impact of terrorism on financial markets: An empirical study
  • The impact of terrorism and conflicts on growth in Asia
  • The economic impact of terrorism from 2000 to 2018
  • The impact of terrorism on European tourism
  • The impact of terrorism on Italian employment and business activity
  • Impact of terrorism on economic development in Pakistan.
  • Psychological impact of terrorism on children and families in the United States
  • The impact of terrorism on the brain and behaviour: what we know and what we need to know
  • Terrorism, the future, and US foreign policy
  • Jewish terrorism in Israel
  • Israel–Palestine: One State or Two: Why a Two-State Solution is Desirable, Necessary, and Feasible
  • The Terrorism Acts In 2011: Report of the Independent Reviewer on the Operation of the Terrorism Act 2000 and of Part 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006

Also read: Dissertation Topics on Ukraine, Russia and NATO Conflict , Dissertation Topics on USA’s Withdrawal From Afghanistan , International Relations and Geopolitics Dissertation Topics , International Development Dissertation Topics , Criminal Psychology Dissertation Ideas .These subject topics will help you in getting dissertation research ideas, if you are studying in any mentioned subject.

How Can ResearchProspect Help?

ResearchProspect writers can send several custom topic ideas to your email address. Once you have chosen a topic that suits your needs and interests, you can order for our dissertation outline service which will include a brief introduction to the topic, research questions , literature review , methodology , expected results , and conclusion . The dissertation outline will enable you to review the quality of our work before placing the order for our full dissertation writing service!

What are the Benefits of Choosing a Good Terrorism Dissertation Topic?

Choosing the right topic for a dissertation on terrorism can be difficult. However, considering the various factors associated with it can help make the decision more accessible and beneficial to students.

A good terrorism dissertation topic should be relevant, engaging and unique enough to stand out from other written works in the field. It is also essential to address an issue or question that has yet to be looked at in depth.

In addition to helping students build their research skills, choosing an effective dissertation topic on terrorism will allow them to explore an area of interest in depth and develop a better understanding of complex issues related to this subject matter.

Students should also remember that selecting a current issue or one with potential implications for national security is likely to attract greater interest from potential employers or universities when applying for jobs or further study opportunities.

FAQs Related to Terrorism Dissertation Topics

What are some terrorism dissertation topics for students.

In the article above, there are multiple dissertation topics related to terrorism. You can choose any of them. A few areas explored include:

  • Counterterrorism,
  • Global governance,
  • Conflict resolution

Are these dissertation topics unique?

Yes, all these dissertation topics are unique. But other students might have used them. You can take help from our dissertation topic services to get a unique topic for your terrorism dissertation.

What are the benefits of using the dissertation topic service?

The most beneficial part of dissertation topic services is that it offers help from experienced professionals with extensive knowledge in the field of research. This includes an initial consultation to discuss ideas, direct access to resources and databases, advice on turning those ideas into concrete topics, and suggestions on organising a literature review or methodology.

You May Also Like

If you are an avid photographer and wish to spend your life doing something that you love, which is obviously photography, you must be thinking about pursuing it further.

Topics for maritime law dissertations include the legalities of ships and other issues in international waters. Due to the importance of global connections and links in this field, marine law.

Here is a list of Linguistic dissertation topics to help you choose the one studies any one as per your requirements.

USEFUL LINKS

LEARNING RESOURCES

DMCA.com Protection Status

COMPANY DETAILS

Research-Prospect-Writing-Service

  • How It Works
  • Tools and Resources
  • Customer Services
  • Conflict Studies
  • Development
  • Environment
  • Foreign Policy
  • Human Rights
  • International Law
  • Organization
  • International Relations Theory
  • Political Communication
  • Political Economy
  • Political Geography
  • Political Sociology
  • Politics and Sexuality and Gender
  • Qualitative Political Methodology
  • Quantitative Political Methodology
  • Security Studies
  • Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Article contents

Transnational organized crime and terrorism.

  • Katharine Petrich Katharine Petrich Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, SUNY
  • https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.705
  • Published online: 19 October 2022

A significant, policy-relevant relationship exists between terrorist groups and transnational organized crime. However, definitional challenges, disciplinary boundaries, and legal logistics all contribute to the mischaracterization of the relationship, leading to piecemeal responses and uneven academic attention. International studies research tends to focus on one or the other, with an emphasis on terrorist group dynamics and choices. Two enduring rationales for separating the study of terrorism from that of transnational organized crime exist: the “greed versus grievance” debate, which argues that organizations pursue either private (financial) goals or public (social or organizational change) goals and the “methods not motives” argument, which suggests groups may overlap in their tactics but diverge in their strategic goals. Terrorist violence by criminal groups is largely held separate from the “transnational crime and terrorism” literature, often categorized instead as “criminal governance” rather than terrorism studies. The reality is much more nuanced: both group types pursue a variety of objectives and engage with a spectrum of actors which may or may not share their aspirations. Members are diverse in their priorities, a fact that is often lost when analysis collapses the rank and file with leadership into a monolithic bloc. Additionally, globalization has increased opportunities for groups to pursue different activities in different theaters. In areas where terrorist groups are contesting for political control and seeking to present themselves as viable alternative governance actors, they may be less likely to work openly with illicit actors, but in areas (or countries) where they have little governance ambition, criminal networks may be important public partners.

These groups intersect in a spectrum of ways, from engaging in temporary ad hoc relationships designed to achieve a specific goal, to fully incorporating the opposite type’s motive into organizational priorities. Political ambitions largely center on power and control, but illicit activities are wide ranging, with the most prominent involving firearms, drugs, and people. Further, there are several important enabling factors that foster these relationships, including corruption, illicit financial flows, fragile states, and lootable resources. When these enabling factors are present, diversification and relationship building are more likely, increasing organizational resilience and making demobilization less likely. These factors, particularly corruption, also increase the chances of organized crime entering the political system.

Looking ahead, both policymakers and academics should consider transnational organized crime and terrorism more holistically. Work that engages with only one element will fall short in assessing the dynamics of irregular conflict, leading to incomplete analysis and weak policy recommendations. Observers should cultivate the flexibility to think in terms of networks and variety across geographic contexts—the way that a terrorist group behaves in one area or with one type of criminal group does not necessarily predict its behavior globally.

  • transnational organized crime
  • irregular conflict
  • illicit economies
  • trafficking
  • black market
  • law enforcement

Introduction

Globalization has brought many benefits for the world in the 21st century : global interdependence means a richer, more peaceful world where people, goods, and ideas move quickly and easily beyond their places of origin. But alongside the benefits, disruptive actors have also capitalized on the shift. Products of “deviant globalization,” these challengers include transnational organized crime groups and terrorist organizations. Powerful on their own, together their impact could be devastating, especially for developing states. Thus, a key question for policymakers is whether the “crime-terror nexus” is an overblown fear or a legitimate relationship. From there, other important questions follow. If it does occur, what are the contours of the interaction? Do criminal terrorists represent a greater or lesser threat than their politically oriented counterparts? Are organized crime groups poised to topple governments? Where is it most likely to occur? How best can governments, organizations, and individuals respond to it?

The history of transnational crime and terrorism relationships can largely be split into before and after the September 11 attacks. Before 2001 , transnational criminal groups and terrorist organizations interacted in a largely transactional manner ( Schmid, 2018 ). For example, terrorist groups might seek out “specialist” organized criminals for help securing counterfeit passports or smuggling members across borders, and transnational organized crime groups might negotiate with terrorists for the right to operate within their sphere of influence ( Shelley & Picarelli, 2002 ). Some groups did rely on crime to support their operational efforts, like extortion and “tiger kidnapping” campaigns run by the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the Ulster Defense Forces during the 1990s ( Silke, 1998 ). During the 1980s and 1990s, these sorts of piecemeal interactions flourished due to increasing economic interdependence outstripping international regulation; further, nonstate actors did not warrant the same type of attention as states did in the international rebalancing after the Cold War. Terrorist group excursions into criminality during this period were generally focused on domestic populations closely situated to the group—this was the era of the petty and domestic offense, not sophisticated international networks. In the post-9/11 security environment, terrorism remains one of the most significant security concerns among policymakers. Such groups’ convergence with or diversification into sophisticated criminal activity represents a major force multiplier, augmenting their ability to disrupt and undermine legitimate governance, resist demobilization, and continue to carry out attacks against civilian populations. In reaction to the upswing in attention, some authors have argued that the relationship is overhyped and represents a much smaller set of interactions than what is portrayed in the discourse. Nexus naysayers argue that the two group types can be differentiated by a bright line due to their dramatically different goals: for terrorist groups, having a politically violent operational goal means that the need to spend money actually outweighs the imperative to earn money ( Aliu et al., 2017 ).

After the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 , the United States dramatically increased scrutiny of terrorist financial networks—a move that was followed by other states as attacks struck India ( 2002 ), Russia ( 2004 ), Spain ( 2004 ), and the United Kingdom ( 2005 ). Such attention, in the form of sanctions, asset seizure, account freezes, international arrest and apprehension, and military operations targeting group leadership led terrorist groups to diversify their sources of funding as well as their operational capabilities and recruiting pools. No longer could groups consistently rely on financial support from sympathetic state actors or wealthy individuals, as al-Qaeda and Hezbollah did during the 1990s.

Cut off from “angel investors” after 2001 , terrorist groups have become significantly more likely to rely on illicit or “grey market” financing schemes to support their work. At a minimum, counterterrorism financing measures require terrorist groups to become at least partially competent money launderers because these laws criminalized the movement of money to terrorist groups. Following the money also became a critical component in counterterrorism operations, making groups that did not or were unable to launder funds well particularly vulnerable to disruption.

Interactions between transnational organized crime and terrorism are deeply nuanced and context specific and can be broadly separated into four nodes: ad hoc, continuing, diversified, and converging relationships. Understanding the enabling and demand factors that provide oxygen to terrorist criminal opportunities is key to both understanding the interwoven dynamics as well as developing effective policy responses. Particular attention should be paid to the role of corruption, illicit flows, and lootable resources.

Researching transnational organized crime and terrorism is challenging. Both actor types are incentivized to hide their activities, scope of influence, organizational relationships, and financial assets. Because of this active concealment, quantitative scholars generally rely on government and law enforcement reporting or externally observable actions like attacks. Criminal activity is often overlooked in these studies because it serves logistical or financial purposes for a terrorist group, as opposed to directly contributing to kinetic attacks. Relying on official figures is not without its challenges: what gets counted and how is an inherently political act ( Andreas & Greenhill, 2010 ). States have their own incentives to misrepresent levels of both violence and criminality, and the same accessibility issues that hinder independent researchers can hinder official sources as well. Qualitative scholars struggle with issues of access, data triangulation, and generalizability, resulting in an oversaturation of particular cases and sources. Existing scholarship focuses primarily on developing states, particularly those with weak institutions, preexisting criminal economies, and high levels of corruption ( Shelley, 2014 ). In truth, however, transnational organized crime touches every corner of the world, including the WEIRD countries ( Henrich et al., 2010 ). 1 In fact, many of the most problematic and durable linkages are situated in the Global North ( Makarenko & Mesquita, 2014 ).

What Is Terrorism?

Terrorism has a long history, appearing in nearly every asymmetric conflict. One of the earliest accounts of terrorism centers on nonstate actor resistance to the Roman Empire in the Judea Province in the 1st century ce ( Chaliand & Blin, 2016 ). Groups of all religions, national origins, political aims, and ideological creeds have used violence or the threat of violence against civilian targets to seek political or social change. In the 21st century , there is an unfortunate tendency to associate terrorism with fundamentalist Islamist groups and to assume al-Qaeda “invented” terrorism in September 2001 ( Laqueur, 2001 ). In reality, in 2019 , 265 distinct terrorist groups were active across six continents and carried out attacks in more than 70 countries ( National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), 2019 ).

Terrorism is a tactic, commonly understood to mean the use of violence (or threat of violence) by a nonstate actor against a civilian or other nonlegitimate target, with the intent of achieving a political, social, economic, or ideological goal ( Ganor, 2002 ; National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), 2019 ; Saul, 2019 ). Generally, the true targets of terrorism extend beyond the immediate victims of violence to include the broader community. The purpose of terrorist attacks is to generate fear due to indiscriminate violence. Because terrorism is a tactic and may be used as part of a suite of activities, deciding exactly who is a terrorist is a fraught political endeavor. For nonspecialists and the media, terrorist groups can be difficult to differentiate from rebel, insurgent, criminal, or guerrilla groups, despite variations in their technical definitions.

Why Is Terrorism Problematic?

Terrorism generates far more consternation among policymakers and fear among the public than other forms of violence, particularly in WEIRD countries. This is true for terrorist attacks of all types and ideologies and has spurred major counterterrorism initiatives both domestically and internationally. Most terrorist attacks and associated deaths occur in areas experiencing high levels of violence in general, up to the level of civil war; geographically, this maps onto the Middle East and Africa ( Ritchie et al., 2019 ). By the numbers, crime kills and harms far more individuals than terrorist groups do, in all areas of the world. Indeed, in the United States, driving a car or taking a bath are more likely to kill you than a terrorist attack ( Mueller & Stewart, 2018 ). However, despite the large divergence between perceived and actual danger, terrorism occupies far more media and policymaker attention than statistically more risky activities.

This gap between real danger and perceived threat is one of the reasons terrorism is so problematic: the effects of an attack are exponentially greater than the direct harm caused by the violence. Terrorism creates trauma and uncertainty among observers, due in part to the apparently random nature of victims, attack patterns, or attack locations ( Mueller & Stewart, 2018 ). In response, individuals are less likely to invest in long term, durable activities, businesses, or communities. Further, terrorism erodes the social contract enacted between the citizen and state, undermining confidence in governance institutions with negative follow-on effects, particularly in democracies. To prevent and respond to terrorist attacks, governments often turn to draconian counterterrorism measures, creating cures that are worse than the disease. At best, they may resort to “security theater”—measures that may make citizens feel safer but have little functional purpose ( Schneier, 2008 ). Both types of response do little to reduce the risk of terrorism or the feeling of insecurity terrorism provokes.

Transnational Organized Crime

What is transnational organized crime.

Like terrorism, transnational organized crime is an activity (or tactic). Thus, there is controversy over the specific dimensions of transnational organized crime—every legal jurisdiction defines the concept a little differently ( Allum & Gilmour, 2022 ). Practitioners and academics understand it differently too, with variations appearing depending on whether the writer is a political scientist, economist, or criminologist. Some of the debate and controversy over the relationship between transnational organized crime and terrorism is simply a function of researchers and commentators using terms interchangeably when they in fact vary in their definition, making it challenging to range the relationship ( Picarelli, 2012 ).

International conventions represent the broadest definitional category. Under the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), transnational organized crime are serious crimes carried out by organized criminal groups of more than three individuals, “in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit” ( UNTOC, 2000 , p. 5). To be transnational, criminal activity must occur across interstate borders; this can happen in several ways and is not simply confined to physically moving across an international border. A crime is transnational if a substantial amount of the preparation, planning, or direction took place in a state other than the one in which the crime actually took place, or if the group that committed the crime is active in multiple states ( UNTOC, 2000 ). A crime can also be transnational if it has significant follow-on effects in a second state. This scope is wide enough to compensate for the jurisdictional challenges created by Westphalian sovereignty, and this framing is regularly used by academics as a starting point for their own definitions.

Academic definitions of transnational organized crime vary according to study scope and are largely concentrated on organized crime, tacking on the transnational element as appropriate. Some exceptions exist: Allum and Gilmour (2022) , for example, offered that transnational organized crime is “the passing of illegal goods and/or services over national borders and/or rendering criminal support to criminal activities or related persons in more than one country” (p. 8). Van Dijk and Spapens (2013) viewed transnational organized crime as “a group of actors moving from one country to another to execute illegal activities” (p. 17). More often, authors offer a survey of common organized crime elements. Shelley (2005) identified several themes, including the ongoing nature of the criminal activity, the fact that multiple (at least two) people are involved, and that groups pursue “profit and power” goals through the use of violence or threat of violence ( Shelley 2005 , p. 14). In general agreement, Albanese (2011) also highlighted the literature’s attention to the rational orientation of criminal groups, which propagate themselves through “use of force, threats, monopoly control, and corruption” (p. 4).

