Fighting terrorism in Africa: Benchmarking policy harmonization

Abstract

This study assesses the feasibility of policy harmonization in the fight against terrorism in 53African countries with data for the period 1980-2012. Four terrorism variables are used, namely: domestic, transnational, unclear and total terrorism dynamics. The empirical evidence is based on absolute beta catch-up and sigma convergence estimation techniques. There is substantial absence of catch-up. The lowest rate of convergence in terrorism is in landlocked countries for regressions pertaining to unclear terrorism (3.43% per annum for 174.9 years) while the highest rate of convergence is in upper-middle-income countries in domestic terrorism regressions (15.33% per annum for 39.13 years). After comparing results from the two estimation techniques, it is apparent that in the contemporary era, countries with low levels of terrorism are not catching-up their counterparts with high levels of terrorism. As a policy implication, whereas some common policies may be feasibly adopted for the fight against terrorism, the findings based on the last periodic phase (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) are indicative that country-specific policies would better pay-off in the fight against terrorism than blanket common policies. Some suggestions of measures in fighting transnational terrorism have been discussed in the light of an anticipated surge in cross-national terrorism incidences in the coming years.

The Comparative African Economics of Governance in Fighting Terrorism

“…The choice of the fundamental characteristics which have been empirically and theoretically justified in extant comparative African development literature (Asongu & Nwachukwu, 2017b) 3 are also consistent with recent literature on fighting terrorism in Africa (Asongu et al, 2018b). They include: legal origins (French civil law vs. English common law), political stability (politically-stable vs. conflict-affected), resource-wealth (resource-poor vs. resourcerich), income levels (middle-income vs. low-income), regional proximity (North Africa vs. SSA), openness to sea (coastal vs. landlocked) and religious domination (Christianity vs.…”

Can Foreign Aid Dampen the Threat of Terrorism to International Trade? Evidence from 78 Developing Countries

“…In order to avoid mathematical concerns that are related to log-transforming zeros and correct the positive skew in the data, the study considers the natural logarithm of terrorism incidents by adding one to the base. This transformation approach is in accordance with recent literature (Asongu & Nwachukwu, 2017; Asongu, Tchamyou, Asongu, & Tchamyou, 2017, 2018; Asongu, Tchamyou, Minkoua, Asongu, & Tchamyou, 2018; Bandyopadhyay et al, 2014; Choi & Salehyan, 2013). Terrorism-specific definitions are from Efobi et al (2015, p. 6).…”

Foreign Aid, Instability, and Governance in Africa

“…This is essentially because of the wealth of theoretical literature on the relationship between aid and development outcomes in developing countries (Asongu and Jellal 2016;Easterly 1999). Hence, this research is consistent with a contemporary strand of literature arguing that applied econometrics is not necessarily limited to the acceptance and rejection of established theoretical underpinnings (Asongu et al 2018b;Costantini and Lupi 2005;Narayan, Mishra, and Narayan 2011). Applied econometrics could pave the way to theory building, especially in light of a relationship that has not yet been established in the literature.…”