Political Science Commons^™

Terrorism Turnover: An Assessment Of Radicalized Extremism From Al Qaeda To The Islamic State, Zachary R. Schwermann

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

Terrorism has become a hot button topic since the rise of the radicalized Islamist organization Al Qaeda, in the late 1990’s. However, the infamous attacks on September 11^th, 2001 are what truly brought this organization and its ideals to the forefront of the world’s attention. This paper provides a comprehensive and in depth analysis of the creation of Al Qaeda and traces the path of its connections to the Islamic State, which is currently the dominant radicalized Islamist organization. The Islamic State grew out of the Al Qaeda branch in Iraq and in addition to covering how that …

Examining American Attitudes On The Use Of Military Drones, Todd Brandon

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Recent polls have revealed that Americans of both the political left and right support the use of military drones. This statement stands true among groups who traditionally do not support the use of military force. I hypothesize that people of a more liberal persuasion will be more concerned with whether or not the drone program endangers innocent civilians, while those of a more conservative view will be more concerned with the legality of conducting military drone strikes. I analyze data obtained from the Pew Research Center to examine people's attitudes on military drone strikes via framing theory. My hypothesis has …

Differences Between Actors And Leaders In Terrorism, Allie C. Curttright

UCARE: Research Products

This project examines the difference between those that leader terrorist organizations and those who carry out acts of political violence. The two main differences examined here are age and education level. The findings of this research are that leaders of terrorist organizations are older and more educated than those who carry out political violence.

Research Advisor: Dr. Kevin Smith

The Transformation And Demise Of Terrorist Organizations: Causes And Categories, Devyani M. Mehta

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In the recent years, the world has experienced devastating losses due to terrorist attacks. Research in the fields of causes of terrorism is abundant, but the amount of research on the end of terrorism does not equally measure up. This paper aims to add to the research focused on analyzing the factors which cause terrorist groups to transition away from violence.

This paper introduces an original categorization of the factors which generate this transition. Factors belong to two categories: internal --decisions made by the terrorist organization, and external--actions or features pertaining to organization outside of non-terrorist organizations. These factors will …

Salman, Salman, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Salman and his family are from Afghanistan, where he worked as a doctor. He worked for fifteen years for a mining institute, and before that he worked in various hospitals with Americans and Germans for another combined 15 years. The family ran into problems with the Taliban, who threatened violence if he didn’t close his drugstore. During that same time, his son witnessed a suicide bombing at his school. Their daughter was forced to abandon her education when the Taliban poisoned the water at her school. They fled in attempts to live a normal life again and escape the threats …

Support For Suicide Terrorism In Egypt, Matthew J. Pastoria

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Evaluating the factors that affect support for suicide terrorism in Egypt based upon the PEW Research Center's Global Attitudes Project data from 2014.

Unpopular But Effective? The Drone Strike Dilemma, Jake Berlin

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

In the mountainous region of northwestern Pakistan known as Waziristan, local tribesmen have grown accustomed to living in a state of constant vigilance. Death from above can come at virtually any time in the form of laser-guided missile strikes launched by U.S. predator and reaper drones. The drones are controlled remotely by pilots thousands of miles away at bases in the U.S. and can hover for hours before delivering their deadly payload. Advanced cameras allow drone operators to see their targets from distances that are impossible for the targets to see them, and the missiles launched by drones exhibit astounding …

The Somewhere We Wish Were Nowhere: Dystopian Realities And (Un)Democratic Imaginaries, Benjamin B. Taylor

Senior Independent Study Theses

How do political practices influence mass culture? Conversely, how does mass culture influence political practice? This project addresses these questions by turning to the concepts of utopia and dystopia. Imagined utopic and dystopic visions express both the hopes and anxieties of the societies producing them. Dystopias also highlight the mechanisms of power that function within particular social orders. Through readings of Lois Lowry’s The Giver and Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, I demonstrate how utopia and dystopia function and how we can respond to dystopic realities by theorizing solutions that are more conducive to the …

Private Military Contractors, Security Forces, And Mercenaries, Naomi Pearson

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Teutonic Terror: The History Of German Counterterrorism Policy, Harry Richart

Ex-Patt Magazine

Terrorism wasn’t born in the 21st Century. Learn how Germany has dealt with domestic threats from the Cold War to the War on Terror.

