This special hot-topic issue arose from a symposium at the IV CICA-STR International Conference held in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) in 2010, dealing on “Aggression, Political Violence, and Terrorism”. In order to put the symposium within the general frame of the conference, the issue starts with the opening words of its Chairman, focused at some important general topics related to aggression...

This study analyses the relationship between war and population. The impact of the growth and decline of population on important types of warfare--great power, small power, civil war as well as terrorism--is illustrated, with the objective in each case to be descriptive of risk. I find that population change has a significant impact on each, with the greatest causal impact on small power confli...

The Economics of Terrorism In order for terrorists to be successful they must have funding to complete their missions. If the international community desires to truly undermine the productivity of terrorists, then we must first destroy the economic network or access to the resources that terrorists use to achieve, facilitate, and promote the objectives of terrorism. When I speak of resources, I...

Contemporary terrorism is a complex phenomenon involving a range of non-state actors linked in networked organizations. These organizations, exemplified by the global jihadi movement known as al-Qaeda, are complex non-state actors operating as transnational networks within a galaxy of like-minded networks. These entities pose security threats to nation states and the collective global security....

It is for me a huge honor to be invited to deliver the counterbalancing view within this distinguished gathering of counter-terrorism experts. 1 Let me begin by emphasizing what I consider to be the " three strikes " or in international terms, the " side-out " of government counter-terrorism thinking today. STRIKE ONE: Terrorism is a symptom, not a root cause or threat. Going after Al Qaeda has...

Current conflicts in the international arena are wars of insurgent action. As this action has proven necessary in the building of nations historically, the increased utilization of tactics to include guerilla war and terrorism has become commonplace. The proper identification of conditions, which promote violence, as well as exacerbate the utilization of promotion of political violence (terrori...

Will we succeed this time? No one knows, but even a brief acquaintance with the history of terrorism should make us more sensitive to the difficulties ahead. To this end, I will briefly describe rebel terrorism in the last 135 years to show how deeply implanted it has become in modern culture. The discussion is divided into two sections. The first describes the four waves of modern terror, and ...

The development of religiously motivated terrorism has increased the complexity of the terrorist phenomenon. We are currently faced with a wider range of actors with a broader set of motivations, strategies, tactics, organizational structures and goals than ever before. This increased complexity necessitates the development of analytical frameworks that can guide analysis of the terrorist pheno...

It seems mere common sense to begin any serious discussion of terrorism with an attempt at definition. After all, how can we talk sensibly about the topic unless we know what the topic is? It is true that there are various objections to common sense at this point, but I shall not pursue them here beyond remarking that widespread disarray among theorists about what to count as terrorism suggests...