One of the most significant mistakes in the discussion of crime and terrorism is the conflation of different types of criminal sophistication. While some definitional debates appear pedantic, this one has real relevance. The misuse of petty, organized, and transnational organized crime creates interventions that are grossly inappropriate for the type and intensity of criminal behavior. In essence, by using the “wrong” term and overestimating the level of criminality, academics and policymakers alike can recommend surgery with a chainsaw over a scalpel. Underestimating the level of sophistication has its own drawbacks, as it can open the door for institutional capture and endemic corruption. In addition, conflation erases the important variations in how terrorist groups engage with different types of crime—for example, those seeking legitimacy are less likely to engage in petty crime but may well involve themselves in organized and transnational crime ( Asal et al., 2019 ). These mistakes can be made from actors as wide ranging as individual academics writing an editorial to intergovernmental organizations drafting policy.

Why Is Transnational Organized Crime a Problem?

The idea that transnational organized crime, and organized crime more generally, represents a national and international security challenge is not new ( Williams, 1994 ). However, following the end of the Cold War and the shift toward globalization, the scale and reach of transnational criminal organizations has grown exponentially. At the individual level, criminal syndicates exploit, extort, and harm people—creating fear and trauma that makes it difficult to invest in the future, trust one’s neighbors, or pursue legitimate enterprise. At the community level, high levels of crime divert public resources into increased law enforcement, drug treatment and deradicalization programs, and safeguarding public officials. Crime also effects communities by decreasing travel and tourism, along with investment from both external and internal entrepreneurs, and skimming off government revenue that should be reinvested into the community. At the state level, crime impacts the workings and reach of institutions, eroding the legitimacy critical for their missions. It undercuts the social contract by demonstrating that the state cannot effectively provide security to its citizens, making the state more vulnerable to overthrow or capture by illegitimate actors ( Williams, 1994 ). The associated corruption (or perceived corruption) of governance actors makes it difficult for the state to act in the international arena, to advance foreign policy interests, and to defend itself against predatory state competitors. Finally, at the international level, a high level of criminality makes other states less like to invest, trade, or engage with a state. A state characterized by powerful criminal actors, particularly transnational ones, can act as a “safe haven” for those groups to avoid disruption and prosecution. This can lead to sanctions, isolation, or even intervention in an attempt to disrupt criminal networks based there. These actions have negative consequences for the civilian population of the state, cause significant amounts of collateral damage, and can result in cyclical violence as power vacuums created by intervention generate increased competition among the remaining actors.

Sophisticated, large scale criminal organizations can outstrip the capabilities of the state they inhabit, creating a dynamic in which legitimate institutions are crowded out and criminality is effectively institutionalized ( Coggins, 2015 ). The World Atlas of Illicit Flows ( Nellemann et al., 2018 ) assessed that 38% of worldwide conflict financing comes from environmental crime alone—suggesting that the true impact of crime on conflict is much broader. Conflict economies centered on criminality, particularly those crimes involving the transportation of goods and people across borders, are key enablers of violence. Even short of war, transnational organized crime creates and sustains violent dynamics that harm the communities in which they are embedded in a multitude of ways.

Types of Transnational Organized Crime

Transnational organized crime is usually organized either by the type of activity or the type of target. The so called “big three” most prevalent and profitable crimes are drugs, arms, and people, followed by cybercrime and environmental crime. Boister and Currie (2014) used three “buckets” to understand transnational crime: substantive crimes (those involving people as products), commodity crimes (those broadly involving the movement or production of illicit goods), and facilitative and organizational crimes (those that allow other forms of criminal activity to occur or be successful). Another way to conceptualize transnational organized crime is to differentiate between origin, transit, and market countries, or where illicit materials begin, move through, and end up. Most illicit goods and profits flow from the developing to the developed world, with the major exception being firearms. Differentiating between these types of crime is important because they have different enabling conditions, spillover effects, and solutions.

Drug trafficking is perhaps the most notorious of all transnational organized crime and has been the target of innumerable domestic and international disruption initiatives. Drugs are a major source of revenue for many types of nonstate (and state) actors. According to the annual World Drug Report produced by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2021) , drugs can be categorized into five broad categories: cannabis, opioids, cocaine, amphetamine-type stimulants, and new psychoactive substances. The scale of drug usage, markets, and trafficking is staggering: in 2020 , approximately 275 million people used drugs globally ( United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2021 ). Assessing the market is a complicated task, because of the large quantity of drugs as well as the concerted efforts of buyers and sellers to hide their activities, but best-guess estimates place the market at over $1 billion annually ( United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2021 ). Large-scale trafficking requires both organizational sophistication and enabling conditions like weak state institutions, corruption, and relevant labor populations. Because of these factors, states with significant drug production economies are often also home to violent nonstate political actors, or see drug trafficking organizations enter the political realm, resulting in the so-called narco-terrorism phenomenon.

Firearms trafficking, or the illicit movement and sale of guns, is both a form of transnational crime and a key driver of nonstate actor violence. Gun trafficking is a complicated issue in part because the traditional origin and market countries are reversed. Most firearms on the black market are produced licitly in the Global North and then diverted into illicit marketplaces and transactions in the Global South, though markets vary significantly across time and space ( Marsh & Pinson, 2021 ). States are often the merchants or brokers of firearms transactions, making interdiction difficult. As a durable good, large quantities of available illicit guns are those remaining from interstate or civil conflicts, creating an opportunity window for terrorist groups operating in weak (or weakened) states to divert, use, and sell firearms in support of their continued activities. Terrorist groups and transnational organized criminals use firearms both as a tool of violence and as a form of currency, making the buying and selling of weapons a key issue.

Crimes involving people as goods generally fall into two categories: human trafficking and smuggling. While the activities are similar and may overlap, they are distinct. Human smuggling involves individuals paying for covert or illicit transportation, across one or more borders. They are free to leave at their destination or may be able to part ways with the smugglers en route if they wish. Individuals who participate in smuggling are usually migrants seeking to enter a new country without documentation, or people seeking to avoid official attention or a record of their entry into (or exit from) another country ( McAdam & Baumeister, 2010 ).

Human trafficking involves

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation ( United Nations General Assembly, 2000 ).

In essence, trafficked individuals are not free to leave, even if they entered into the arrangement voluntarily ( McAdam & Baumeister, 2010 ). While the majority of trafficking occurs across borders, domestic human trafficking—for the purposes of sex, domestic, and other forms of labor—represents approximately 25% of human trafficking ( United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2012 ). Humans are “durable goods” and represent consistent revenue for illicit organizations. Forced prostitution and sex work are the most widely known aspects of trafficked labor, but sectors like childcare, household cleaning, construction, fishing, or farming are all major destinations for trafficked persons. In addition to producing a profit through their labor or sale, they may also be used as fighters or support staff for terrorist groups. Beyond their labor, trafficked people may be used as “rewards” for loyalty or bravery from terrorist group members. One high-profile example of this dynamic was the enslavement of Yazidi women by ISIS beginning in 2014 ( Vale, 2020 ). Further complicating the issue, smuggled and trafficked people may move along the same routes, by the same facilitators, even in the same shipment.

Intersections Between Transnational Organized Crime and Terrorism

In some contexts, diversifying into transnational crime contributes to a terrorist group’s overall mission. The operational emphasis largely centers on charity groups being used to funnel monies to terrorist groups, a weight that continues today to the exclusion of other sources. It is important to differentiate monies that begin from licit sources and are diverted into terrorist control from funds that originate from illicit activities, because the policy implications and community impacts are significantly different. Terrorist group funding supports direct financial benefitsdistribution to constituent populations, as well as the provision of jobs or social services. Groups can further their goal of political disruption by diverting funds that would otherwise go to the government, particularly in the cases of natural resource theft and tax extortion. By capturing these funds, the terrorist organization effectively reduces the governmental means to fund counterterrorism efforts or fulfill the social contract. Resource diversion in fragile states is particularly harmful: Rai found that the most vulnerable countries to terrorism operate at a $3 trillion to $5 trillion infrastructure deficit, a gap that terrorist groups and disruptive actors actively exploit and increase ( 2017 ). Terrorist groups that disrupt state capacity also reduce legitimacy, worsening the degree of fragility and making the state more vulnerable to illicit capture.

Funding source diversification has become exponentially more important to terrorist groups in the post–9/11 strategic environment, as both international law and financial regulators catch up to “traditional” methods of financing ( Brisard & Martinez, 2014 ). Illicit activity is a huge potential revenue stream, and it makes intuitive sense that terrorist groups would explore existing criminal opportunities in their area of operation. In 2018 , the largest portion of terrorist illicit funds came from the drug trade, followed closely by oil, gasoline, and diesel smuggling ( Nellemann et al., 2018 ). Regional differences alter the proportion of funding streams, but in addition to drugs and fuel, terrorist groups also earn money through taxation/extortion, kidnapping for ransom, human trafficking, arms smuggling, commodities smuggling, and antiquities trafficking. Beyond the direct harm caused by transnational crime, such criminal economies can create an economic incentive for terrorist groups to continue hostilities and resist demobilization ( Cornell, 2007 ).

Greed Versus Grievance Debate

One of the primary justifications for separating transnational organized crime and terrorism linkages is the theorized tension between “greed” (profit motive) and “grievance” (social or ideological motives), a concept borrowed from work by Collier and Hoeffler on civil wars ( 2004 ). In this greed-grievance debate, criminal groups are assumed to be “greedy” actors: largely rational, cost-benefit motivated groups who make operational and organizational choices based on financial considerations. In Hoeffler’s words, criminal groups are “private” actors, interested in personal gain rather than the public good created by government transition ( 2011 ). Terrorist groups, in contrast, are understood as “grievance” actors, who pursue actions based on their ideological or social visions and are ultimately interested in the “public good” of their desired social and political system. Based on these apparently conflicting motivations, it seems unlikely that the two types of groups would work effectively together over the long term.

This presumed divergence undergirds most work conducted before 2001 , and a good deal of the policy literature produced in the early years of the 21st century . However, as the field of terrorism studies attracted more attention in the years following September 11, 2001 , the academic community began to challenge this assumption. In 2004 , Makarenko (2004) argued that the relationship between criminals and terrorists should be more appropriately understood as a spectrum, in which both types of groups learn and adapt based on lessons learned from each other and incorporate the other’s behaviors into their organization. The supposed greed versus grievance debate breaks down further when logistical constraints imposed by stringent terrorism financing measures are considered: some terrorist groups quite literally cannot afford to have moralistic views on illicit activities. Finally, the greed versus grievance cleavage overlooks the human ability to balance competing aims. Criminals can hold political and social views and work to shape their communities like citizens with licit employment, just as terrorist organizations can seek both personal enrichment and political change ( Hutchinson & O’Malley, 2007 ).

Political Activities by Criminal Groups

Political scientists have historically focused on the terrorism side of the crime-terror equation. This imbalance is due to several factors. First, disciplinary boundaries and security studies frameworks steer researchers toward actors with explicitly political goals. Second, it has seemed far less common for criminal groups to diversify into sustained political violence, particularly at an organizational level. Finally, disagreements about “methods or motives” classifications have siloed some of the research, among both academics and policymakers ( Shelley & Picarelli, 2002 ). However, a growing body of scholarship is seeking to address the use of political violence by criminal groups gap ( Phillips, 2018 ). Crime-terror and criminal governance researchers are coming together to build a broader understanding of the political diversification of criminal groups, with a strong emphasis on drug trafficking organizations, particularly those in Latin America ( Blume, 2017 ; Longmire & Longmire, 2008 ; Phillips, 2018 ; Trejo & Ley, 2020 , 2021 ). As a result, criminal political violence is most commonly characterized as a function of “narco-terrorism,” a term first applied to Peru’s Sendero Luminoso in the 1980s ( Shelley, 2014 ). Criminal groups actively seek to influence the political context in which they operate, and some criminal groups do use terrorist tactics to advance their organizational interests. A small number develop broader political ambitions. However, while criminal groups may leverage terrorist tactics, they do not seem to seek wholesale control of the state as terrorist groups do and show willingness to rely on indirect means like corruption and intimidation to coopt state actors.

Violence against political systems and representatives by criminal groups is usually understood as a method to incentivize the state to “leave [them] alone” and allow them to carry out profit seeking activities ( Phillips, 2018 ). Less central is the desire to provide governance benefits, though in some instances criminal groups enforce both formal and informal institutions within their areas of operation ( Feldmann & Mantilla, 2021 ). In keeping with the desire for the state to stay out of their way, political contestation may be violent, but the scope is narrow. Thus, the most common terrorist tactic employed by criminal groups is targeted violence against highly visible individuals. Trejo and Ley (2021) argued that terroristic political assassination is an avenue for criminal groups to consolidate the territorial control necessary for licit and illicit market control, resource extraction through extortion, and establishing a criminal monopoly. They suggested that organized crime (specifically Mexican drug cartels) uses targeted attacks to establish governance regimes, with limited territorial aims.

Types of Relationships

Relationships between criminal and terrorist groups vary greatly across time, space, and organization. They range from transitory to deep enmeshment. Just as there are a range of relationships, so too are there a range of disruption responses, ways to study group interactions, and opportunities to engage with involved actors. Relationships can be conceptualized on a spectrum ( Makarenko, 2004 ), beginning with “ad hoc” before moving to continuing, diversified, and converging dynamics.

Ad Hoc Relationships

The lowest level of interaction between transnational organized crime and terrorism can be characterized as “ad hoc” relationships: interactions or exchanges of goods and services designed to fulfill a specific need. This may be purchasing a falsified passport for a terrorist operative from a counterfeiting ring or paying a terrorist group for the right to transit goods through their area of influence in the same way legitimate businesses pay customs dues to state governments. Examples of this type of relationship abound, but one of the most consistent is the purchase and use of counterfeit documents, as exemplified by Ahmed Ressam, the “Millennium Bomber,” who used both fake French and Canadian passports at various points in his activities ( Hewitt, 2008 ). Hutchinson and O’Malley (2007) argued that ad hoc relationships are the most common because while groups do cooperate based on need, interactions are generally limited for several reasons. Firstly, transnational organized crime groups would rationally perceive terrorist organizations as either a rival or a liability. Further, participating in political violence would be risky business for organized crime, as introducing grievance logics into a “greedy” organization would make the group less profitable and make leadership vulnerable to internal dissent and betrayal. In the same way, incorporating profit motivations into a group with “pure” grievance causes would increase vulnerability to ideological erosion, corruption, and loss of moral legitimacy. For terrorist groups, the loss of externally perceived legitimacy could be particularly devastating—insurgency requires a significant popular support for fighters to remain ahead of government prosecution, a concern shared by terrorist groups ( Tse-tung, 2005 ). Further, the centrality of profit motivation could make it more likely that criminals would betray their terrorist counterparts to the authorities in exchange for a payout. Therefore, terrorist groups may seek out the assistance of criminal groups for specific benefits or in situations where criminal groups dominate the relevant illicit market, but only in situations where cooperation will not compromise political aims ( Hutchinson & O’Malley, 2007 ).

Continuing Relationships

Continuing relationships are often built on ad hoc foundations, where organizations find they need the services of the other group type more consistently than a one-off exchange. Examples of these types of interactions include terrorists paying off powerful criminal groups for the right to create a “safe haven” in their territory or regularly buying guns for their fighters from a trafficking ring. Alternatively, continuing relationships may involve criminal groups paying “taxes” for the right to operate within an area controlled by a terrorist group, as Colombian cocaine cartels did to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia in the 1990s and early 2000s ( Freeman, 2016 ). Finally, continuing relationships include those where the two network types “exchange” criminal assistance, as Italian organized crime did by trafficking arms for North African terrorist groups, in exchange for help for their narcotics trafficking enterprise ( Makarenko & Mesquita, 2014 ). Shelley and Picarelli (2002) argued that both criminal and terrorist groups operate using a network of “loosely organized cells” to maximize operational security and flexibility (p. 307), a format that lends itself to both ad hoc and continuing relationships as individual cells can cooperate based on their specific operational needs. Unsurprisingly, ad hoc and continuing relationships are the most common type of the crime-terrorism nexus in states with developed and sophisticated law enforcement capabilities because they are the most resilient to disruption ( Makarenko & Mesquita, 2014 ).

Diversification

Diversification seems to be most commonly an evolutionary response for terrorist groups squeezed by resource constraints. Pursuing criminal activity can be a reaction to a loss of revenue from another source and so may result from factors like more stringent government counterterrorist financing measures, or the loss of a major sponsor (both private individuals and states). An example of this need-based diversification can be seen in the 1970s Northern Ireland conflict, when the Irish Republican Army (IRA) began “smuggling livestock, cars, and weapons; running protection and extortion rackets; managing underground brothels; orchestrating prison breaks; bank robbery, tax evasion, and construction fraud” in response to losing diaspora funding from increased U.S. law enforcement ( Hamm, 2007 , p. 6). Diversification may also be prompted by the recognition of the benefits of bringing certain criminal capabilities “in house,” thereby eliminating the need for (and vulnerability posed by) relationships with external criminal organizations. Finally, it may also be a result of the increased recruitment of individuals with criminal histories and skills; rank-and-file members may continue to “freelance” while participating in terrorist activities, or leadership may recognize that new recruits represent a new resource and incorporate criminal activities at the organizational level ( Basra & Neumann, 2017 ).