The Aftermath: 9/11 And The War On Privacy, Rights And Humanity, Omid Irani

Political Analysis

No abstract provided.

Terrorism And Global Domestic Insurgency Nexus: A Case Of Boko Haram Insurgency In Nigeria, Augustine N. Eneanya

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

The paper examines the link between Non-state armed Islamist groups’ terrorism and global domestic insurgency, using Nigeria as a case study. It adopts a combination of deprivation – frustration – aggression theory, social learning and social identity theories as its framework of analysis. The primary focus of inquiry is on secondary data, purposively sampled from books, journals articles, and reports of periodicals, internet and existing statistics. Qualitative research and secondary data analysis method were adopted. Using discourse, descriptive and explanatory techniques, the paper attempts to establish the relationship between Non-state armed Islamist groups’ support and Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. …

Terrorism Through American Eyes, Jacob Blaznek

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The ‘War on Terror’ has been a highly debated topic since President Bush first said it after the attack to the United States on September 11th. Many articles and books have been written about the growing problem of terrorism and how the United States is handling it. Each article provides different ways that the United States has wrongly handled the situation and ways that they could improve their efforts to reduce terrorism. After the terrorist attack on World Trade Center and The Pentagon, the United States went to War against Al-Qaeda. Today, the US is still in a highly dangerous …

Afghan Narcoterrorism: The Problem, Its Origins, And Why International Law Enforcement Should Fight It, Steven Fantigrossi

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper provides insight into the issue of opium trafficking in Afghanistan. In 2014, despite U.S., Afghan, and international efforts since 2001, poppy-opium cultivation in Afghanistan reached an all-time high. The Afghan opium trafficking industry provides funding to terrorist groups and transnational crime organizations and is responsible for the continued corruption of government officials, police officers, and intelligence agents in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and other nations. Aside from increased corruption and funding of terrorists and criminals, the opium trade creates opium and heroin addicts out of men, women, and children across the globe. The history of how the opium problem …

Fixing The Failed: An Investigation Of Terrorist Organizations And State Building Capabilities, Joshua Adam Freeman

Master's Theses

This study examines the role of terrorist organizations in failed states. In particular, their ability to perform positive state-building activities that result in stability is investigated. Both terrorism and state failure present unique and serious threats to international security. However, there is very little literature concerning the positive effect terrorist organizations can have in failed states. Presented is not only an investigation of the linkages between state failure and terrorism, but also a new classification of terrorist organizations based upon their ability to state-build in failed states. These organizations are classified by their ability to provide goods and services within …

High-Casualty Terrorism: Explanations & Understandings, James Brandon Frye

Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the occurrence of high-casualty terrorism in order to determine whether specific factors of an individual country make it more or less likely to experience this particular form of political violence. Using data derived from the Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research and the Center for Systemic Peace's compilation list of high-casualty terrorist bombings (HCTB) between the years of 1990 and 2013, several hypotheses are tested. Investigating the roles of the operationalized variables through both a Poisson and negative binomial regression allows for a greater understanding of why events of this manner take place. Through these analyses, state …

Counterterrorism In Authoritarian And Democratic Governments, Tai Gray

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

This research project aims to determine if significant differences exist in the types of counterterrorism used by authoritarian and democratic governments. A case study of the counterterrorism methods used by the United States and Chinese governments shows that authoritarian governments' methods seem to be more extreme due to a greater influence over domestic media and public opinion, but similarities in the realm of human rights also exist that could suggest a more similar response between the two regime types.

