The study of terrorism and political violence has been characterized by a lack of generalizable theory and methodology. This essay proposes that social movement theory can contribute a necessary conceptual framework for understanding terrorism and thus reviews the relevant literature and discusses possible applications. Terrorism is a form of contentious politics, analyzable with the basic social movement approach of mobilizing resources, political opportunity structure, and framing. Cultural perspectives call attention to issues of collective identity that allow for sustained militancy, and movement research recommends alternative conceptions of terrorist networks. Previous research on movement radicalization, repression, and cycles of contention has direct bearing on militancy. Emerging perspectives on transnational collective action and the diffusion of tactics and issues informs an understanding of contemporary international terrorism. Research on movement outcomes suggests broader ways of considering the efficacy of political violence. Finally, methodological debates within the study of social movements are relevant for research on terrorism. In sum, a social movement approach to terrorism has much to contribute, and research on terrorism could have important extensions and implications for social movement theory. 1566 Social Movement Theory and Terrorism . His dissertation research concerns the causal role of ideology and systemic factors in the onset of revolution and the spread of waves of political contention. He has previously researched ecoterrorism in the United States and the variation in Islamic political organization across the contemporary Middle East and North Africa. Current research projects include a comparative case study of eras of globalization and constitutional revolution, an examination of contention in 16th century Europe, and with John W. Meyer and Gili S. Drori the adoption of human rights language in constitutions of the world. Notes

The "Arab Spring" was a surprising event not just because predicting revolutions is a difficult task, but because current theories of revolution are ill equipped to explain revolutionary waves where interactive causal mechanisms at different levels of analysis and interactions between the units of analysis predominate. To account for such dynamics, a multidimensional social science of revolution is required. Accordingly, a meta-framework for revolutionary theory that combines multiple levels of analysis, multiple units of analysis, and their interactions is offered. A structured example of theory building is then given by detailing how the development of world cultural models and practices challenge existing political structures, affect mobilization processes, and make diffusion more likely. A structured example of study design using qualitative comparative analysis of 16 Middle Eastern and North African countries provides support for the interaction of subnational conditions for mobilization, statecentered causes, and transnational factors, including a country's linkage to world society, as one explanation of the Revolutions of 2011. Keywords Revolution. Arab spring. World culture. World society. Arab countries On January 14, 2011, the long time dictator of Tunisia, Ben Ali, fled Tunis after his military chief refused to suppress a month long popular protest against autocratic rule and corruption. Shortly thereafter, Egyptian activists launched the beginning of protests that would lead to the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, protestors occupied central squares in the capitals of Bahrain and Yemen, and Libyan and Syrian demonstrations, which later devolved into civil war, began. By March, nearly the entire Arab World, and even elsewhere, had experienced contention that almost no one seemed to anticipate. The surprising "Arab Spring" or, as I and other scholars (e.g., Goldstone 2011) might prefer it, the "Revolutions of 2011" had arrived. While many scholars of revolution would not be astonished that prediction of these events had failed (see Keddie 1995; Kuran 1995; Kurzman 2004), the New York Times reported that President Obama faulted American intelligence agencies for not expecting the revolutions (Mazzetti 2011), and a Middle East scholar faulted his own discipline

No abstract

A recent movement has extended previous emphases on the rights of national citizens by asserting the global human rights of all persons. This article describes the extent to which this change is reflected in the language of national constitutions around the world. Human rights language – formerly absent from almost all constitutions – now appears in most of them. Rather than characterizing developed or democratic states, human rights language is, first, especially common in countries most susceptible to global influences. Second, human rights language is driven by the extent of the international human rights regime at the time of a constitution’s writing. Third, human rights language tends to appear in newer constitutions and in the constitutions of emergent and reorganized states. National constitutions are imprinted with global social conditions, which now stress the discourse of human rights.

The existence of revolutionary waves is a well-known feature of history. This study contends that revolutionary waves are best understood as systemic phenomena occurring during periods of rapid world-cultural expansion. Rapid expansion and deeper penetration of cultural linkages is theorized to generate contradiction between idealized models and local political practices, empower oppositions, and fracture elites, resulting in waves of revolution. The theoretical logic is illustrated with the example of the Atlantic Revolutions. Multivariate analyses examine the correspondence among a new indicator of world culture, additional systemic processes, and revolutionary waves across five centuries of European history. Results suggest that the occurrence of revolutionary waves is positively associated with relatively rapid world-cultural growth and hegemonic decline, as indicated by periods of hegemonic warfare.