Diversification is similar to continuing relationships in that it involves a more consistent incorporation of opposite-type activities but differs because skills are developed within an organization, rather than presenting as a relationship between two groups. It is distinct from convergence because the diversifying group does not try to balance criminal and political goals; rather, it remains primarily interested in its original mission set. Often diversification for terrorist groups involves seeking the financial benefit of low-priority crimes like cigarette smuggling or intellectual property theft ( Shelley, 2014 ). For example, Boko Haram fighters might traffic and consume tramadol or trade illicitly mined gold, but the group is uninterested in balancing these activities with its larger political aims at the organizational level ( Ogbonnaya, 2020 ; Santacroce et al., 2018 ). For criminal groups, diversification may be prompted by increased competition, either between other criminal groups or from the state. Continued political violence may serve to create or maintain the operational space needed to carry out illicit activities.

Convergence

The merger of criminal groups with terrorist organizations is something of an ahistorical policy bogeyman—much discussed, greatly feared, but (so far) mythical. However, there have been instances of terrorist organizations broadening their strategic interests so completely as to become a transnational criminal enterprise ( Makarenko & Mesquita, 2014 ). Often, convergence is a criminal or terrorist group and may be more appropriately understood as an organization shifting toward governance rather than disruption. Asal et al. (2019) found that insurgent groups that are older and control territory are more likely to diversify into crime, particularly those activities that require building and maintaining physical and administrative infrastructure (like extortion and drugs), as compared to newer organizations. Thus, convergence may be an indicator of a terrorist group “ending” by transitioning to insurgency or devolving into another violence type ( Cronin, 2011 ).

Both diversification and convergence are most common in states experiencing endemic conflict, with weak or nonexistent institutions. It may be more helpful to conceptualize convergence as the relationship moving from distinct organizations into interwoven networks, where individuals are characterized less by in-group identity and more by specific skill sets. One recent example of convergence is the Islamic State (IS). The size and scope of the Islamic State’s area of territorial control made it the wealthiest terrorist group in world history; the group controlled around 34,000 square miles (an area the size of Maine) and earned an estimated $2.9 billion annually, allowing it to be effectively self-sustaining ( Brisard & Martinez, 2014 ; Carter Center Syria Project, 2019 ). IS earns its money through kidnap and ransom, protection money, forced taxation/extortion, oil smuggling, political corruption, and the seizure of existing banks and financial institutions in its area of control ( Brisard & Martinez, 2014 ; Warrick, 2018 ). IS benefits from having a strong organizational structure and experience managing logistics and financial issues that make the group well suited to “converge.”

Enabling Conditions

Often the broader contexts that allow transnational crime and terrorism to flourish are underappreciated in both the academic literature and policy solutions. In part, this is due to scale—Where does one stop when assigning causality? Solving endemic poverty and exclusionary political systems would undoubtably stabilize vulnerable regions and sectors, but such initiatives are often outside the scope of the agencies tasked with disrupting crime-terror intersections. However, there are some variables that significantly increase potential vulnerabilities, expansions, or evolutions because of their enabling capacity and that should be included in any solution or analysis of crime-terror linkages. These include corruption, global illicit flows, state fragility, and lootable resources.

Corruption—the misuse of public office through the giving or withholding of an advantage by a public official—facilitates a variety of disruptive activities, including transnational organized crime and terrorism ( UNTOC, 2000 ). Corruption enables both profit and logistical support activities for illicit groups, even in geographic areas that are not operational targets. For terrorist groups, corruption can create a “policy window” through which they can position themselves as a legitimate alternative to existing institutions, a way to circumvent investigations or prosecutions, and an opportunity for kinetic attacks ( Shelley, 2014 ). Purely criminal groups also benefit from corruption. This connection is more widely acknowledged; under the UNTOC for example, corruption is recognized as a key condition of transnational organized crime, and signatories to the accord must adopt domestic legislation criminalizing corruption ( UNTOC, 2000 ). For groups that combine profit-motivated illicit activities with political disruption, corrupt officials and institutions are key enablers of their continued success.

Illicit Financial Flows

Illicit financial flows, defined as “money that is illegally earned, transferred, or utilized” (Issues: Illicit Financial Flows), inhibit a state’s ability to raise, retain, and invest domestic resources ( Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2016 ). Examples of these kinds of flows include funds with criminal origins (such as the proceeds of a crime), funds with a criminal destination (such as bribery, terrorist financing, or conflict financing), commercial tax evasion, mis-invoicing of consumer goods, and the trafficking of humans or goods. Illicit flows are also transfers to, by, or for entities subject to financial sanctions under UN Security Council Resolutions and transfers that seek to evade anti–money laundering or counterterrorism financing measures ( OECD and UNODC, 2016 ). 2 Monies that should have been invested into local populations are diverted, bypassing currency controls, tax regulations, and law enforcement oversight. While illicit flows have a clear relationship with criminal groups, they also directly intersect with terrorist group capability: illicit flows gift terrorist groups with improved “freedom of action” and widen the scope of both tactical and strategic considerations ( Comolli, 2018 ). Tracking and limiting illicit financial flows is challenging because they occur within the larger global financial system.

Fragile States

Fragile states are countries with low capacity and legitimacy, poor provision of public goods, weak institutions, uneven governance, and an anemic social contract between the state and citizen ( Miraglia et al., 2012 ; USAID, 2005 ). Some are caught in cycles of internal violence and all experience high levels of criminality, making them vulnerable to penetration by illicit actors. Fragile states cannot project power throughout their whole territory, creating governance vacuums transnational organized crime and terrorist groups can exploit. Thus, fragile states act as safe havens and areas of cooperation, even for groups that are not permanently located there. They also serve the important function of logistical nodes that allow shipments of illicit goods to be “laundered” during their movement from origin to market country ( Miraglia et al., 2012 ). Fragile states often are collocated with other enabling conditions such as corruption and lootable resources.

Lootable Resources

Beyond “traditional” illicit goods like firearms and people, terrorist and criminal groups also exploit natural resources. Lootable resources, or natural assets that are highly profitable and easy to sell, have been extensively linked to nonstate actor violence and civil conflicts ( Cheng, 2018 ; Findley & Marineau, 2015 ; Fortna et al., 2018 ). They may even act as direct drivers for terrorist activity: Fortna et al. found that because such funding sources reduce the need for violent nonstate actors to rely on domestic populations for support, groups are more likely to turn to terrorism ( 2018 ). Examples of such goods include diamonds, timber, oil, and drugs. Lootable resources extend conflict duration, increase other enabling factors like corruption, and make it more likely that third-party states will intervene in the conflict ( Fearon, 2004 ; Findley & Marineau, 2015 ). While entering the market for these goods is “easy” for illicit actors because of the high level of demand and unevenly regulated international marketplaces, it still requires criminal knowledge and capability, making lootable resources a major intersection point for transnational crime and terrorism.

Responding to Terrorism and Transnational Organized Crime

Responses to transnational crime and terrorism have historically been uneven, both geographically and politically. Most interventions have focused on the developing world and been executed through state and military actors. This pattern occurs because Global North countries generally prefer to disrupt illicit networks “over there,” without applying equivalent effort to their own role as facilitators, perpetrators, and markets. By externalizing the threat, and by consistently framing themselves as “markets” where problematic products and political activity are sent, they reduce the need to examine domestic policies and dynamics. However, demand is key, and responses must account for underlying and enabling conditions that allow crime-terror relationships to emerge and evolve.

There are some actionable steps both domestic governments and international institutions can pursue that would make the escalation of the relationship less successful. Any efforts to respond to terrorist-crime linkages must be a “whole government” approach that includes actors and departments that are not traditionally understood to have a counterterrorism mission because they have unique strengths and leverage over a multifaceted problem. Further, states can treat large terrorist groups with major financial assets like states by sanctioning linked businesses and pushing them out of the international monetary system. Terrorist groups are less successful at illicit activity than professional criminals, which provides an opportunity for interdiction and disruption ( Irwin et al., 2012 ). Continued cooperation and government oversight of anti–money laundering efforts increases the likelihood that illicit financial activity would be detected. Effective, high-profile prosecution of corruption would also pay significant dividends by making the operational environment less hospitable to illicit actors.

Part of the policy challenge is that international law enforcement does not functionally exist. While there are many cooperative agreements between individual states, and WEIRD countries can pursue unilateral intervention in developing countries, sovereignty dictates there is no independent global police force. Investigation, prosecution, and disruption efforts are centered on the tails of the criminal-terrorist bell curve: high profile leaders like Pablo Escobar or Osama Bin Ladin, or on rank-and-file members who may have sought to traffic illicit arms across the Sahel or travel to join al-Nusra in Syria. The heart of the relationship, however, is the middle management of both group types. Challenging some of the precepts of Westphalian sovereignty by developing a more robust structure for international investigation and prosecution may be an effective response to disincentivizing crime-terror relationships. This would also help to mitigate the “safe haven” challenge of uneven state capabilities.

Disrupting trafficking routes serves to inhibit both operational and logistical aims of violent nonstate actors. States, professional bodies, and international organizations have the power to require consistent documentation requirements for goods, or at least the most abused commodities like precious minerals, oil, or timber. Another avenue of disruption is in the increased scrutiny of nonintuitive shipments, specifically a closer examination of goods being shipped by companies with no history or logical need to trade in such goods or using inappropriate methods of transport ( Delston & Walls, 2009 ).

Looking Ahead

Both transnational criminals and terrorist networks are innovative, adaptive types of organizations, and it makes intuitive sense that they would pioneer new ways of circumventing obstacles. However, while the intersection may be inevitable, integration is not. Not all terrorist groups will have the opportunity or inclination to diversify or ally with transnational criminal networks. As proto-state actors seeking to demonstrate their “qualifications” as governance actors, some groups will eschew or even attack criminal groups. Others lack a criminal infrastructure in their area of operation to link up with; this is particularly true for areas characterized by illicit activities with low labor requirements. Finally, still others will determine that such associations would bring unnecessary scrutiny by domestic and international law enforcement. From the criminal side, many of the same logics apply: some transnational criminal groups avoid significant or lasting relationships with terrorist groups because of concerns regarding official scrutiny. Others may be engaged in breaking domestic and international laws but have strong political preferences or affiliations and do not want the existing government overthrown ( Hutchinson & O’Malley, 2007 ). A desire for governmental stability may also be a function of logistical concerns—if you have already bought the judge (or customs officials, border guards, prison staff, etc.), shooting them is counterproductive and bad business.

To effectively develop workable solutions, policymakers, academics, and law enforcement must confront the reality that globalization is not an unmitigated good. Greater international integration, increased technology, and the dramatically increased flows of goods and people makes everything move more easily, which includes criminality and political violence. WEIRD countries must acknowledge their role as demand markets and financial havens that “pull” illicit flows of criminal funds and goods out of the developing world, creating an unintentional revenue stream for violent nonstate actors.

As avenues for terrorism financing continue to constrict and state governments in the developing world gain capacity, intersections between transnational criminal groups and terrorist organizations will persist. Those interested in disruption need to think long and hard about how to address the challenges of sovereignty in a world that currently (and necessarily) extends the protections of borders to actors who circumvent them with ease.