Defeating Isis: The Need For A Cooperative Effort, Sabrina Chikhi

Journal of Interdisciplinary Conflict Science

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of a collective approach in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria also known as ISIS. The approach of the international community had been doomed to failure because it excluded key players in the region. In order to annihilate this terrorist group and the threat it poses to international security, this article proposes a revision of the approach to the resolution of this problem through the inclusion of all the parties susceptible to secure an efficient contribution to that endeavor before the situation becomes irremediable. In order …

Terrain, Trains, And Terrorism: The Influence Of Geography On Terrorism In India, Andrea Malji

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

What conditions give rise to and nurture ethno-nationalist terrorist movements in India? Specifically, can geography create grievances and be beneficial in a terrorist campaign? I investigate how geography prevented historical development in certain locations in India. I theorize that rugged geographic features prevented economic, social, and political development. Underdevelopment and isolation created grievances in the population. Aggrieved groups then utilized the same geographic features that prevented development to launch effective terrorist campaigns. I conduct a district level analysis of terrorism in India using statistical and GIS analysis. I supplement the analysis with case studies from the Indian states of Uttarkhand, …

The Psychology Of Terrorism And Radicalization, Gina K. Dejacimo

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Terrorism and radicalized political groups are an ever-growing subsection of the American and international news cycles. Mainstream media outlets tend to focus on the atrocious actions of terrorists, leaving the American public without a true understanding of what encourages someone to become a violent, radicalized extremist. This paper intends to investigate possible psychological factors that can predict a person’s likelihood to become radicalized and participate in a salafi jihadi terrorist campaign. If such psychological conditions exist, perhaps they are the key to preventing radicalization in the first place, and in turn, the key to preventing any terrorist activity. What other …

Twelve Years Later: Afghan Humanitarian Aid Workers On War On Terror, Emmanuel C. Ogwude

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Using narrative research study founded in social constructionism, I explored the lived experiences of thirty Afghan humanitarian aid workers in Kabul, Afghanistan, to discover how they experienced the war on terror. Ten participants were individually interviewed and their stories, personal experiences, perceptions, and voices have been presented in this study. I also facilitated a focus group of twenty Afghan NGO directors, and their views are echoed in the study. The participants represented a diversity of different humanitarian service specialties that cater to Afghan individuals, communities, and government agencies in areas such as education, human rights and good governance, food and …

Jihad In The Global Village: Al-Qaeda's Digital Radicalization And Recruitment Campaign, Katie Cannata

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Following America’s “War on Terror,” al-Qaeda and its affiliates became highly decentralized in terms of organizational and media operations. Though mass media outlets continue to play a significant role in drawing attention to al-Qaeda’s transnational campaign, Salafi Jihadists have recently begun to rely on new media for purposes of legitimization and promotion. The Internet serves as a suitable platform for these groups’ media objectives since it is inherently anonymous and absent of censorship. Most importantly, the Internet facilitates al-Qaeda in reaching a global audience, which is made evident by the growing amount of Salafi Jihadist media that is translated or …

Essays On Battle Clusters In Internal Armed Conflicts And Insurgencies: Concept, Causes And Consequences, Chifeng Liu

Theses and Dissertations

With the purpose to re-conceptualize the intensity of internal armed conflicts, I argue that the characteristics such as location, scale and duration of “major battlefields,” i.e. the spatio-temporal clusters of combat events are important in the evaluation of impact of modern civil wars and insurgencies. I start with elaborating and constructing a new concept of conflict magnitude with battle clusters using up-to-date geo-referenced data and spatial statistic methods. In the second article, I first explain the location and duration of major battlefields. The findings indicate that an area with multiple non-state armed groups (NSAGs) is more likely to become main …

Factors That Shape U.S. Public Opinion On Foreign Policy, Julianne O'Connor

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Measuring public opinion is an undertaking requiring precise methods and a clear vision, and even then results can be inconclusive. Yet, understanding how and why a democratic public thinks the way it does, and to what extent those thoughts influence policymakers, is essential to a democracy. This paper will use data from the American National Election Survey to discuss the relationship between level of support for the war on terror and level of perceived effectiveness. Values, political sophistication, knowledge, and self-efficacy can each be used to predict the level of support an individual has for the war on terror, and …

