(2013): Perspectives on Terrorism
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Volume VII, Issue 6 December 2013 2013 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 7, Issue 6 Table of Contents: Welcome from the Editors ......................................................................4 Announcement: Best PhD Tesis in the Field of (Counter-) Terrorism Studies Annual Award by the Terrorism Research Initiative .................6 Announcement: TRI/CTSS Vienna Conference .....................................8 I. Articles Media Metrics: How Arab and Western Media Construct Success and Failure in the ‘Global War on Terror’ ....................................................10 by Sarah V. Marsden Sri Lanka’s Post-Confict Strategy: Restorative Justice for Rebels and Rebuilding of Confict-affected Communities .....................................27 by Iromi Dharmawardhane Salaf Violence and Suf Tolerance? Rethinking Conventional Wisdom ...............................................................................................................58 by Mark Woodward, Muhammad Sani Umar, Inayah Rohmaniyah, and Mariani Yahya Simultaneous Attacks by Terrorist Organisations ................................79 by Kathleen Deloughery II. Policy Notes Al-Shabaab’s Somali Safe Havens: A Springboard for Terror ..............90 by Josh Meservey Rethinking International Counterterrorism Assistance to the Greater Horn of Africa: Toward a Regional Risk Reduction Strategy ............100 by Matthew Schwartz, Liat Shetret, and Alistair Millar III. Research Notes Research Note on the Energy Infrastructure Attack Database (EIAD) .............................................................................................................113 by Jennifer Giroux, Peter Burgherr, Laura Melkunaite 2 December 2013 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 7, Issue 6 Risks of Terrorism, Homicide and Illness: a Methodological Consideration ......................................................................................126 by Richard J. Chasdi IV. Resources Literature on the Confict in Syria (2011 – November 2013) .............137 Compiled and selected by Judith Tinnes Selected Dissertations and Teses on Terrorism, Counterterrorism and Political Violence, 1980 – 2013 (available in full-text) ................166 Selected by Eric Price V. Book Reviews “Counterterrorism Bookshelf” – 20 Important Books on Terrorism & Counterterrorism Related Subjects ....................................................203 by Joshua Sinai VI. Notes from the Editors About Perspectives on Terrorism ........................................................210 3 December 2013 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 7, Issue 6 Welcome from the Editors Dear Reader, Te Editorial Team of Perspectives on Terrorism is pleased to present to the research community another issue of our peer-reviewed online journal at www.terrorismanalysts.com. Perspectives on Terrorism was founded in 2007 by Robert Wesley, President of the Terrorism Research Initiative (TRI), in collaboration with Alex Schmid and James Forest. We now have over 120,000 annual visitors to our website from around the world and nearly 4,000 registered e-mail subscribers, making this the most widely-read publication in terrorism studies. Our effort to nurture and grow this feld of study includes the coordination of several national and regional networks of PhD thesis writers. In order to stimulate high-quality research we have now created an annual award for the “Best PhD Tesis in the Field of Terrorism Studies”, and in early February 2014 TRI will be sponsoring a conference on the confict in Syria (see below for details on both of these initiatives). In this issue of Perspectives on Terrorism we are pleased to present four articles on a variety of timely topics. First, Sarah Marsden offers a comparative analysis of several hundred Arab and Western media sources, highlighting their different conceptualisations of what constitutes ‘success’ and ‘failure’ in the ‘War on Terror’. Second, Iromi Dharmawardhane evaluates several aspects of the post-confict initiatives in Sri Lanka, and offers recommendations to address shortcomings and persistent challenges. Tird, an international team of scholars led by Mark Woodward challenge the perception that the Suf tradition in Islam has always been tolerant and non-violent while the Salafst tradition is the one consistently associated with intolerance and violence. Finally, Kathleen Deloughery draws from several incident databases to explain how and why simultaneous terrorist attacks are more likely to be successful and cause more fatalities. Tis issue of the journal also introduces a new Policy Notes section, in which we will publish relatively short pieces containing informed analysis and policy recommendations on a variety of important topics. Josh