Further Reading

  • Ahmad, A. (2017). Jihad & Co.: Black markets and Islamist power . Oxford University Press.
  • Dishman, C. (2005). The leaderless nexus: When crime and terror converge . Studies in Conflict and Terrorism , 28 (3), 237–252.
  • Felbab-Brown, V. (2019). The crime–terror nexus and its fallacies . In E. Chenoweth , R. English , A. Gofas , & S. Kalyvas (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of terrorism (pp. 365–382). Oxford University Press.
  • Lessing, B. (2018). Making peace in drug wars: Crackdowns and cartels in Latin America . Cambridge University Press.
  • Petrich, K. (2019). Cows, charcoal, and cocaine: Al-Shabaab’s criminal activities in the Horn of Africa . Studies in Conflict & Terrorism , 45 (5–6), 479–500.
  • Sanderson, T. (2004). Transnational terror and organized crime: Blurring the lines . SAIS Review of International Affairs , 24 (1), 49–61.
  • Traughber, C. (2007). Terror-crime nexus? Terrorism and arms, drug, and human trafficking in Georgia . Connections , 6 (1), 47–64.
  • Wang, P. (2010). The crime-terror nexus: Transformation, alliance, convergence . Asian Social Science , 6 (6), 11–20.
  • Albanese, J. (2011). Organized crime in our times . Elsevier.
  • Aliu, M. , Bektashi, M. , Sahiti, A. , & Sahiti, A. (2017). A review of sources on terrorist financing. Juridica , 13 (1), 97–108.
  • Allum, F. , & S. Gilmour , (Eds.). (2022). The Routledge handbook of transnational organized crime . Routledge.
  • Andreas, P. , & Greenhill, K. (2010). Sex, drugs, and body counts: The politics of numbers in global crime and conflict . Cornell University Press.
  • Asal, A. , Rethemeyer, R. , & Schoon, E. (2019). Crime, conflict and the legitimacy trade-off: Explaining variation in insurgents’ Participation in Crime . Journal of Politics , 81 (2), 399–410.
  • Basra, R. , & Neumann, P. (2017). Crime as Jihad: Developments in the crime-terror nexus in Europe . CTC Sentinel , 10 (9), 1–6.
  • Blume, L. (2017). The old rules no longer apply: Explaining narco-assassinations of Mexican politicians . Journal of Politics in Latin America , 9 (1), 59–90.
  • Boister, N. , & Currie, R. J. (2014). Routledge handbook of transnational criminal law . Routledge.
  • Brisard, J. C. , & Martinez, D. (2014). Islamic State: The economy-based terrorist funding . Thomson Reuters Accelus.
  • Carter Center Syria Project . (2019). A review of ISIS in Syria: 2016–2019 (pp. 1–22). The Carter Center.
  • Chaliand, G. , & Blin, A. (2016). Zealots and assassins . In G. Chaliand (Ed.), The history of terrorism (pp. 55–78). University of California Press.
  • Cheng, C. (2018). Extralegal groups in post-conflict Liberia: How trade makes the state . Oxford University Press.
  • Coggins, B. L. (2015). Does state failure cause terrorism? An empirical analysis (1999–2008) . Journal of Conflict Resolution , 59 (3), 455–483.
  • Collier, P. , & Hoeffler, A. (2004). Greed and grievance in civil war . Oxford Economic Papers , 56 (4), 563–595.
  • Comolli, V. (Ed.). (2018). Organized crime and illicit trade: How to respond to this strategic challenge in old and new domains . Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Cornell, S. E. (2007). Narcotics and armed conflict: Interaction and implications . Studies in Conflict & Terrorism , 30 (3), 207–227.
  • Cronin, A. (2011). How terrorism ends: Understanding the decline and demise of terrorist campaigns . Princeton University Press.
  • Delston, R. S. , & Walls, S. C. (2009). Reaching beyond banks: How to target trade-based money laundering and terrorist financing outside the financial sector. Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law , 41 (1), 85–118.
  • Fearon, J. D. (2004). Why do some civil wars last so much longer than others? Journal of Peace Research , 41 (3), 275–301.
  • Feldmann, A. , & Mantilla, J. (2021). Criminal governance in Latin America. In H. Pontell (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice . (pp. 1–25). Oxford University Press.
  • Findley, M. G. , & Marineau, J. F. (2015). Lootable resources and third-party intervention into civil wars . Conflict Management and Peace Science , 32 (5), 465–486.
  • Fortna, V. P. , Lotito, N. J. , & Rubin, M. A. (2018). Don’t bite the hand that feeds: Rebel funding sources and the use of terrorism in civil wars . International Studies Quarterly , 62 (4), 782–794.
  • Freeman, M. (2016). Financing terrorism: Case studies . Routledge.
  • Ganor, B. (2002). Defining terrorism: Is one man’s terrorist another man’s freedom fighter? Police Practice and Research , 3 (4), 287–304.
  • Hamm, M. (2007). Terrorism As Crime: From Oklahoma City to Al-Qaeda and Beyond . New York University Press.
  • Henrich, J. , Heine, S. J. , & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences , 33 (2–3), 61–83.
  • Hewitt, S. (2008). ‘Strangely Easy to Obtain’: Canadian Passport Security, 1933–73 . Intelligence and National Security 23 (3), 381-405.
  • Hoeffler, A. (2011). “Greed” versus “grievance”: A useful conceptual distinction in the study of civil war? Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism , 11 (2), 274–284.
  • Hutchinson, S. , & O’Malley, P. (2007). A Crime-Terror Nexus? Thinking on some of the links between terrorism and criminality . Studies in Conflict and Terrorism , 30 (12), 1095–1107.
  • Irwin, A. S. M. , Choo, K. K. R. , & Liu, L. (2012). An analysis of money laundering and terrorism financing typologies . Journal of Money Laundering Control , 15 (1), 85–111.
  • Issues: Illicit Financial Flows . (2015, November 2). Illicit Financial Flows .
  • Kenner, D. (2019, March 24). All ISIS has left is money. Lots of it . The Atlantic .
  • Laqueur, W. (2001). A history of terrorism . Transaction.
  • Longmire, S. , & Longmire, J. (2008). Redefining terrorism: Why Mexican drug trafficking is more than just organized crime . Journal of Strategic Security , 1 (1), 35–52.
  • Makarenko, T. (2004). The crime-terror continuum: Tracing the interplay between transnational organised crime and terrorism . Global Crime , 6 (1), 129–145.
  • Makarenko, T. , & Mesquita, M. (2014). Categorising the crime–terror nexus in the European Union . Global Crime , 15 (3–4), 259–274.
  • Marsh, N. , & Pinson, L. (2021). Arms trafficking . In M. Gallien & F. Weigard (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of smuggling (pp. 213–227). Routledge.
  • McAdam, M. , & Baumeister, S. (2010). A short introduction to migrant smuggling (pp. 1–29) [Issue Paper]. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
  • Miraglia, P. , Ochoa, R. , & Briscoe, I. (2012). Transnational organised crime and fragile states (WP 5/2012). Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
  • Mueller, J. , & Stewart, M. G. (2018). Terrorism and bathtubs: Comparing and assessing the risks . Terrorism and Political Violence , 33 (1), 138–163.
  • National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) . (2019). Global Terrorism Database (GTD) codebook .
  • Nellemann, C. , Henriksen, R. , Pravettoni, R. , Stewart, D. , Kotsovou, M. , Schlingemann, M. A. J. , Shaw, M. , & Reitano, T. (Eds.). (2018). World atlas of illicit flows . INTERPOL, RHIPTO, & the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
  • Ogbonnaya, M. (2020). Illegal mining and rural banditry in North West Nigeria (pp. 1–12) [Policy Brief]. ENACT Africa.
  • Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime . (2016). Coherent policies for combatting illicit financial flows [Issue Brief],. Inter-Agency Task Force on Financing for Development.
  • Phillips, B. (2018). Terrorist tactics by criminal organizations: The mexican case in context . Perspectives on Terrorism , 12 (1), 46–63.
  • Picarelli, J. (2012). Osama bin Corleone? Vito the Jackal? Framing threat convergence through an examination of transnational organized crime and international terrorism . Terrorism and Political Violence 24 (2), 180–198.
  • Rai, S. (2017). The spectre of illicit financial flows: Undermining justice . Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, (p. 26).
  • Reed, Q. , & Fontana, A. (2011). Corruption and illicit financial flows . [U4 Issue], Chr. Michelsen Institute.
  • Ritchie, H. , Hasell, J. , Appel, C. , & Roser, M. (2019). Terrorism . Our World in Data.
  • Santacroce, R. , Bosio, E. , Scioneri, V. , & Mignone, M. (2018). The new drugs and the sea: The phenomenon of narco-terrorism . International Journal of Drug Policy , 51 , 67–68.
  • Saul, B. (2019). Defining terrorism: A conceptual minefield . In E. Chenoweth , R. English , A. Gofas , & S. N. Kalyvas (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of terrorism (pp. 33–49). Oxford University Press.
  • Schmid, A. P. (2018). Revisiting the relationship between international terrorism and transnational organised crime 22 years later . [ICCT Research Paper], International Centre for Counter-Terrorism.
  • Schneier, B. (2008, April 3). The difference between feeling and reality in security . Wired .
  • Shelley, L. (2005). The unholy trinity: Transnational crime, corruption, and terrorism . Brown Journal of World Affairs , 11 (2), 101–111.
  • Shelley, L. (2014). Dirty entanglements: Corruption, crime, and terrorism . Cambridge University Press.
  • Shelley, L. , & Picarelli, J. (2002). Methods not motives: Implications of the convergence of international organized crime and terrorism . Police Practice and Research , 3 (4), 305–318.
  • Silke, A. (1998). In defense of the realm: Financing loyalist terrorism in Northern Ireland—Part one: Extortion and blackmail . Studies in Conflict & Terrorism , 21 (4), 331–361.
  • Trejo, G. , & Ley, S. (2021). High-profile criminal violence: Why drug cartels murder government officials and party candidates in Mexico . British Journal of Political Science , 51 (1), 203–229.
  • Trejo, G. & Ley, S. (2020). Votes, Drugs, and Violence: The Political Logic of Criminal Wars in Mexico . Cambridge University Press.
  • Tse-tung, M. (2005). On guerrilla warfare ( S. B. Griffith , Trans.). University of Illinois Press.
  • United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime . (2000). United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols Thereto (UNTOC), General Assembly Resolution 55/25 .
  • United Nations General Assembly . (2000). Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime .
  • United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime . (2012). Global report on trafficking in persons, 2012 .
  • United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime . (2021). World drug report 2021 .
  • USAID . (2005). The USAID Fragile States Assessment Framework (pp. 1–40).
  • Vale, G. (2020). Liberated, not free: Yazidi women after Islamic State captivity . Small Wars & Insurgencies , 31 (3), 511–539.
  • Van Dijk, T. , & Spapens, T. (2013). Transnational crime networks across the world. In J. Albanese & P. Reichel (Eds.), Transnational organized crime: An overview from six continents . SAGE.
  • Warrick, J. (2018, December 21). Retreating ISIS army smuggled a fortune in cash and gold out of Iraq and Syria . The Washington Post .
  • Williams, P. (1994). Transnational criminal organisations and international security . Survival , 36 (1), 96–113.

1. WEIRD stands for Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic states and has been suggested as an alternative to problematic terms like “First World” or “developed,” which suggest some countries are more evolved or have reached a completed stage, rather than remaining dynamic entities.

2. It is important to note that illicit flows are distinct from informal flows, which include legitimate international monetary transfers (usually remittances from workers abroad to families at home) which may not transit through a formal bank ( Reed & Fontana, 2011 ). Informal flows can be made illicit, however, by the involvement of terrorist or criminal actors. For example, one of the ways ISIS both makes and integrates money is by transforming informal flows into illicit flows. The group reportedly manages millions of dollars in hawala transactions every week ( Kenner, 2019 ). In the case of ISIS, participation in hawala allows it to circumvent international sanctions, Syria’s collapsed formal banking industry, and external scrutiny, in addition to serving as a revenue stream.

Related Articles

  • Crime: The Illicit Global Political Economy
  • International Organization and Terrorism

Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, International Studies. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 12 March 2024

  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal Notice
  • Accessibility
  • [66.249.64.20|81.177.182.174]
  • 81.177.182.174

Character limit 500 /500

Foreign Policy Research Institute

A nation must think before it acts.

Foreign Policy Research Institute

  • America and the West
  • Middle East
  • National Security
  • Central Asia
  • China & Taiwan
  • Expert Commentary
  • Directory of Scholars
  • Press Contact
  • Upcoming Events
  • People, Politics, and Prose
  • Briefings, Booktalks, and Conversations
  • The Benjamin Franklin Award
  • Event and Lecture Archive
  • Intern Corner
  • Simulations
  • Our Mission
  • Board of Trustees
  • Board of Advisors
  • Research Programs
  • Audited Financials
  • PA Certificate of Charitable Registration
  • Become a Partner
  • Corporate Partnership Program

Terrorism and Politics

  • Barry Rubin
  • June 1, 1991

Few things are as frustrating to governments as the inability to deal effectively with terrorism. Throughout the recent decade, poignant images of terrorist actions have pervaded news reports, state-sponsored terrorism continues to be documented, and the safety of ordinary citizens remains threatened by the risk of terrorist actions against international air travel. “The Politics of Terrorism”, written by scholars at the Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute, Washington, DC, examines the urgent problems of terrorist activity and provides new material on key issues. Highlighted in this book are military and diplomatic efforts to counter terrorism, both in the West and in Israel, the country most often identified as using counterterrorist operations successfully. Diplomatic efforts in the UN and elsewhere are detailed here, as are the effects of terrorism that is allowed to continue unabated. Finally, the most pressing terrorist threat – the issue of airline safety – is examined in detail.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Computational techniques to counter terrorism: a systematic survey

  • Published: 03 June 2023
  • Volume 83 , pages 1189–1214, ( 2024 )

Cite this article

  • Jaspal Kaur Saini 1 &
  • Divya Bansal 2  

242 Accesses

2 Citations

Explore all metrics

Terrorist Network Analysis (TNA) is the field of analyzing and defining the scope of terrorism and researching the countermeasures in order to handle exponentially increasing threats due to ever growing terrorist based activities. This field constitutes several sub-domains such as crawling the data about terrorist attacks/groups, classification, behavioral, and predictive analysis. In this paper we present a systematic review of TNA which includes study of different terrorist groups and attack characteristics, use of online social networks, machine learning techniques and data mining tools in order to counter terrorism. Our survey is divided into three sections of TNA: Data Collection, Analysis Approaches and Future Directions. Each section highlights the major research achievements in order to present active use of research methodology to counter terrorism. Furthermore, the metrics used for TNA analysis have been thoroughly studied and identified. The paper has been written with an intent of providing all the necessary background to the researchers who plan to carry out similar studies in this emerging field of TNA. Our contributions to TNA field are with respect to effective utilization of computational techniques of data mining, machine learning, online social networks, and highlighting the research gaps and challenges in various sub domains.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

terrorist organizations research paper topics

Abbasi A, Chen H (2005) Analysis to extremist- messages. Intell Syst IEEE 20(5):67–75

Article   Google Scholar  

Agrawal R, Srikant R (1994) Fast algorithms for mining association rules. Proc 20th int conf very large data bases, VLDB. vol 1215

Allanach J, Tu H, Singh S, Willett P, Pattipati K (2004) Detecting, tracking, and counteracting terrorist networks via hidden markov models. In: IEEE Aerospace Conference, pp 3246–3257

Allister D, Ipung HP, Nugroho SA (2010) Text classification techniques used to faciliate cyber terrorism investigation. In: 2nd International conference on advances in computing, control, and telecommunication technologies

Apollo Social Sensing Toolkit (2020) [Online]. Available: http://apollo2.cs.illinois.edu/index.html

Archetti F, Djordjevic D, Giordani I, Sormani R, Tisato F (2014) A reasoning approach for modelling and predicting terroristic attacks in urban environments. In: Security Technology (ICCST), 2014, pp 1–6

Asongu SA, Orim S-MI, Nting RT (2019) Terrorism and social media: global evidence. J Global Inf Technol Manag 22.3:208–228

Google Scholar  

AutoMap: Project — CASOS (2016) [Online]. Available: http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/projects/automap/ . [Accessed: 08 May 2016]

Baraldi A, Blonda P (1999) A survey of fuzzy clustering algorithms for pattern recognition. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern Part B 29(6):778–785

Berzinji A, Abdullah FS, Kakei AH (2003) Analysis of terrorist groups on facebook. In: 2013 European intelligence and security informatics conference analysis, p 7695

Best DM, Northwest P (2015) Clique: Situational awareness. IT Prof 117(August):66–68

Bhattacharyya S, Jha S, Tharakunnel K, Westland JC (2011) Data mining for credit card fraud: A comparative study. Decis Support Syst 50(3):602–613

BioWar: Project — CASOS (2016) [Online]. Available: http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/projects/biowar/ . [Accessed: 08 May 2016]

Brajawidagda U, Reddick CG, Chatfield AT (2016) Social media and urban resilience: A case study of the 2016 Jakarta terror attack. In: Proceedings of the 17th International digital government research conference on digital government research

Brynielsson J, Sharma R (2015) Detectability of low-rate HTTP server DoS attacks using spectral analysis. In: 2015 IEEE/ACM International conference on advances in social networks analysis and mining, pp 954–961

Burke R, Mobasher B, williams C, Bhaumik R (2006) Classification features for attack detection in collaborative recommender systems. In: KDD ’06 Proceedings of the 12th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining, pp 542–547

Cao L, Member S, Zhao Y (2008) Mining Impact-Targeted activity patterns in imbalanced data. IEEE Trans Knowl Data Eng 20(8):1053–1066

Chen J, Li B (2009) Random forest for relational classification with application to terrorist profiling. In: Granular computing, 2009, GRC ’09. IEEE International Conference, pp 630–633

Chen J, Xu J, Chen P, Ding G, Lax RF, Marx BD (2008) Fuzzy clustering and iterative relational classification for terrorist profiling. In: Granular Computing, 2008. GrC 2008. IEEE International Conference on, pp 142–147

Coffman TR, Suite JR, Marcus SE (2004) Dynamic classification of groups through social network analysis and HMMsl. 2. In: IEEE Aerospace conference proceedings dynamic classification of groups through social network analysis and HMMsl.2 Thayne R. Coffman 2 1” Century technologies, Inc. 11675 Jollyville Rd Suite 300 Austin, TX 78759 tcoffman@2 1 technologies.com 5 12-342-00 I , pp 1–9

Dark Web Forums (2016) [Online]. Available: http://www.azsecure-data.org/dark-web-forums.html . [Accessed: 08 May 2016]

Dark Web Project (2016) [Online]. Available: http://www.azsecure-data.org/about.html . [Accessed: 08 Feb 2016]

David Liben-Nowell JK (2013) The link prediction problem for social networks. Int Rev Res Open Distance Learn 14(4):90–103

Desmarais BA, Cranmer SJ, Hill C, Carolina N (2011) Forecasting the locational dynamics of transnational terrorism:, a network analytic approach. In: European intelligence and security informatics conference, pp 171–177

Deylami HA (2015) Link prediction in social networks using hierarchical community detection. In: IKT2015 7th International conference on information and knowledge technology, pp 1–5

Dhote Y, Mishra N (2013) Survey and analysis of temporal link prediction in online social networks. In: International Conference ondvances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI), pp 1178–1183

Dickerson JP (2011) Dealing with Lashkar-e-Taiba: A multi-player game-theoretic perspective. In: 2011 European intelligence and security informatics conference, pp 354–359

Dimensions AT (2015) Security QoS profiling against cyber terrorism in airport network systems. In: 2015 International Conference on Cyberspace Governance (CYBER-ABUJA), pp 241–251

Duman E, Ozcelik MH (2011) Expert Systems with Applications Detecting credit card fraud by genetic algorithm and scatter search. Expert Syst Appl 38(10):13057–13063

Duo-yong S (2011). In: Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI), 2011 IEEE International Conference on, no 70973138, pp 373–378

DyNetML— CASOS (2016) [Online]. Available: http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/projects/dynetml/ . [Accessed: 08 May 2016]

Engene JO (2006) The data set Terrorism in Western Europe: Events Data, or TWEED for short, was constructed and collected for the purpose of analysing patterns of terrorism in Western Europe as related to historical and structural preconditions (see Jan Oskar Engene: Eur. [Online]. Available: http://folk.uib.no/sspje/tweed.htm

Fire M, Tenenboim L, Lesser O, Puzis R, Rokach L, Elovici Y (2011) Link prediction in social networks using computationally efficient topological features. Proceedings - 2011 IEEE Int Conf Privacy, Secur Risk Trust IEEE Int Conf Soc Comput PASSAT/SocialCom 2011:73–80

Fu J, Sun D, Chai J (2012) Multi-factor analysis of terrorist activities based on social network. In: 2012 5th International conference on business intelligence and financial engineering multi-factor, pp 476–480

Goldstein BH (2006) Modeling, IEEE Spectr, no September, pp 26–34

Goyal T, Saini JK, Bansal D (2019) Analyzing behavior of ISIS and Al-Qaeda using association rule mining. In: Proceedings of 2nd International conference on communication, computing and networking, Springer, Singapore

Guohui LI, Song LU, Xudong C, Hui Y, Heping Z (2014) Study on correlation factors that influence terrorist attack fatalities using Global Terrorism Database. In: 2014 International symposium on safety science and technology study, pp 698–707

Haglich P, Rouff C (2010) Detecting emergence in social networks. In: IEEE international conference on social computing/IEEE international conference on privacy, security, risk and trust, pp 693–696

