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University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations Summer 2019 The Terror Pandemic: The International Diffusion of Terrorism Stephen Michael Chicoine Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Chicoine, S. M.(2019). The Terror Pandemic: The International Diffusion of Terrorism. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/5443 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE TERROR PANDEMIC: THE INTERNATIONAL DIFFUSION OF TERRORISM By Stephen Michael Chicoine Bachelor of Science Lander University, 2009 Master of Arts University of South Carolina, 2012 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2019 Accepted by: Mathieu Deflem, Major Professor Andrea Henderson-Platt, Committee Member Deena Scott Isom, Committee Member Jennifer Augustine, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Stephen Michael Chicoine, 2019 All Rights Reserved. ii ABSTRACT The online recruitment efforts of ISIS have raised questions about the new role of the internet in the spread of terrorism. However, the use of the mass media by terrorist groups to recruit and spread is not unique to ISIS or the digital age and has been an aspect of terrorism since its modern conception. To explain the spread of terrorism historically and understand the unique dimensions of terrorism and the internet, a cultural explanation is proposed to explain the process through terrorism spreads as well as the content that inspires violence. This study includes two major parts: a virtual ethnography of ISIS; and a comparative-historical study of the prior international waves of terrorism. The first part examines the presence of ISIS online, with the goal of understanding the virtual environment in which people become radicalized. The second part is a comparative- historical study examines the shared cultural aspects of terrorist groups involved in the anarchist, anticolonial, and New Left waves, as well as constructing a social network of the ideological and influential connections between the groups. The final analysis of the dissertation examines ISIS in the historical context of other international waves of terrorism, and the insights gained from the in-depth examination of the media environment of ISIS. This research describes the characteristics of the virtual caliphate, and finds that it largely reflects general trends observed in historical groups. Specifically, terrorist groups possess a consistent set of cultural elements, exhibiting all of the criteria of subcultures. Furthermore, these cultural elements can be traced across time and space, iii demonstrating that groups draw from cultural sources to adopt and apply terrorism to address collective problems. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Chapter 1 Introduction .........................................................................................................1 Chapter 2 International Terrorism and Subculture Theory ................................................12 Chapter 3 Methodology .....................................................................................................32 Chapter 4 A Virtual Ethnography of ISIS Online ..............................................................65 Chapter 5 History Echoes: Anarchist, Anticolonial, and New Left Terrorism ................128 Chapter 6 The Lineage of Terror .....................................................................................180 Chapter 7 Explaining the International Diffusion of Terrorism ......................................210 Chapter 8 Conclusion .......................................................................................................244 References ........................................................................................................................254 v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] may have been defeated, but its international reach serves as an example of the changing face of terrorism in an internet age. ISIS is unique not in its use of the internet, but its proficiency in its use through social media platforms. ISIS’s use of the internet has prompted several studies examining the group’s ideology, the structure of its social network across Twitter, the discourse on its videos on Arabic language Youtube, and analyses of the group’s propaganda magazine (Andersen and Sandberg 2018; Bloom, Tiflati, and Horgan 2017; Uberman and Shay 2016; Klausen 2015). The ability of ISIS to attract foreign recruits and inspire domestic acts of terrorism demands explanation, and the group’s notorious social media presence and the unclear ramifications of the internet for society make the group’s virtual recruitment campaign an obvious suspect. However, the internet alone cannot explain the international spread of ISIS. Just as ISIS is not unique in using the internet, it is also not the first terrorist group or ideology to spread internationally. The international diffusion of terrorism has occurred since its modern conception (Parker and Sitter 2016; Sedgwick 2007; Rapoport 2004). Examining the prior cases of terrorism spreading internationally demonstrates that the spread of ISIS is the newest manifestation of a consistent aspect of terrorism, and that the internet’s responsibility for this spread is limited to the degree to which it differs from the previous preferred medium of terrorist groups, papers, pamphlets, books, and manifestos. As forms of the mass 1 media, the internet and print are merely vessels for the spread of terrorist groups internationally. The content that is transmitted and inspires terrorist behavior is as important to understand as the mechanisms through which it spreads. The spread of terrorism beyond national boundaries suggests a factor that is beyond the scope of the local social structure of independent nations. This dissertation proposes that the international diffusion of terrorism can be explained through cultural factors. This cultural explanation of the international diffusion of terrorism focuses on two specific aspects. First, it is argued here that cultural elements, such as norms, values, beliefs, knowledge, and symbols, contribute to the adoption of terrorism. Second, these cultural elements are argued to have spread internationally and inspired other groups primarily through the mass media, and the characteristics of this spread has been impacted by the development in communication technologies. Specifically, this research found a common set of cultural elements present across ISIS and terrorist groups historically. Furthermore, mass media sources that contain these cultural elements have been consistently observed within the context of national terrorist movements, as cited influences of terrorist groups within international waves of terrorism and connect the international waves of terrorism through several central sources. The common cultural elements of terrorism include the Role of the Revolutionist, an identity to which terrorists aspire to that is characterized as romantic and heroic, is defined by sacrifice, and describes the terrorist as an expert in all dimensions of revolutionary warfare, from espionage to weaponry. In addition to this role, terrorist groups often ascribe a value to their violence that extends beyond its utility in achieving social change. Violence is viewed as necessary, obligatory, inherently good, and even therapeutic. This 2 violence is supported by a set of interrelated beliefs and values that constitute the morality of terrorism, which divides society into a battle between good and evil, dehumanizes enemies, and defines violence as altruistic. The last cultural element of terrorism is the pursuit and possession of The Truth – terrorists’ understanding of society, its problems, and solutions. In order to explain the cultural factors of terrorism, subculture theory is proposed to explain the international spread of terrorism, including the recruitment of foreign nationals and the development of groups within other nations. This topic is interesting theoretically not only as a specific aspect of terrorism, but as an aspect that fundamentally challenges many of the dominant theories of terrorism. A cultural explanation, drawing from subculture theory, not only provides an explanation of international diffusion of terrorism, but also provides an important mediating link between the two dominant explanations of terrorism, strain and grievance theories and rational choice models. The role of culture in the adoption of terrorism and its international diffusion is examined here using a mixed methods approach. This approach provides a robust analysis of terrorism at multiple levels of analysis, addresses the shortcomings of each individual part of the study, as well as enhancing them with additional context and insights (Small 2011). Furthermore, adopting different methods is necessary to understand the context and environment in which individuals adopt terrorism. The radicalization of foreign nationals
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