Meservey inaugurates this section with a timely analysis of Somalia’s safe havens and their critical importance to al-Shabaab. Tis is followed by a review of international counterterrorism assistance to the Horn of Africa, authored by three senior analysts at the Centre on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation. Our Research Notes section begins with a description by Jennifer Giroux and colleagues about a new and important resource on energy security and political violence. Ten Richard Chasdi reviews the methodological issues involved in determining whether or not terrorism poses similar degrees of risk as other man-made or natural disasters. In our Resources section, Judith Tinnes offers an extensive and timely list of literature on the confict in Syria, and Eric Price has compiled a useful and informative bibliography of dissertations and theses on terrorism and counterterrorism, written between 1980 and 2013. 4 December 2013 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 7, Issue 6 Most titles are ‘clickable’ and guide the reader directly to the full-text versions of the cited titles. Finally, we conclude with a collection of brief (capsule) book reviews by Joshua Sinai. Tis fnal issue of Volume VII was prepared in the U.S. by the staff of the Center for Terrorism and Security Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, with special thanks to our research assistants Suzzette Lopez Abbasciano and Robert Kerins. Te frst issue of Volume VIII will be prepared in Vienna, Austria, by Editor-in-Chief Alex Schmid for publication in February 2014. Sincerely, Prof. James J.F. Forest Co-Editor December 2013 5 December 2013 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 7, Issue 6 Announcement: Best PhD Tesis in the Field of (Counter-) Terrorism Studies Annual Award by the Terrorism Research Initiative Among its portfolio of activities, the Terrorism Research Initiative (TRI) - the non-proft organization that has published Perspectives on Terrorism for seven years - coordinates national networks of post-graduate students who work on their doctoral theses in the feld of terrorism/counterterrorism studies. As readers of this journal will recognise, several national and regional networks have come into existence (e.g. in the United Kingdom, the United States, Southern Africa, Russia, Norway, the Netherlands and Flemish Belgium) while others are in the making. In order to stimulate the search for excellence in academic research, TRI has created an annual award for the best PhD thesis that has been successfully defended at a university. For this purpose, a panel of judges consisting of the three directors of TRI – Robert Wesley, Alex P. Schmid and James J. F. Forest – now invite those who have completed their PhD thesis between January and December 2013 to submit a copy to the panel no later than the end of March 2014. Te judges will read and compare the doctoral theses we receive and nominate the fnest submission for the ‘Best PhD Tesis in the Field of Terrorism Studies 2013 Award’. Te Award consists of a monetary prize of US $1,000.- and a formal certifcate, signed by the panel of judges, declaring the winner’s name and the title of the thesis. Te award winner will be announced, and a summary of the thesis will be published in the August 2014 issue of Perspectives on Terrorism. Te Terrorism Research Initiative will also assist the award winner in fnding a publisher for his or her thesis so that the full results of the award-winning research become available to the scholarly community with minimal delay. Te August 2014 issue of the journal will also announce the honorable mention of authors whose theses were judged second and third best. Eligible for this annual award are scholars who have obtained their PhD degree in the calendar year 2013 from an institution of higher education anywhere in the world. Te thesis must be submitted in English (either written in English or translated into English) and should be sent to the chair of the judges panel in electronic form as a PDF. Te PhD thesis must focus on terrorism/counterterrorism or closely related forms of political violence and armed confict. It should be the product of in-depth research and show originality in terms of introducing new methods, theories or data into its analysis. Te submitted thesis should be accompanied by a cover letter in which the author outlines the novelty and/or uniqueness of the thesis and its fndings. In those cases where a member of the jury is in any way connected to a person submitting a PhD thesis, the composition of the jury will be changed to avoid a confict of interest. In such cases, a qualifed scholar from the Editorial Board of Perspectives on Terrorism will be invited to take his place. 6 December 2013 PERSPECTIVES ON TERRORISM Volume 7, Issue 6 Te judges are looking forward to receiving and reviewing