Hogan B (2011) Visualizing and interpreting facebook networks

Hsiao H, Lin CS, Chang S (2009) Constructing an ARP attack detection system with SNMP traffic data mining. In: Proceedings of the 11th international conference on electronic commerce. ACM, pp 341–345

Huang Z, Chen H, Yu T, Sheng H, Luo Z (2009) Semantic text mining with linked data. In: 2009 5th International joint conference on INC, IMS and IDC, pp 338–343

Huillier GL, Huillier GL, Alvarez H, Aguiler F, Aguilera F (2010) Topic-based social network analysis for virtual communities of interests in the dark web topic-based social network analysis for virtual communities interests in the dark web. In: ACM SIGKDD Workshop on intelligence and security informatics, p9, pp 66–73

International Terrorism: Attributes of Terrorist Events (ITERATE) (2016) [Online]. Available: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/DSDR/studies/07947#datasetsSection . [Accessed: 08 Feb 2016]

JDK (2016) [Online]. Available: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html . [Accessed: 07 May 2016]

Jan G (2011) Visual investigation of similarities in global terrorism database by means of synthetic social networks. In: Computational Aspects of Social Networks (CASon), 2011 International Conference on, IEEE, 2011, pp 255–260

Jayaweera I, Sajeewa C, Liyanage S, Wijewardane T, Perera I, Wijayasiri A (2015) Crime analytics: Analysis of crimes through newspaper articles. In: 2015 Moratuwa Eng Res Conf, pp 277–282

Jin L, Diego S, Chen Y (2013) Understanding user behavior in online social networks: A survey, no September, pp 144–150

Johnson CW (2005) Applying the lessons of the attack on the world trade center, 11th september 2001, to the design and use of interactive evacuation simulations. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems. ACM, 2005, pp 651–660

Katipally R, Cui X (2010) Multistage attack detection system for network administrators using data mining, pp 0–3

Kaur A, Saini JK, Bansal D (2019) Detecting radical text over online media using deep learning. arXiv: 1907.12368

Kengpol A, Neungrit P (2014) A decision support methodology with risk assessment on prediction of terrorism insurgency distribution range radius and elapsing time: An empirical case study in Thailand. Comput Ind Eng 75:55–67

Klausen J (2016) The role of social networks in the evolution of Al Qaeda-inspired violent extremism in the United States, 1990-2015 Brandeis University

Krause L, Lehman L, Wheeler A, Drive S (2003) A family of agent based models

Lautenschlager J, Ruvinsky A, Warfield I, Kettler B (2015) Group profiling automation for crime and terrorism (GPACT). Procedia Manuf 3(Ahfe):3933–3940

Liu Z, Xin L, Peng P (2011) Comparison of two mathematical models for predicting the fallout hazard from terrorist nuclear detonations. In: International conference on electronic & mechanical engineering and information technology, pp 4007–4009

Moon I, Carley KM (2007) Modeling and networks in social and Geospatial dimensions

Mannes A, Michael M, Pate A, Sliva A, Subrahmanian VS, Wilkenfeld J (2008) Stochastic opponent modeling agents: A case study with hezbollah, Soc Comput Behav Model Predict no. September 2002, pp 37–45

Mannes A, Shakarian J, Sliva A, Subrahmanian VS (2011) A computationally-enabled analysis of lashkar-e-taiba attacks in jammu & kashmir. In: 2011 European intelligence and security informatics conference, pp 224–229

Mason R, Mcinnis B, Dalal S (2012) Machine learning for the automatic identification of terrorist incidents in worldwide news media, pp 84–89

Mathieu B, Truong P, You W, Labs O (2012) Information-centric networking: A natural design for social network applications, no July, pp 44–51

McKerlich R, Ives C, McGreal R (2013) Uncovering the darkweb: A case study of jihad on theWeb. Int Rev Res Open Distance Learn 14(4):90–103

Miller RR (2002) Viewpoint Information Management in, vol 45, no 9, pp 31–33

Mitchell TM (1997) Machine learning, no 1

NODEXL (2007) [Online]. Available: http://www.smrfoundation.org/tools/

National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) (2015) GTD Global terrorism database, START. p 63

Ngai EWT, Hu Y, Wong YH, Chen Y, Sun X (2011) The application of data mining techniques in financial fraud detection: A classification framework and an academic review of literature. Decis Support Syst 50(3):559–569

Nguyen LT, Wu P, Chan W, Field M (2012) Predicting collective sentiment dynamics from time-series social media. In: WISDOM ’12 Proceedings of the 1st international workshop on issues of sentiment discovery and opinion mining

ORA-LITE: Software — CASOS (2016) [Online]. Available: http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/projects/ora/software.php . [Accessed: 08 May 2016]

Ozgul F, Atzenbeck C, Erdem Z (2011) How much similar are terrorists networks of Istanbul?. In: 2011 International conference on advances in social networks analysis and mining how, pp 468–472

Ozgul F, Erdem Z, Bowerman C (2009) Prediction of past unsolved terrorist attacks, pp 37–42

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (2016) [Online]. Available: https://secure.php.net/ . [Accessed: 07 May 2016]

Pagán JV (2010) Improving the classification of terrorist attacks a study on data pre-processing for mining the global terrorism database. In: 2010 2nd International Conference on Software Technology and Engineering(ICSTE) Improving, pp 104–110

Pavel A (2005) Responding to terrorist attacks and natural disasters: a case study using simulation. In: Winter simulation conference, pp 886–894

Projects - Construct — CASOS (2016) [Online]. Available: http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/projects/construct/ . [Accessed: 08 May 2016]

Projects - OrgAhead — CASOS (2016) [Online]. Available: http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/projects/OrgAhead/ . [Accessed: 08 May 2016]

Python Programming Language (2016) [Online]. Available: https://www.python.org/ . [Accessed: 07 May 2016]

R (2016) The R project for statistical computing. [Online]. Available: https://www.r-project.org/ . [Accessed: 07 May 2016]

R. C., DARPA (2019) RDWTI — RAND [Online]. Available: http://www.rand.org/nsrd/projects/terrorism-incidents.html

Rejaie R, Torkjazi M, Valafar M, Willinger W (2010) Sizing up online social networks. Network, IEEE 24(5):32–37

START (2005) MAROB. [Online]. Available: http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/mar_data.asp

START (2020) Global Terrorism Database. [Online]. Available: http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/

Sang J, Deng Z, Lu D, Xu C (2015) Cross-OSN user modeling by homogeneous behavior quantification and local social regularization. IEEE Trans Multimed 17(12):2259–2270

Sardarnia K, Safizadeh R (2019) The internet and its potentials for networking and identity seeking: A study on ISIS. Terror Political Violence 31.6:1266–1283

Scanlon JR, Gerber MS (2014) Automatic detection of cyber-recruitment by violent extremists. Secur Inform 3(1):1–10

Schreck T, Keim D (2013) Visual analysis of social media data, pp 68–75

Serra E, Subrahmanian VS (2014) A survey of quantitative models of terror group behavior and an analysis of strategic disclosure of behavioral models. IEEE Trans Comput Soc Syst 1(1): 66–88

Shen H, Member S, Li Z, Liu J, Grant JE (2015) Knowledge sharing in the online social network of Yahoo! Answers and Its Implications. IEEE Trans Comput 64(6):1715–1728

MathSciNet   Google Scholar  

Siegrist D (2000) Advanced information technology to counter biological terrorism. ACM SIGBIO Newsletter 20.2:2–7

Skillicorn DB (2015) Empirical assessment of al qaeda, isis, and taliban propaganda. In: Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI), 2015 IEEE International Conference on, pp 61–66

Skillicorn DB, Spezzano F, Subrahmanian VS (2014) Understanding south asian violent extremist group-group interactions, no Asonam, pp 687–694

South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) (2016) [Online]. Available: http://www.satp.org/ . [Accessed: 08 Feb 2016]

Spezzano F, Mannes A (2013) STONE: Shaping terrorist organizational network efficiency. In: 2013 IEEE/ACM International conference on advances in social networks analysis and mining STONE, pp 348–355

Su P, Mao W, Zeng D, Zhao H (2012) Mining actionable behavioral rules. Decis Support Syst 54(1):142–152

Subrahmanian EVS (2012) Handbook of computational approaches to counter terrorism, Springer Science & Business Media

Suicide Attack Database (SAD) (2016) [Online]. Available: https://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php . [Accessed: 08 Feb 2016]

Taquechel E, Guard USC (2010) Layered defense: Modeling terrorist transfer threat networks and optimizing network risk reduction, no December, pp 30–35

The crawler4j Open Source Project on Open Hub (2016) [Online]. Available: https://www.openhub.net/p/crawler4j . [Accessed: 07 May 2016]

Thuraisingham B (2004) Data mining for counter-terrorism. Data Mining:, Next Generation Challenges and Future Directions, pp 157–183

UCINET Software (2016) [Online]. Available: https://sites.google.com/site/ucinetsoftware/home . [Accessed: 08 May 2016]

Valenzuela ML, Feng C, Momen F, Rozenblit JW (2010) A non-numerical predictive model for asymmetric analysis

Visualization AW, Lee J (2008) Exploring global terrorism data: A web-based visualization of temporal data, vol 15, no 2, pp 7–14

Wang P (2014) A tale of three social networks, pp 10–15

Wang J (2014) A novel method of centrality in terrorist network, pp 144–149

Wang T, Liao G (2014) A review of link prediction in social networks. In: International conference on management of e-commerce and e-government, pp 149–152

Weil T (2015) Happened to sony happen to us?, no April

Weinstein C, Campbell W, Delaney B, Leary GO, Street W (2009) Modeling and detection techniques for counter-terror social network analysis and intent recognition

Wiil UK, Gniadek J, Memon N (2010) Measuring link importance in terrorist networks. In: 2010 International conference on advances in social networks analysis and mining. IEEE, pp 225–232

Worldwide Incident Tracking System (WITS) (2004) [Online]. Available: https://esoc.princeton.edu/files/global-terrorism-database-worldwide-incident-tracking-system

Xiong H, Wu J, Chen J (2009) K-means clustering versus validation measures: a data-distribution perspective. IEEE Trans Syst, Man, Cybern Part B 39(2):318–331

Xu R, Wunsch D (2005) Survey of clustering algorithms. IEEE Trans Neural Netw 16(3):645–678. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/TNN.2005.845141

Ze L, Duo-yong S, Shu-quan G, Bo L (2014) Detecting Key Individuals in Terrorist Network Based on FANP Model. In: 2014 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2014), pp 724–727

Zhou Y, Qin J, Reid E, Lai G, Chen H (2005) Studying the presence of terrorism on the web: A knowledge portal approach. In: Proceedings of the 5th ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on Digital libraries. ACM, 2005, p 402

(2017). https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/images/START_GlobalTerrorismDatabase_TerroristAttacksConcentrationIntensityMap_45Years.png [Date Accessed 23 Nov 2017]

Download references

This work was partially supported by Cyber Security Research Centre, Punjab Engineering College (Deemed to be University), Chandigarh, India.The author Jaspal K Saini is grateful to Visvesvaraya PhD scheme for Electronics and IT for funding this research.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

School of Computing, IIIT Una, Una, Himachal Pradesh, India

Jaspal Kaur Saini

Punjab Engineering College (Deemed To Be University), CSRC, Chandigarh, India

Divya Bansal

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jaspal Kaur Saini .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interests.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Saini, J.K., Bansal, D. Computational techniques to counter terrorism: a systematic survey. Multimed Tools Appl 83 , 1189–1214 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-023-15545-0

Download citation

Received : 29 October 2021

Revised : 18 November 2022

Accepted : 19 April 2023

Published : 03 June 2023

Issue Date : January 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-023-15545-0

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

  • Computational techniques
  • Data science
  • Data mining
  • Machine learning
  • Online social networks
  • Terrorist network
  • Find a journal
  • Publish with us
  • Track your research

We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. By continuing we’ll assume you’re on board with our cookie policy

Logo

  • A Research Guide
  • Research Paper Topics

40 Terrorism Research Paper Topics

Read also: How to start off a research paper ?
  • How does the development of technologies affect the tactics of terrorists?
  • The tragedy of 9/11
  • The Incels movement: a growing danger?
  • Terrorism and religion
  • Using minors and vulnerable social groups in terrorist acts
  • The role of terrorism in the creation and development of Israel
  • The most powerful international terrorism groups: Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and others
  • Partisan movements and terrorism
  • The history of terrorism
  • What methods are justified when fighting terrorism?
  • Hiroshima bombing: can it be considered terrorism?
  • Terrorism in media and films
  • The process of radicalization. The creation of terrorist groups
  • Motivations of terrorist groups
  • Terrorism and Mafia: similarities, differences and cooperation
  • Terrorism as a tool for politics. Can it be used to benefit some particular political forces?
  • Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp: was it justified?
  • Suicide bombing and psychological conditioning of suicide bombers
  • Bioterrorism
  • Terrorism and human trafficking
  • Terrorism threat and the international travel safety
  • Is non-violent response to terrorism possible?
  • The ways to work with society to prevent terroristic acts
  • The first psychological aid to the victims or witnesses of terrorist act
  • Why terrorists use hostages? What shall the potential hostages do to survive?
  • The main differences between political and non-political terrorism
  • The recruiting strategies of terrorists
  • Counterterrorism all over the world
  • The most prominent terrorist leaders
  • The most famous counterterrorist operations
  • What can society do to prevent terrorism?
  • The future of terrorism. May it evolve?
  • The process of taking responsibility for terrorist act: why and how the terrorists do this?
  • The model of Israel society. Is it good for fighting terrorism?
  • Terrorism as international crime
  • Nuclear terrorism
  • Terrorism and blackmailing
  • Is it possible to exit a terrorist cell?
  • Ideological terrorism
  • The different definitions of terrorism and the cause of their creation

By clicking "Log In", you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We'll occasionally send you account related and promo emails.

Sign Up for your FREE account

National Academies Press: OpenBook

Terrorism: Perspectives from the Behavioral and Social Sciences (2002)

Chapter: 4. recommendations for research, 4 recommendations for research.

This analysis suggests a number of areas in which systematic theoretical and empirical research—some ongoing, some new—can create, confirm, refine, and reject understandings about terrorism as a social and political phenomenon, thereby improving the knowledge base for efforts to contend with it. As is the case throughout this report, we highlight Islamic-based terrorism, but many of the research recommendations cover a wider range of terrorist activities. We present these suggested areas in the form of a numbered list.

ORIGINS, CHARACTERISTICS, AND DYNAMICS OF TERRORISM

To develop individual-level background profiles of terrorists, using as many samples of terrorists as can be made available. Entries in these profiles could include data on family background (parents’ occupations or economic circumstances, size of family, place in sibling order), education, job history, political history, circumstances of recruitment and indoctrination into terrorism, and career history as a terrorist. Such research must rely on multiple unrepresentative samples, including populations of detainees, terrorist suspects garnered from intelligence sources, and writings of terrorists themselves if available. Comparisons with like populations—persons engaged in illegal international drug trafficking, members of religious cults and extremist movements—might also prove of some use.

To assess the motivational dynamics of terrorists and the characteristics of their value systems. Extremely difficult to

conduct, this kind of research could tap data dealing with past psychological histories of terrorists, attitudes toward authority, religiosity, and history of mental disturbance, as well as psychological measures of narcissism, ambivalence, and different types and levels of psychological commitment to terrorist activities. Information could come from some of the same samples that would yield individual-level background profiles. Also useful would be applications of cognitive analysis in the field of computer science and facets of artificial intelligence to untangle and structure the constituent elements of value structures.

To examine the evidence regarding impacts of values on actions, in order to derive knowledge about factors that serve as critical drivers to transform potential or latent terrorists into overt terrorists.

To determine the types and range of structures, processes, and organizational careers of terrorist organizations.

With respect to structure, comparative studies could yield structural typologies of terrorist organizations—hierarchical or flat structure, religious or secular, types of sanctions holding them together, and types of leaders, including level of internal differentiation of leadership. Estimates of organizational effectiveness and vulnerability according to type could also be generated.

With respect to group processes, empirical study could reveal typical communication processes and breakdowns, bases of internal conflict, competition among leaders, breakdown and restoration of social control, formation of subcliques, coordination of attacks and other operations, conduct of relations with other groups and networks, and modes of contending with pressures from outside, including states in their host societies.

With respect to the careers of organizations, study could yield knowledge about conditions facilitating the formation of groups; patterns of recruitment; the role of religious and nonreligious leaders; the impact of terrorist success, failure, and inaction on organizational morale and momentum; tendencies to transform into lobbies or political parties; schismatic tendencies and their consequences; and conditions contributing to the stagnation and extinction of terrorist organizations.

