Ideologies of Violence: The Social Origins of Islamist and Leftist Transnational Terrorism

Abstract

We evaluate the argument that Islamist terrorist attacks represent a distinctive "4`" wave" of transnational terrorism that has supplanted Leftist terrorism. Drawing on ITERATE data for 1968-2003, the annual count of Leftist attacks has declined since the end of the Cold War while Islamist attacks have persisted and spiked upward in 2002-03. Pooled cross-sectional time-series regression demonstrates that the generation of Islamist terrorism is more deeply rooted in the social strains created by modernization, the competition between Islam and other religions, and the growth of secular government. Leftist terrorism was uniquely stimulated by Cold War rivalry (and subsequently declined thereafter). Both forms of transnational terrorism display a kindred nature, however, in that both are encouraged by the social strains of transitional development and the political opportunities created by increasing political rights. Moreover, foreign direct investment is associated with reduced transnational terrorism over time, calling into question theories that stress global order and anti-systemic violence against international capitalism.

Women on the frontline

“…Whereas leftist movements typically seek to establish structures that upend traditional social hierarchies, radical Islamist organizations strive to reassert such norms and patterns of social order, including gender relations (Robinson, Crenshaw & Jenkins, 2006. Radical Islamism rejects the idea that appropriate societal norms or values can be derived from a secular society and instead believes that the pure teachings of the Qur'an and Hadiths should be the basis of a society's organization (Roald, 2003).…”

Lock, stock, and barrel: a comprehensive assessment of the determinants of terror

“…Of the 43 studies reviewed for this paper, 40 include some measure of democracy (e.g., Blomberg and Hess 2008b;Blomberg and Rosendorff 2009;Drakos and Gofas 2006b;Eyerman 1998;Li 2005;Piazza 2008b Robison et al 2006). Fourth, economic regulation may protect the interest of insiders at the cost of reducing opportunities for outsiders (e.g., Basuchoudhary and Shughart 2010;Kurrild-Klitgaard et al 2006;Piazza 2008b).…”

Terrorism and the Labor Force

“…In addition, the level of foreign investment might be expected to correlate with both female labor force participation and terrorism, as increased investment in an economy could both transform opportunities for labor force participation and change incentives for terrorist groups (Neumayer and De Soysa 2011). Government final consumption expenditures substitutes as a measure of the size of the government, which has been linked to increases in female labor force participation and can act as a proxy for the degree of ''government intrusiveness'' into societal affairs (Robison et al 2006;Cavalcanti and Tavares 2011).…”

“…1 In the broadest terms, these factors fall under economic, political, demographic, international, and geographic categories (Robison, Crenshaw, and Jenkins 2006;Krieger and Meierrieks 2011). It is crucial to ascertain the causal direction of any effects in the process of identifying those factors exhibiting significant statistical associations with terrorism.…”

“…Caprioli (2005) found evidence that gender inequality was associated with increased likelihood of a state experiencing internal conflict, the theory being that states characterized by gender discrimination and structural hierarchy exhibit patterns of violence making internal conflict more likely. Robison, Crenshaw, and Jenkins (2006) proposed that female labor force participation might influence terrorism, especially religious terrorism, as the freedom/liberation of women threatens groups where gender relations are viewed as divinely ordained. Contrasting the initial hypothesis, their study found that increased female labor force participation was negatively associated with Islamist attacks and had no effect on leftist terrorism.…”