Post-9/11 Illegal Immigrant Detention And Deportation: Terrorism And The Criminalization Of Immigration, Stefany N. Laun

Student Publications

This paper analyzes the changes in immigration policy since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in terms of how immigrants are viewed in the United States. The goal is to address the recent criminalization of immigration in that the perceptions of terrorists and immigrants have become relatively synonymous since 2001. Although deportations have decreased, immigrant detention has increased significantly. Detention centers pose threats to the basic human rights of the immigrants residing in them, as well as perpetuate the culture of fear enveloping recent immigrants, whether they are legally or illegally in the country, and native United States citizens …

International Norm Echoing In Rebel Groups: The Cases Of The Kosovo Liberation Army And The Liberation Tigers Of Tamil Eelam, Jennifer A. Mueller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research demonstrates that rebel groups use international norms in their discourse and echo patterns in the discourse of states and that they do so to promote their own legitimacy at key turning points in their conflicts. Which international norms rebel groups use most frequently is partially determined by the congruence of those norms with their local norms and beliefs and the degree to which a group's internal structure has become more hierarchical and specialized. Two rebel groups are examined in this study over the course of their conflicts: the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil …

The Specter Of Intolerance: Understanding Religious Violence In Pakistan, Syeda Haider

Honors Scholar Theses

The role of religion in Pakistani political and civil life has had a defining role in the political development of the nation. The country is now a breeding ground for religious extremism, with militant groups conducting brutal attacks against the Shia, Ahmedi, Christian and Hindu communities of Pakistan. There have been few explanations attempting to describe the problem of religious violence domestically, within Pakistan’s borders towards Pakistani citizens. This essay examines how, despite Pakistan’s initial conception as a secular state, the country has become haunted by intense religious violence. It links the lack of consensus around national identity with the …

The September 12, 2012 Rose Garden Address: President Barack Obama’S “9/11” Moment, Michael Eisenstadt

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

Albert Einstein once said memory is deceiving given it is colored by the events of today. The old adage “history repeats itself” fails to illustrate the powerful capacity for memory to sustain and revise historical events. Presidents often inject memories of the past into public address to define troubling situations in ways that broad, national audiences can make sense of them. Barack Obama’s Rose Garden Address rejuvenates and exploits the public memory of September 11 in three ways: by (1) situating the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi as an extension of its timeline; (2) reaffirming the identity of …

Terrorism: Libya’S Role In The Instability Of The Region, Cara Rabe-Hemp, Cayla Comens

Graduate Research - Criminal Justice

When media focuses its attention on the subject of terrorism, the country of Libya is not typically at the forefront of the discussion. However, Libya has a deep hand in terrorism dating back to when Colonel Muammar Qaddafi took control of the country in 1969. During the years that Qaddafi was in control, he financially backed terrorist organizations, who repeatedly aimed their sights on the United States and their allies. Even after the fall of Qaddafi’s regime, terrorism is still a part of the governmental strategy in the country. The attack in Benghazi against an American compound, which resulted in …

Statistical Survey Of International Terrorist Activity: An Examination Of The Effectiveness Of Military Deterrence, Eric R. Jorgensen, Dr. Jay Goodliffe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

As we recently observed the one-year anniversary of the embassy bombings in Africa, thoughts turned again to our vulnerability to terrorist attacks. One year ago President Clinton vowed to “wage war on terrorism.” It was at this point that many began to question the effectiveness of military deterrence on terrorist activity. This research examined the question of effectiveness. My hypothesis has been that military strength has no measurable effect in the deterrence of terrorist activities. I proposed instead that terrorists strike powerful, industrialized, democratic countries because their attacks appear more devastating when conducted against these states.