With respect to the power base, it is important to determine the resources available to terrorist organizations as a way of understanding their capabilities in terms of funding, training, information, and refuge.

To develop estimates of the probability of selection of different patterns of action and different types of targets by terrorist groups. Factors to be taken into account in generating such estimates include symbolic resonance with the ideological emphases of terrorist organizations (in the Middle East, anti-Christian, anti-Israel, extreme Jewish fundamentalist, antiglobal capitalism, antisecular), terrorists’ own thinking about what kinds of events induce terror, their own strategic assessments about what kinds of events are maximally disruptive, the hopedfor political and military effects of attacks, and the degree to which different attacks are spectacular and news-generating. These kinds of estimates will be facilitated by gaining access to and systematizing work on the communication patterns, language, and idioms used by terrorists themselves.

To develop through comparative research knowledge about the relevant audiences for terrorism and modes of communicating with these audiences as a way of determining the impacts of audience on the content of communication.

To elucidate the effects of host states harboring or giving rise to terrorists, in terms of the impact of type of state (according to wealth, poverty, and political culture) and state policies (support, benign neglect, attempts to domesticate or coopt, political repression) on the sources of terrorist groups, their potential for recruitment, and the careers and effectiveness of terrorist organizations

To survey and monitor demographic trends in fertility, mortality, and nuptiality in societies likely to develop terrorist activity; to draw out implications of these patterns for their potential to generate economic and educational development and to produce classes of idle, poverty-stricken, and frustrated youth.

To develop further work on the cultural and social backgrounds to terrorism, especially different types of Islamic revivalism. This could be broken down into subtopics, such as transnational or global Islamic movements; linguistic, cultural, and contextual factors; local or regional movements; conditions that promote different types of revivalism; implications for Muslim communities in the United States; and case studies of religious-based terrorism in particular countries (Islamic as well as non-Islamic).

To conduct historical and comparative research on the effects of Western economic, political, cultural, military, and

foreign policy activities on less developed countries—by categories of countries and types of activities—as well as the short-term impact on the patterns of terrorist activities. Such research is difficult to conduct with reliability and objectivity, first, because of the limited theoretical foundations to guide such work; second, because it is difficult to isolate and trace these consequences through the fabric of the affected societies; and third, because the research topics themselves are ideologically loaded and lie at the basis of debates and political divisions in American society. It is also important to examine the current influences across developing countries—shaped by common historical experiences with the West—that may be used to encourage the diffusion of terrorism.

Cutting across all the above types of research is the methodological need to systematize and allow ease of access to different types of data and databases—such as these exist—that may be related to different facets of terrorism. These tasks are formidable because many of these data appear in different languages, are gathered for a great diversity of purposes, and are not immediately comparable with one another.

RESPONSES TO TERRORISM

To evaluate warning systems. Comparative empirical studies of past disaster and terrorist situations should attempt to evaluate the respective consequences of effective warnings, failures to warn, miswarnings (false alarms), and overwarning.

To monitor immediate responses to disasters. Most disasters are both sudden and ephemeral, and immediate responses give way quickly to a wide variety of recovery and rebuilding activities. Relevant research agencies (universities, think tanks, government) should establish the capacity to move quickly to the scene and study immediate responses while they are occurring. Most research on short-term disaster responses relies on hastily assembled journalistic reports and after-the-fact accounts based of recollections by participants. Both sources are subject to selectivity and distortion. Teams of behavioral and social science researchers, collecting data on the spot and analyzing them in the context of established knowledge about disaster situations, would supplement and probably improve

on existing ways of generating information and understanding. Some universities have a tradition of fire brigade research; efforts should be made to expand and systematize it.

To track group differences in response to crises. Most thinking about preparedness, warning, and response rests on the assumption of an undifferentiated community or public. Research on disasters, however, has revealed that individuals and groups differ both in readiness and response according to previous disaster experience, ethnic and minority status, knowledge of the language, level of education, level of economic resources, and gender (Tierney et al., 2001). Research on these and other differences should be extended and deepened and taken into account when designing systems of preparedness, warning, and response to terrorist attacks and other disaster situations.

To evaluate the behavior of agencies of response to crisis. There should be a deepening of research—basic, comparative, and applied—on the structure of agencies designated as responsible for dealing with attacks and other disasters, on the optimal patterns of information dissemination and communication among them, and on the most effective strategies of coordination and self-correcting of coordination under extreme conditions. Research should also focus on the origins and consequences of organizational failure, miscommunication, lack of coordination, and jurisdictional conflict and squabbling.

To evaluate the practice of ethnic profiling. Advocated as both a necessary and effective method of identifying and apprehending terrorist suspects, ethnic profiling raises both methodological and policy issues. A scientific review should be made of its methodological underpinnings, including implied statistical assumptions and possible fallacies. In addition, the practice of profiling raises many questions about intrusiveness on civil rights and possible boomerang political effects in affected groups. A starting point for research might be an examination of scientific issues and political effects in affected groups. Such a study group could consult not only the literature on terrorism but also that in other areas (e.g., police arrest practices, housing discrimination) in which the issue has emerged.

To assess both short-term and long-term group responses to terrorism and terrorist attacks in terms of attitudes and opinions. Questions would include the attitudinal consequences of living in prolonged situations of heightened anxiety, as well as

the dynamics of the balance between tendency toward national and community solidarity (tending to diminish group difference and conflict) and the tendency for fault lines dividing groups along ethnic, religious, and political dimensions to become more salient. In the current atmosphere, special attention should be given to the situation of Muslim Americans—blacks, Asians, and Arabs—who consider themselves part of the nation’s demographic, cultural, and political fabric but who have experienced considerable stress in the context of national reactions to terrorist activities emanating from the states of origin of some of these citizens. This last line of research could be supplemented by comparative work on ethnic, especially Muslim, minorities in European countries, including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, where the forces shaping the national and ethnic loyalties differ from those in the United States.

To develop sequential and cumulative analyses of terrorist events. Because terrorist attacks tend to be sudden, surprising, and of short duration, they are usually regarded as discrete events. In reality, however, they build on one another, and any new attack or attacks is read, variably by different groups, in the context of the past history of such events. One of the interpretative frames of reacting to the attack on the World Trade Center, for example, was the memory of the unsuccessful effort to destroy it by bombing in 1993. Reactions to anthrax episodes were strongly conditioned—and exaggerated—because they occurred so soon in the wake of September 11. The whole history of mutual terrorism between Palestine and Israel is a history of stored memories of many past occurrences, evoked when new attacks occur and referred to continuously by both sides. Historical research on the interrelated sequencing of reactions, interpretations, and memories of terrorist events would deepen theoretical and empirical understanding of those phenomena. Conceptual models, such as path dependency (employed in economics, political science, and other fields) and the logic of “value added,” would offer guidelines to framing and conducting this kind of research. Formal modeling of these kinds of sequences should also be explored.

The events and aftermath of September 11, 2001, profoundly changed the course of history of the nation. They also brought the phenomenon known as terrorism to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. As it became thus focused, the limits of scientific understanding of terrorism and the capacity to develop policies to deal with it became even more evident. The objective of this report is to bring behavioral and social science perspectives to bear on the nature, determinants, and domestic responses to contemporary terrorism as a way of making theoretical and practical knowledge more adequate to the task. It also identifies areas of research priorities for the behavioral and social sciences.

Welcome to OpenBook!

You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

Show this book's table of contents , where you can jump to any chapter by name.

...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

Switch between the Original Pages , where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter .

Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

View our suggested citation for this chapter.

Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

Get Email Updates

Do you enjoy reading reports from the Academies online for free ? Sign up for email notifications and we'll let you know about new publications in your areas of interest when they're released.

293 Essay Titles & Research Topics on Terrorism

🏆 best topics for essays about terrorism, 📖 terrorism essay topics for college, 📚 terrorism topics for research paper & essay examples, ✍️ good research topics on terrorism, 💡 simple ideas for terrorism research paper topics, 📌 easy terrorism essay topics, 👍 good terrorism essay topics to write about, ❓ research questions about terrorism, ✒️ great terrorism dissertation topics.

