Internally Displaced Populations and Suicide Terrorism

Abstract

This study asserts that countries with large internally displaced populations (IDPs) are more likely to experience a higher rate of suicide terrorism. After demonstrating this, the study tests four intervening factors hypothesized to drive the relationship between IDPs and suicide attacks: IDPs are expected (1) to increase the pool of potential suicide recruits, thereby lowering the labor costs for suicide terrorist groups; (2) to increase local ethnic conflicts that foster a favorable environment for suicide terrorism; (3) to worsen the human rights conditions in countries, prompting aggrieved people to support suicide terrorist tactics; and (4) to raise the counterterrorism and policing costs of the state, enabling terrorists to plan and execute suicide attacks. Results from negative binomial regression and Tobit models show evidence for the IDPssuicide terrorism connection. When recursive models are employed to evaluate the effects of four intervening variables, the results most consistently support human rights violations as a significant and substantive mediator between IDPs and suicide attacks.

Internally displaced persons and the Cyprus peace process

“…Our findings demonstrate the critical role of IDP-specific research in conflict resolution studies, particularly power-sharing settlements. Contrary to much of the literature on the radicalization of displaced persons (Achvarina and Reich, 2006;Choi and Piazza 2016;Bohnet et al, 2018), IDP status among Greek Cypriots appears to be associated with higher levels of support for peace processes. While conclusions and recommendations cannot be generalised beyond our specific case and survey results, our questionnaire and methodology offer a useful tool for comparable situations where return options constitute a critical priority among displaced communities.…”

The Nexus Between Causes of Boko Haramand its Effect on Nigeria Economy

“…This postulation is such because the deprived would find it easier to engage in terrorism being frustrated and has nothing at stake (Krieger and Meirrieks, 2011). Also, it is common to see inflation in the countries withterrorist-caused Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)experiencing more suicide terrorism attacks in order to get back to the society that has deprived them accommodation (Choi and Piazza, 2014). This is common knowledge since the inception of the insurgency in Nigeria in 2007.…”

Suicide combatant mobilization: Familial ties and sibling socialization

“…Previous research has argued that suicide terrorists are motivated by individual characteristics (Crenshaw 2000;Pedahzur, Perliger and Weinberg 2003), environmental conditions (Piazza 2006;Choi and Piazza 2016; Okafor and Piesse 2018; Rüegger 2019), and the strategic goals of the terrorist organization (Pape 2003(Pape , 2006Krieger and Meierrieks 2011). Political science research on suicide terrorism often uses the aggregate count of suicide terrorist attacks at the state level as the outcome of interest.…”