  • John Brown: Terrorist or Freedom Fighter
  • The 26/11 Terrorist Attack on Mumbai
  • Iranian Revolution and Terrorism: the Rex Cinema Massacre
  • Media’s Role on Terrorism
  • Terrorism of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
  • About the Motives of the Terrorists
  • Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Hezbollah Terrorist Groups
  • The Geneva Convention and Terrorism Prevention The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols form the center of international humanitarian law that regulates the conduct of armed conflicts.
  • The Terrorism Threat in the Modern World This work describes the essence of terrorism, its essence, origins, forms of manifestation, tells about modern single and international approaches to combating terrorism.
  • Lone Wolf Terrorism: Theoretical Analysis and Implications for Public Policy Countering lone-wolf terrorism is much more difficult than fighting organized terrorist activity, as it leaves a much smaller informational footprint.
  • Connection Between Criminal and Terrorism Organization The paper gives a broad understanding of the nature of terrorism-organized crime collaboration and their operations supporting criminal activities.
  • The Case of the 2015 Terrorist Attack in Paris: Bombing Investigation In the case of the Paris attacks in 2015, the targeted autopsy allowed forensic teams to identify victims and terrorists and define the nature of the explosive device.
  • British Anti-Terrorist Structures In this paper, all possible mechanisms of anti-terrorist structures are presented in the example of countering Al-Qaeda at the beginning of the 21st century.
  • Terrorism Prevention With Community Policing One of the measures that has proven to be effective in addressing terrorism is community policing which requires the engagement of officers and members of the public.
  • The Ansar Al-Din Terrorist Organization’s Activities By conducting a simulation, it was found that acts of terrorism are capable of causing enormous damage to the country’s infrastructure and its people.
  • The Ansar Al-Din Terrorist Group Analysis This paper evaluates the measures implemented by the intelligence agencies to analyze information about Ansar al-Din that is currently available to grasp their terrorist tactics.
  • Extremism and Terrorism in Nigeria Considering Nigeria’s high rates of terrorism and extremism, it is vital to illuminate the government’s strategies to eliminate the terrorist cells and extremist groups.
  • Terrorism and Associated Media’s Response The media’s response to terrorism is often different from other crimes and specialized in targeting an audience that is susceptible to the current ‘war on terror’ model.
  • Impact of Terrorism on the Economy Terrorism’s wider consequences are also dependent on the economy’s ability to reallocate and distribute capital from the affected sectors smoothly.
  • Internationally Focused Terrorist Organization: Al Qaeda This paper addresses the inspiration of Al Qaeda, how this inspiration acts as a catalytic means of recruitment, and the means of communication used by Al Qaeda.
  • Terrorism: Sources of Inspiration Perceived injustice, attention for a sense of belonging, and the need to find one’s identity are typical inspirations by potential terrorists.
  • Importance of Outsourcing the War on Terror The paper discusses the benefits, disadvantages, and the necessity of the usage of private security and military companies in the War on Terror.
  • The Terrorism Definition in International Law Terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group, or state actors.
  • War vs. Terrorism: What Are the Main Differences? War is an armed confrontation between the parties to protect their interests. Terrorism, in turn, is a manifestation of violence aimed at inspiring fear.
  • Counterterrorism Approaches: Terrorism Prevention There are five categories of counterterrorism approaches, proactive, defensive, coercive, long-term, and persuasive.
  • Communication Technology’s Impact on Global Terrorism The main question of this work is the role of communication technology in modern international terrorism, and to what extent may vigilance and science mitigate adverse outcomes.
  • Counter-Terrorism and Unemployment Approaches A more novel approach to unemployment that considers the needs of a disenchanted youth is vital to reducing the draw towards terrorist activities.
  • The True Story of Che Guevara: Conflict & Terrorism The name of Ernesto “Che” Guevara is among the most well-known names in the world. The Argentinian freedom fighter played a crucial role in the Cuban revolution.
  • Terrorism as a Pressing Social Issue Terrorism is a crime, the aim of which is a violation of public safety, which is expressed in encroachment on the life and health of citizens and infrastructure facilities.
  • Modern Terrorism Regarding the Role of Media Modern terrorism uses the media to report its threats and activities. However, governments should not use their power to restrict the media from covering terror-related events.
  • The Ku Klux Klan and Modern Terrorism This work will be about the terrorist part of the Ku Klux Klan and its similarities and diversities to other types of domestic terrorism that exist in our contemporary time.
  • Terrorist Cells Issues in America The paper focuses on identifying the means used by terrorists to enhance their success and measures that military officers and law enforcement can embrace to help curb terrorism.
  • Operation Anaconda: Terrorism Prevention Operation Anaconda has become one of the most significant an example of an operation in which commanders applied six basic principles of mission command.
  • Technologies to Reduce Crime and Acts of Terrorism Terrorism can be met with a nonviolent, credible, and justifiable reaction if counterterrorism actions are anchored in an accountable and productive criminal justice system.
  • Homeland Security Efforts to Counter Terrorism The counter-terrorism efforts of the Department of Homeland Security have multiple positive outcomes and generally ensure safety for citizens.
  • Aaronson’s and McCue’s Speeches on Terrorism Aaronson and McCue have had their chance to deliver their speeches at TED regarding the problem of terrorism. The speakers shed light on the issue from quite a unique perspective.
  • The Study of the Future of Terrorism: Review of Literature Politicians, international researchers, world-known philosophers, and engineers devote their lives to creating the best and safest conditions for people.
  • US Terrorism and Criminal Justice Decision Making Model Terrorism is a significant security and safety threat. The United States has experienced both domestic and international terrorist attacks.
  • Terrorism in Mumbai 2008: Before and After the Attack Before the attack, the terrorists carefully planned this operation, as it was supposed to be large-scale, ambitious, and have a powerful destructive character.
  • Future of Terrorism and Emergency Management Today terrorism has become a serious threat to the security of the entire world and regional communities. It is expressed in the commission of explosions.
  • Terrorism: The Faith-Based Discourses Although there are many discourses regarding the role of God and religion in terrorism, there are some similarities in what Falwell, the Jewish extremists, and Sayyid Qutb believe.
  • The Phenomenon of Terrorism and Its Relation to Globalization This paper states that the phenomenon of terrorism is tightly connected to the concept of inequality of globalization.
  • Terrorist Attack in San Bernardino The San Bernardino shootings in 2015 killed 14 innocent people and injured 24 more. It was also the bloodiest mass shooting in the US since 2012.
  • Homeland Security Efforts: Counter-Terrorism and Threats The homeland security mission is to protect the country from various types of threats, including terrorism and national disasters.
  • Terrorism and Violent Extremist Organizations in Somali and Their Elimination This project aimed to understand how the current Federal Government of Somalia plans for current and future threats against terrorism and violent extremist organizations.
  • The Future of Domestic Terrorism in the United States The research issue of this paper is the future development of domestic terrorism in the United States and the possibility of mitigating it.
  • Domestic Terrorism and Hate Groups The paper states that domestic terrorism and hate groups are interdependent terms that imply violence towards a state. Both target innocent people.
  • Migration, Diasporas, and Terrorism This topic examines the relationship between different concepts (migration, diaspora communities, and terrorism) in the context of globalization.
  • Crisis Management During Terrorism Threat In the essay, the crisis management strategies of preparation for change are viewed on the example of the terrorism threat.
  • America and Terrorism in the 21st Century There are many threats that people face every day without even realizing it. For example, terrorism is a major global problem addressed by authorities and different organizations.
  • Threat of Terrorism in the Middle East If tomorrow the US withdraws its troops from the Middle East, it is highly likely that terrorist activity in the region will subside but will not disappear.
  • Terrorism: Radicalization and the Internet The current paper examines the main causes and types of radicalism, as well as what role the Internet plays in the hands of terrorists.
  • Terrorism and Homeland Security Terrorism is an act of political violence aimed to incite terror and panic into the target population and further a specific political goal.
  • Forensics Analysis of Terrorism Crime Scene Terrorism uses calculated violence to generate public fear and panic to establish a specific political agenda within the general population.
  • Analysis of Terrorism in Spain The paper looks at the history of terrorism in Spain and how the European Union has countered terrorism and helped Spain fight against it.
  • Is Terrorism Ever a Justifiable Form of “Political Violence” Young people are an essential source of support to various terrorist groups as they are used as fighters and even cooks.
  • Financing Terrorist Organizations The financing of terrorist organizations is a significant problem for the national security agencies that monitor and suppress extremists’ activities and the entire world community.
  • Operational Principles in the US War Against Terror The US war against terror has intensified aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, and to that day, remains one of the most contested and protracted US military operations abroad.
  • What Is Water-Related Terrorism and How to Cope With It? Water-related terrorism includes damaging government facilities, and since water resources are vital for human existence, it is profitable for terrorists to attack them.
  • Preventing Potential Attacks and Counter Terrorism The objective of this paper is to develop recommendations for a mayor to solve the issues of homeland security efforts to combat terrorism.
  • Pirate Terrorists as an International Threat The rise in globalization has aggravated the threats to which people have been exposed, including the terrorist attacks.
  • Strategies to Prevent Radicalization and Lone-Wolf Terrorism This paper discusses approaches toward building trust and relationships with the Community to prevent radicalization and formulating counter-terrorism strategies.
  • Cyberterrorism Threat to the United States National Security The United States remains vulnerable and largely unprepared for cyber terrorism threats that threaten its national security due to the increased growth of adversary capabilities.
  • How Do Terrorists Conduct Cyber Warfare? Terrorism activities are a global concern since they can occur in any part of the world depending on the perpetrators’ target.
  • The Threat of Nuclear Terrorism The issue of nuclear terrorism has been discussed by many researchers and policy-makers. Some believe that the threat is unrealistic.
  • Terrorism Prevention: Operation Geronimo Operation Geronimo was carried out by the US military in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. As a result, the head of al-Qaeda was killed.
  • An Overview of Investigative Techniques as They Apply to Terrorism The paper focuses on the psychological and behavioral features of terrorists and offers several recommendations on the use of investigative techniques in their case.
  • Terrorist Drag in “Stop Being Poor” Video “Stop Being Poor” invokes stereotypes of racialized and gendered deviance in terms that show that only White, rich women deserve to stay alive.
  • Impact of Terrorism on Global Stability Terrorism implies planned actions aimed at causing fear and instability among nations. Terrorists use crude weapons to threaten and kill people for political and social gain.
  • Terrorism Current Events Terrorist attacks have for a long time culminated in the loss of lives, property destruction, destabilized governments, and resulted in economic paralysis.
  • What Is Terrorism: Main Aspects of Term The success of the counter-terrorism campaigns depends on an adequate understanding of the essence of terrorism in the 21st century.
  • Money Laundering, Corruption and Terrorism Issues Money laundering, corruption and terrorism are rife in East and Southern Africa is largely attributed to the abject poverty that at times seems to be endemic.
  • War on Terrorism on USA After 9/11/2001 The discussion of the acts and policies directed at the USA security are going to be considered with the purpose to follow the changes that occurred after the 9/11 attacks.
  • Extremism and Terrorism in the Society Extremism includes the activities that are not violent but grossly violate citizens’ rights and freedoms, having an ideological motive behind them.
  • Terrorism: Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Terrorists are the individuals who practice terrorism; they can also be referred to as the agents of terrorism since they attack nations they are opposed to.
  • The Fourth Wave of Terrorism and Religion The diverse religious ethnicities have primeval ancestry evidence in a terror campaign. The fourth or the current wave of terrorism derived its incentives from religious activities
  • War on Terrorism. Danger for Civil Citizens War on terrorism is one of the most notable phenomena observed in the world today. The roots of this war lie, allegedly, in the severe threat to the security.
  • Terrorism Theories and Media Discourse This paper discusses theoretical comprehension of the terrorism phenomenon, mass media discourse concerning terrorism, and implications for the future.
  • Terrorism in Northern Ireland and in Middle East There is no universal instrument to end the terrorism, but profound analysis of this phenomenon is one of the primary measures for the solution of this issue.
  • Robust Security System vs Terrorists in Airport America has stepped up its security system by appointing TSA – a government organization to protect the nation’s transport system.
  • Drug Trafficking and Terrorism in the Middle East Terrorism and drug trafficking are the major wars that the world has been trying to fight for several centuries.
  • Handling of the Terrorist Suspects According to the English Legislations The main aim of this study is to explore how terrorism suspects are handled in relation to English laws. The study examines some of the powers accorded to the police.
  • Terror and Religious Belief System Contemporary fourth wave terrorists justify their use of violence through the theological and moral teachings taken from their chosen religious belief system.
  • On the Reasons for the Terrorist Attack on September 11 The purpose of this article is to investigate allegedly American offenses that may have led to the 9/11 terrorist attack.
  • International Terrorism in the United States Analysis There is a review of the Congressional Research Service report on International Terrorism, the focus being on threat, policy, and response issues.
  • Possible Terrorist Attack Local law enforcement agencies with the help of the federal government created a network of databases called fusion centers, after 9/11.
  • Terrorism and the Media This paper reveals how several media reporting incidents have embraced an ideology that Islam is inherently violent.
  • Targeted Killing: Counter-Terrorism The current paper discusses that targeted killing represents a part of consequentialist philosophy in counter-terrorism.
  • Counter Terrorism Methods and Their Effectiveness In many cases, terrorists are destroyed with the help of military people, although to a greater extent, this is the work of special services and the police.
  • The Mind of a Terrorist Terrorism seems to bring a certain consolation within the terrorists yet does not offer them the solution to their problem.
  • Terrorism: Understanding the Key Issues Terrorism remains a major challenge in many societies today. Terrorism is a necessary practice among many extremist groups in the Middle East.
  • Terrorist Response Organizations Members of specialized terrorist response organizations undergo special training which allows them to respond to emergency situations more quickly.
  • The US Response to the Terrorism Threats This report outlines the central directions of terrorist activities targeted at the US seaports and the ways American security counteracts them.
  • Religion and Middle Eastern Terrorism The Middle Eastern region is occupied by Muslims, Christians and Jews. Their constant conflicts have been attributed to the rise in modern terrorism across the region.
  • The Long Term Effects of Terrorism Terrorism attacks have become very common in today’s world especially with the increasing conflicts of power and the increase in financial difficulties around the globe.
  • The Emerging Terrorist Threat in Africa Most terrorism acts are usually portrayed as political, emotional, or religious undertones. Terrorist threats in Africa started way back in the 1980s and 1990s.
  • Historical Responding to Terrorism Terrorism is not the only resort to injustices. Processes like peace talks, negotiations and compromise of some standards solves any stalemate amicably.
  • Bioterrorism: History, Types, and Detection This paper explains what is bioterrorism, gives a background of bioterrorism, and discusses the types of bioterrorism, and the difficulties to detect bioterrorism.
  • Terrorism a Critical Issue of the Modern World Terrorism is, undoubtedly, a criminal act aimed at civilians. Terrorists tend to invent new, unusual ways to commit crimes, making them more dangerous and powerful.
  • The Past and Present Effects of Terrorism on Society Terrorism is one of the main challenges that the world has encountered for several decades. It can be defined as the use of violence against civilians.
  • Global Terrorism and Ways of Its Impact In the 21st century, global terrorism has become a complex problem that all nations need to address from an informed perspective.
  • America’s War on Terrorism Terrorism is the organized use of terror or violent acts intended to create and make fear. These are unlawful acts of violence and war.
  • UK Anti-Terrorism Strategy and the Human Rights Implications on its Implementation The prevention of terrorism has been given a higher priority, and the new legislation has drawn on new instruments equivalent to the European levels.
  • Hacktivism & Cyberterrorism vs Government Response Hacktivism is the use of technology or computer system for social or political motivations. Cyberterrorism can be defined as intentional violent acts conducted in cyberspace.
  • Terrorists’ Motives: The Psychology of the Individual The psychology of the individual may be useful to the activities of terrorists but this is realized well if the individual undergoes indoctrination amidst the group.
  • Terrorism. Hezbollah: Ideology and Financing The problems of combating terrorist crimes in the framework of the modern world are becoming increasingly important.
  • Three Cases of Terrorism: Ideological, Nationalist and Religious The main aim of terrorism is to draw the attention of the local population, state, and the entire world to the cause of terrorists.
  • White Supremacy and the Terrorism Threats White supremacists are uniting in a comparable way with jihadist terror groups, such as Al Qaeda; they are uniting in a comparable way with jihadist terror groups, such as Al Qaeda.
  • The Problem of Terrorism Prevention Each government should develop innovative strategies for the struggle against terrorism while special attention should be paid to the financial front in the global war on terrorism.
  • Policy Memorandum: Terrorist Organizations Nowadays, terrorist organizations are more geographically dispersed than it was before, and their tactics became more sophisticated and untypical.
  • Emerging Terrorist Threat in Africa If judging terrorism only by the media, its face is always changing. In that regard, it can be stated that its most recent face seems to be in Africa.
  • Sociological Failure of the War on Terrorism This article explains why the War on Terror has failed sociologically by focusing on three pillars: an international reputation, cost, and lack of results.
  • The Earth Liberation Front as the Domestic Terrorist Organization The purpose of this essay is to analyze the ELF’s history, structure, and actions, to fully understand the rationale behind their decisions.
  • Domestic and International Terrorism There is an evident dismissal of domestic terrorism, which is also reflected in the fact that there is a more aggressive monitoring approach for the international one.
  • Terrorism: Threat and Ways of Combating Terrorism has an aggressive and violent nature and, most importantly, a public character that threatens nation safety and requires law enforcement agencies’ intervention.
  • The Phenomenon of Terrorism in the Modern World This essay aims to discuss the phenomenon of terrorism through the prism of two opposing sources, including a speech by the U.S. President and a letter from Osama bin Laden.
  • Unconventional Warfare on the Global War on Terror The implications of the findings for US foreign policy can be seen through targeting regional security, rather than focusing on a single country a source of terrorism.
  • United States Foreign Policy and Terrorism The foreign policy in the USA aimed at fighting terrorism demonstrates the integrity of the two concepts, human and national security.
  • Terrorism and Genocide: Impact on Populations Victims of terror actions usually recover within a short time, given that terrorist actions are considered moderate stress reactions.
  • A Duty of Care in Cyberspace and How It Relates to Cyber Terrorism Confronting the threat posed by cyber attackers and to the internet security of critical infrastructure still remains a challenge.
  • Terrorism Attack in United States America has invested a lot of money towards improving its ability to detect any act of terrorism, prevent the acts and if they occur, respond to them.
  • Terrorism as a Transnational Organized Crime Terrorism and organized crime have always been considered to stand among the primary security threats in any society.
  • Terrorism and Genocide: Traumatic Impacts The defense centers of excellence for psychological health and traumatic brain injury were launched to help those veterans who feel their lives are at risk psychologically.
  • A Issue of Terrorism Terrorism is a problem that is spread on the level of human awareness, and thus, it should be addressed from the angle of affecting people’s minds and hearts as well.
  • The Role of the Media in the Propaganda of Terrorism An article on how the terrorists managed to attract everyone’s attention, as well as a brief overview of the reasons and consequences of the change of government in Tunisia.
  • Psychology of Terrorism: Leaders and Development The war on terror has been a losing battle because the leaders in today’s democracies fail to understand the reasons for the terrorism activities.
  • A Biological Terror Attack in Agriculture The United States is highly vulnerable to terror attacks of biological nature in agriculture yet such an occurrence can cripple the economy.
  • The Three Categories of Dissident Terrorism This paper seeks to contrast the three categories of dissident terrorism as documented by Assistant Vice President Gus Martin in his bestselling book.
  • Bioterrorism and Surrounding Issues This paper reviews some of the al Qaeda attacks, the motivation, the mass casualties, panic, and disorder that accompany these attacks and their impacts.
  • Torture Debate in America’s War on Terror Torture has mainly been used as a way to extract information from crime suspects for example who are intent on withholding it.
  • International Consensus for Terrorism Mitigation It is imperative for various countries to come together and cooperate on diplomatic, law enforcement, military and intelligence capabilities.
  • Bioterrorist Attack Involving Botulism and Response The intentional outbreak of botulism was characterized by complaints from people from one location that bought the meat from a single store.
  • Community Policing Practice and Terrorism Activities Community policing is the best development ever in the police force. This is because it is still the best way to effectively combat crime and bring it to control.
  • Ways to Defend Against Cyber Terrorism With the development of technology, new ways of terrorism on the web are reaching a new level. People need to know how to confront them and protect their privacy.
  • Power of Terror as a Political Weapon The use of power of terror by the French monarchy was the main reason that made the people to think about democracy.
  • The Power of Cyberterrorism The paper will look at what cyberterrorism could do to opponents and the actual possibility of such an attack.
  • History And Threats Of Global Terrorism The paper shall argue that historical events after the cold war demonstrate how vulnerable the US is to global terrorism.
  • Parsing and Analysis of the Phenomenon of Terrorism The common objective for most terrorist groups that engage in violent activities has been achieve their political goals.
  • Definition of Terrorism Mitigation Terrorism mitigation is the assignment that should be solved on all governmental levels, and, in comparison with risk mitigation the terrorism mitigation entails several additional steps.
  • Impact of Bioterrorism on the U.S Agriculture System The paper describes that the term bioterrorism has several definitions depending upon the origin of the attack but in general terms, it refers to any form of terrorist attack.
  • Terrorist Attack Prevention Policy on the Example of the US Patriot Act The US Patriot Act is a multi-tiered government policy to prevent terrorist attacks that arose in response to the upheavals of the 2000s.
  • The Roots of Islamic Terrorism The history of the Islamic religion has influenced the cause of terrorism since most terrorist groups are linked to the Islamic religion.
  • Terrorism Prevention and Scenario Development The paper shall focus on the Aum Shinrikyo cult of Japan and its utilization of WMD as a case study. The Aum Shinrikyo cult staged six attacks against Japanese citizens.
  • War on Terror Impact on Muslims & Their Responses The war on terror has been transformed into a war on Muslims. The Muslims living in the US have lived in constant fear and panic.
  • How U.S. Political Parties View Terrorism The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in position between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party on the issue of Terrorism as a national and global threat.
  • US Preemptive Attacks: Counter-Terrorism Campaign After the 9/11 attacks, the United States Government and President Bush Administration started their comprehensive counter-terrorism campaign but the world community perceived the practice.
  • Causes of the Break Down of Intelligence Before the Terrorist Attack of 9-11 The breakdown of intelligence culminating in the September 11 attacks was largely a result of lack of preparedness, ignorance, failure to learn from the past events.
  • Globalized Terrorism Shall Lose Its Significance In this paper this position will be critically elaborated and claims that support a position that globalized terrorism will loose its significance as a strategic challenge are rejected.
  • Brainwashed Terrorists: Are Terrorists Crazy? The main reason why terrorist attacks are so frightful is that they are organized by people who are not afraid to die, people who die for their faith, or what they think to be their faith.
  • Public Health Problems: Bioterrorism The issues of bioterrorism are not paid much attention in various media in comparison with other factors of everyday life in the global scales.
  • Emergency Response and Management in a Terrorist Attack This report depicts the scenario that will ensue if a terrorist attack were launched against an urban population center in the US today.
  • Non-Conventional Terrorism and Protection Among the types of terrorism the most inevitable and unpredictable one is non-conventional which terrifies by its unexplored nature and effects.
  • War Against Terrorism and Social Injustices Terrorism by itself is the outcome of serious social injustices faced by several communities. Doing more injustice will only worsen the condition.
  • Human Rights Conservation and the War on Terror Public Safety is the concept of governmental organizations concerned with protecting their citizens from all kinds of threats.
  • Singapore Armed Forces in Counter-Terrorism Efforts The tragedy of Lo Hwei Yen can only serve as a reminder to all Singaporeans that terrorism transcends all borders and that the need to remain vigilant is more urgent than ever.
  • The American Skinhead, and Greenpeace: Humanitarians or Terrorists The Greenpeace and American Skinhead movements have come to attract a lot of controversies in regard to their intentions and legality of action.
  • IL1 Emerging Infections, Zoonoses and Bioterrorism. IL 1 is included under zoonoses infectious. Other transmissible routes are through direct contact, via contaminated airborne particles, contaminated water.
  • Terrorist Groups’ Social and Psychological Origins Terrorism is a complex social issue which requires multiple levels of analysis from interdisciplinary fields of psychology, political science, and cultural and historical studies.
  • How Media Helps Promote Terrorists’ Agenda The media serves as the platform that helps to popularize the ideas of various terrorist organizations by familiarizing people with them.
  • Non-Conventional Terrorism from Theoretical Viewpoints Non-conventional terrorism mainly uses and executes non-traditional forms of weapons. They might include chemical, biological, and nuclear types of threats.
  • Terrorist Campaigns of Extremist Organizations The paper considers extremist actions of such prohibited groups as Vanguard America (VA), the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and Boko Haram (BH).
  • 9/11 Terrorist Attacks and Failure to Prevent Them Failure to share information and lack of interagency cooperation was a significant cause as to why the 9/11 terrorist attacks were not prevented despite numerous red flags.
  • Terrorism and Other Crimes Against the State This paper overviews crimes against the state and discusses terrorism as an offense, its types, and the legislator allowing for combating it.
  • Russian Cyber Terrorism and the United States: A Research Proposal This paper presents the key information on a proposal for a case study of the cyberattacks used as a part of the interference of Russia in the US elections of 2016.
  • Russian Cyberterrorism and the United States Cyberspace With the development of the cyberspace, some new uses of the related technologies have appeared, including beneficial and malevolent ones.
  • Russian Cyberterrorism and the United States Election 2016 The present paper attempts to contribute data to the discussion of the topic of the Russian electoral interference of 2016 by conducting a case study of that accident.
  • The Terrorist Aspects of Narcoterrorism This project intends to respond to the question of what are the terrorist features of narcoterrorism attacks in Mexico, and what are their implications for security efforts.
  • Vital Issues of Terrorism and Ways to Counter Terrorism
  • Terrorism History in the United States
  • War on Terrorism: The Modern Perspective
  • Generation Kill: Anti-Terrorism Fight After 9/11
  • Generation Kill: War on Terrorism After 9/11
  • Human Factors in Aviation: 2016 Brussels Terrorist Attacks
  • Military Commissions and Terrorism Prevention
  • Terrorist Profiling from Various Perspectives
  • Terrorist Weapons Sources and Extremist Attacks
  • How Terrorists Prepare for Attacks
  • The Arab Spring and Terrorism
  • Terrorist Surveillance Techniques for Predicting and Identifying Terrorist Activities
  • Terrorism Today: the Past, the Players, the Future
  • The Roots of Terrorism: Religion
  • Local Police Response to Terrorism
  • Emergency Management in Past Acts of Terrorism
  • Terrorism as a Threat to American Airport Security
  • Understanding Terrorism: Course of Action
  • United States and Negotiation With Terrorists
  • The Impact of Terrorism on Walmart Global Logistics
  • “Unemployment and Terrorism” TED Talk by Mohamed Ali
  • Terrorism and The Peshawar School Bus Bombing
  • Human Rights Advocates vs. Terrorism Victims
  • America’s Fight Against Terrorism
  • Terrorism Attacks, Motivations, Political Factors
  • Terrorists: Criminals or Crusaders?
  • American Domestic Terrorism and Its Historical Roots
  • Terrorism as Global Issue and Preventive Laws
  • Terrorism: A Philosophical Investigation
  • Khobar Towers Bombing and Terrorism in the US
  • Terrorism and Its Damage to Modern Society
  • Holy Terrors: Religion and Terrorism in the US
  • Terrorist Organizations: Key Concepts
  • Homegrown Terrorism in the United States
  • Terrorist Activities in Media Broadcasting
  • Intelligence Requests for Terrorist Attacks Prevention
  • Government Preparedness to Chemical and Bio Terrorism
  • Policy on National Security and Terrorism in the USA
  • Ethical Terrorist Elimination in the United States
  • Countering Terrorist Recruitment in the United States
  • Terrorism in the USA
  • Arab Spring, Terrorism and Libyan Political Changes
  • Emergency Management: Past Acts of Terrorism
  • Problem of Terrorism in Modern World
  • Terrorism’s Serious Problems: Can It Be Justified?
  • Homeland Security and Terrorist Attack Prevention
  • Terrorism and Homeland Security
  • Extremist Groups and Domestic Terrorism in the US
  • Terrorist Hazards and Education Role in Security
  • How Do We Prepare for Future Terrorist Attacks?
  • Disaster Management: Terrorism and Emergency Situations
  • Extreme Islamic Terrorist Groups in Comparison
  • World Trade Center Disaster and Anti-Terrorism
  • Terrorism Financing and Combating Methods
  • Terrorist Activity in the United States
  • The USA Patriot Act in Fight with Terrorism
  • Religion as a Root of Terrorism
  • Legislation After the 9/11 Terrorist Attack in New York
  • Global War on Terrorism: Main Challenges
  • Terrorist Attacks: Death and Horrifying Effects on Innocent People
  • Terrorism Evolution from 1972 to 2016
  • Terrorism Definition and Motivation
  • State Terrorism vs. Critical Terrorism
  • Terrorism Definitions in the US Legislation System
  • Guantanamo Bay as a Terrorists’ Location
  • The Concept of Terrorism
  • Events of 9/11 and an Era of New Terrorism
  • The US Intelligence Community Role in Countering Terror Threats
  • Terrorism: Irish Republican Army History and Ideologies
  • Terrorist Bomb Attacks in France
  • Anti-Terrorist Attitudes and Measures in the US
  • Tokyo Terrorist Attack in 1995: Stakeholders and Effects
  • Terrorism, Its History and Constituents
  • Homeland Security: Fast Response to Disasters and Terrorism
  • Crimes in America: The 9/11/01 Terrorist Attacks
  • Supreme Court’s and Habeas Corpus War on Terror
  • History of Cold War and War on Terror
  • Preparing for Terrorism and Disasters in the New Age of Health Care
  • 9/11 Terrorist Attacks and Its Effect on Muslims
  • Information Warfare and Cyberterrorism
  • War on Terrorism: Reasons, Essence, and Social Outcomes
  • Counter-Terrorism: Constitutional and Legislative Issues
  • Psycho-Political Terrorism and Its Main Principles
  • Terrorism: Understanding of USC Definitions
  • Right and Left Wing Terrorist Groups
  • Terrorism in Perspective: Characteristics, Causes, Control
  • The Right of Habeas Corpus in the Context of the War on Terror
  • Terrorism: Definition, History, Countermeasures
  • Intelligence Implications for Self-Radicalized Terrorism
  • Why Does Globalization Contribute to the Rise of International Terrorism?
  • Is Democracy Promotion a Cure for Ending Terrorism?
  • What Is the Effect of Globalization on Terrorism?
  • Can Islamic and Global Terrorism Ever Be Defeated?
  • What Are the Four Elements of the Government’s Counter Terrorism Strategy?
  • Can the State Commit Acts of Terrorism?
  • Does the International Community Think That Iran Is a Direct Contributor to Terrorism?
  • What Are the Political Causes of Terrorism?
  • How Does the Patriot Act Define Domestic Terrorism?
  • Why Does Poverty Cause Terrorism?
  • Does Economic Growth Cause Terrorism in Pakistan?
  • How Does Social Identity Theory Explain Terrorism?
  • What Are the Effects of Terrorism in India?
  • Does Transnational Terrorism Reduce Foreign Direct Investment?
  • How Does Terrorism Affect the Economy?
  • What Strategy Aims to Reduce the Threat to the UK From Terrorism?
  • Is Terrorism a Social Phenomenon?
  • Why Are Developing Countries More Vulnerable to Terrorism?
  • How Does Terrorism Affect International Business?
  • Does Terrorism Influence Domestic Politics?
  • What Is the Difference Between Cybercrime and Cyber Terrorism?
  • Is Cyber Attack a Form of Terrorism?
  • What Is the Link Between Transnational Organized Crime and Terrorism?
  • How Can Cyber Terrorism Be Prevented?
  • Does Immigration Increase the Risk of Terrorism?
  • The Role of International Relations in Combating Cyberterrorism: Challenges and Strategies
  • Analyzing the Psychological Profiles of Terrorists: Motivations and Mindsets
  • The Role of Women in Terrorist Organizations: Perpetrators, Supporters, and Defectors
  • The Influence of Religion and Ideology in Shaping Terrorism
  • The Impact of Political Regimes on Terrorism: A Comparative Analysis of Authoritarian and Democratic States
  • The Use of Technology in Modern Terrorism: Drones, Cyber Attacks, and Artificial Intelligence
  • Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection: Assessing Vulnerabilities to Cyberterrorism
  • Homeland Security and Border Control: Addressing the Challenges of Terrorism through Immigration Policies
  • The Impact of Terrorism on Tourism and the Global Economy
  • The Evolution of Terrorism: A Historical Analysis of Ideologies and Tactics
  • Criminology and Terrorism: Analyzing the Social and Psychological Factors Influencing Terrorist Behavior
  • Comparative Study of Counterterrorism Strategies in Different Political Systems

Cite this post

  • Chicago (N-B)
  • Chicago (A-D)

StudyCorgi. (2021, September 9). 293 Essay Titles & Research Topics on Terrorism. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/terrorism-essay-topics/

"293 Essay Titles & Research Topics on Terrorism." StudyCorgi , 9 Sept. 2021, studycorgi.com/ideas/terrorism-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . (2021) '293 Essay Titles & Research Topics on Terrorism'. 9 September.

1. StudyCorgi . "293 Essay Titles & Research Topics on Terrorism." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/terrorism-essay-topics/.

Bibliography

StudyCorgi . "293 Essay Titles & Research Topics on Terrorism." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/terrorism-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . 2021. "293 Essay Titles & Research Topics on Terrorism." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/terrorism-essay-topics/.

These essay examples and topics on Terrorism were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on January 9, 2024 .

IMAGES

  1. Terrorist Organizations Analyze Research Paper Example

    terrorist organizations research paper topics

  2. (PDF) Analysis of Terrorist Attack Scenarios and Measures for

    terrorist organizations research paper topics

  3. State containing most Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

    terrorist organizations research paper topics

  4. Sample essay on terrorism

    terrorist organizations research paper topics

  5. Terrorist Organization Research Paper Example

    terrorist organizations research paper topics

  6. (PDF) An Introduction to Terrorism Research

    terrorist organizations research paper topics

VIDEO

  1. FORMS OF TERRORISM

  2. Research Paper Topics 😮😮😯 Best for Beginners 👍

  3. 3367-Jan-29: Short Paper topics; symbolism and meaning

  4. How is Terrorism and it's Perception Shaped by Mass Media(Css Essay 2022)

  5. Video 1.3: Use of the word Terrorism

COMMENTS

  1. Topics in terrorism research: reviewing trends and gaps, 2007-2016

    The results presented in. Table 1. clearly show that al-Qaeda, jihadism more generally and Iraq were the most frequently researched topics overall in the 2007-2016 period. Several other topics, such as "United States", "Counterterrorism/War on Terror" and "Afghanistan" were also frequent top-5 contenders.

  2. 50 Un- and Under-researched Topics in the Field of (Counter-) Terrorism

    Alex P. Schmid, 50 Un- and Under-researched Topics in the Field of (Counter-) Terrorism Studies, Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 5, No. 1 (March 2011), pp. 76-78

  3. Terrorism Dissertation Topics Ideas

    Introduction. Terrorism is a major global threat to public safety and security. It is an unlawful use of violence and intimidation to achieve political, ideological or religious goals. Terrorist attacks are always extremely devastating and have the potential to cause significant destruction, fear, injury and even death.

  4. Terrorist Organizations

    Terrorist organizations have long threatened the security, infrastructure, and citizens of nations and communities throughout the world. Since the early 1970s, RAND has explored the structure and activities of terrorist organizations—most recently ISIS and its offshoots—to understand their motivations, their recruitment and training methods, and why some are more successful than others.

  5. Full article: Research on Terrorism, 2007-2016: A Review of Data

    Research on terrorism has long been criticized for its inability to overcome enduring methodological issues. ... resources available to addressing the topics being investigated. The 9/11 attacks and the global war on terrorism that followed brought new funding and researchers to the field. ... 74.7% of research-based papers were the work of a ...

  6. Transnational Organized Crime and Terrorism

    What Is Terrorism? Terrorism has a long history, appearing in nearly every asymmetric conflict. One of the earliest accounts of terrorism centers on nonstate actor resistance to the Roman Empire in the Judea Province in the 1st century ce (Chaliand & Blin, 2016).Groups of all religions, national origins, political aims, and ideological creeds have used violence or the threat of violence ...

  7. Fifty years of scholarly research on terrorism: Intellectual

    The scholarly literature on terrorism research is estimated to have exceeded 18,651 items as of September 2020. Articles of this literature have been disseminated across of range of different sources and disciplines including social and psychological sciences, but their concentration is most noticeable in two particular disciplines: "Political Science" (N = 4177) and "International ...

  8. Center for the Study of Terrorism

    Metrics: The FPRI Center for the Study of Terrorism publishes its research in multiple channels, and conducts briefings, seminars, lectures and larger symposia to disseminate its findings to policy makers, operational personnel, and scholars. Since the al Qaeda attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, it is clear that tactical ...

  9. Computational techniques to counter terrorism: a systematic ...

    Terrorist Network Analysis (TNA) is the field of analyzing and defining the scope of terrorism and researching the countermeasures in order to handle exponentially increasing threats due to ever growing terrorist based activities. This field constitutes several sub-domains such as crawling the data about terrorist attacks/groups, classification, behavioral, and predictive analysis. In this ...

  10. RAND's Research on Terrorism

    Describes the origin, topics, and important findings. Researchers representing a variety of disciplines have studied the motivation and tactics of international terrorists; the use of computers to help manage low-level crises; policy and tactics for dealing with terrorists holding hostages; U.S. military capabilities for subconventional missions such as rescuing U.S. nationals abroad; and the ...

  11. National Security and Terrorism

    RAND conducts a broad array of national security research for the U.S. Department of Defense and allied ministries of defense. Our federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) explore threat assessment, military acquisition, technology, recruitment and personnel management, counterinsurgency, intelligence, and readiness. RAND is a world leader in terrorism research.

  12. Full article: Too Close for Comfort: Cyber Terrorism and Information

    This is not to say academics over the last years have not been interested in terrorist's use of cyberspace. On the contrary, the internet is considered by leading scholars as one of the "hot topics" Footnote 26 in terrorism research and many interesting articles have been published on terrorist use of the internet.

  13. 40 Terrorism Research Paper Topics

    The tragedy of 9/11. The Incels movement: a growing danger? Terrorism and religion. Using minors and vulnerable social groups in terrorist acts. The role of terrorism in the creation and development of Israel. The most powerful international terrorism groups: Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and others.

  14. 4. Recommendations for Research

    To develop individual-level background profiles of terrorists, using as many samples of terrorists as can be made available. Entries in these profiles could include data on family background (parents' occupations or economic circumstances, size of family, place in sibling order), education, job history, political history, circumstances of recruitment and indoctrination into terrorism, and ...

  15. 293 Terrorism Research Paper Topics & Essay Titles

    This paper states that the phenomenon of terrorism is tightly connected to the concept of inequality of globalization. Terrorist Attack in San Bernardino. The San Bernardino shootings in 2015 killed 14 innocent people and injured 24 more. It was also the bloodiest mass shooting in the US since 2012.

  16. Domestic Radicalization and Violent Extremism

    Countering and preventing terrorism is a primary concern for state and local law enforcement agencies as well as the federal government. Terrorists are those who support or commit ideologically motivated violence to further political, social or religious goals. The goal of NIJ's work on domestic radicalization and violent extremism is to provide community leaders with evidence-based ...

  17. (PDF) An Introduction to Terrorism Research

    In book: Research on Terrorism: Trends, Achievements and Failures (pp.1-29) Chapter: An Introduction to Terrorism Research; Publisher: Routledge

  18. (PDF) Globalization and International Terrorism: Its Implications on

    Contrary to the prevailing view that terrorism is an effective means of political coercion, the universe of cases suggests that, first, contemporary terrorist groups rarely achieve their policy ...

  19. PDF ADVANCED TOPICS IN TERRORISM

    3. Evaluate different terrorist organizational strategies for logistics, recruitment, and ideological support. 4. Study and perform targeted research into various terrorist organizations and terrorism topics. 5. Understand and evaluate the various asymmetrical warfare methodologies and their purpose within violence oriented organization. 6.

  20. Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction

    Paperback 72 pages. $25.00. Although the conventional wisdom previously held that terrorists were more interested in publicity than in killing, recent terrorist attacks — such as the 1995 nerve gas attack in a Tokyo subway and the bombing of a federal government office building in Oklahoma City — have either crossed into the domain of use ...

  21. Terrorism

    A RAND survey found that U.S. veterans appeared to support extremist groups at a rate lower than the general population. In contrast, a new University of Maryland study found that veteran status was the most prominent characteristic among extremists involved in terrorism attacks with four or more victims. Sep 11, 2023.

  22. NATO

    Terrorism is the most direct asymmetric threat to the security of the citizens of NATO countries, and to international stability and prosperity. A persistent global issue that knows no border, nationality or religion, terrorism is a challenge that the international community must tackle together. NATO will continue to fight this threat with determination and in full solidarity. NATO's work ...

  23. 10 Terror Groups Alone Threaten the Existence of Over a Billion ...

    An interesting subject was found about the fact that organizations that do not have a democratic ideology and have all the factors above, have an 89% likelihood of engaging in terrorism.The fact that 71 percent of American voters in the 2014 midterms were worried about a terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland , is an indication that violent ...