Root Causes of Terrorism Addressing the causes of a problem is often more effective than trying to fight its symptoms and effects. In Root Causes of Terrorism, a team of international experts analyses the possibilities and limitations of preventing and reducing terrorism by addressing the factors that give rise to it and sustain it. The questions raised include: • What are the main circumstances that provide preconditions for the emergence of various types of terrorism? • What are the typical precipitants that trigger terrorist campaigns? • To what extent is it possible to reduce the problem of terrorism by influencing these causes and circumstances? • Should we address those factors that sustain terrorist campaigns rather than root causes? Tore Bjørgo is Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), and Research Director and Professor of Police Science at the Norwe- gian Police University College. Root Causes of Terrorism Myths, reality and ways forward Edited by Tore Bjørgo First published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2005 Tore Bjørgo for selection and editorial matter; individual authors for their contributions All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Root causes of terrorism: myths, reality, and ways forward /edited by Tore Bjørgo. p. cm. 1. Terrorism. I. Bjørgo, Tore. HV6431.R66 2005 303.6'25–dc22 2005003573 ISBN 0-203-33765-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-35149-9 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-35150-2 (pbk) Contents List of figures viii List of tables ix List of contributors xi Preface xvii 1 Introduction 1 TORE BJØRGO 2 Exploring roots of terrorism 16 DIPAK K. GUPTA 3 Impoverished terrorists: stereotype or reality? 33 V JITKA MALECKOVÁ 4 The social and psychological characteristics of terrorism and terrorists 44 JOHN HORGAN 5 The socio-cultural underpinnings of terrorist psychology: ‘When hatred is bred in the bone’ 54 JERROLD M. POST 6 Social, organizational and psychological factors in suicide terrorism 70 ARIEL MERARI 7 Palestinian resistance and ‘suicide bombing’: causes and consequences 87 HISHAM H. AHMED vi Contents 8 Roots of terrorism in the Middle East: internal pressures and international constraints 103 ABDULLAH YOUSEF SAHAR MOHAMMAD 9 Nationalist separatism and terrorism in comparative perspective 119 FERNANDO REINARES 10 Root causes of terrorism?: a case study of the Tamil insurgency and the LTTE 131 SHRI D.R. KAARTHIKEYAN 11 Right-wing terrorism 141 WILHELM HEITMEYER 12 Social-revolutionary terrorism in Latin America and Europe 154 PETER WALDMANN 13 The use of terrorism by organized crime: an Italian case study 164 ALISON JAMIESON 14 Patterns of state failure: the case of Lebanon 178 FARID EL KHAZEN 15 State sponsorship: a root cause of terrorism? 189 LOUISE RICHARDSON 16 Expected utility and state terrorism 198 MICHAEL STOHL 17 A conceptual framework for resolving terrorism’s causes 215 JOSHUA SINAI 18 Prevention of terrorism: towards a multi-pronged approach 223 ALEX P. SCHMID Contents vii 19 Fire of Iolaus: the role of state countermeasures in causing terrorism and what needs to be done 241 ANDREW SILKE 20 Conclusions 256 TORE BJØRGO Index 265 Figures 2.1 Classification of terrorist groups and their ideologies 25 2.2 Suicide bombings by the rebel groups within Israel and the Palestine territories 27 5.1 Modified version of Schmid’s typology of terrorism 54 5.2 Generational pathways to terrorism 57 8.1 Intensification of zero-sum terrorism cycle (IZSTC) 113 11.1 Overall context, options, targets, and objectives of right-wing extremism 142 11.2 Structural model for the analysis of right-wing extremist violence 143 18.1 Schmid’s typology of terrorism 224 18.2 Poverty and terrorism compared 228 18.3 Human rights and terrorism compared 228 Tables 2.1 Comparison of profiles of 10 terrorist groups 21 2.2 Incidents of suicide attacks, 1980–2002 24 2.3 Factor analysis of violent activities by selected terrorist groups, 1980–2002 26 6.1 Nationality and motivation of groups that have used suicide attacks 83 8.1 The multidimensional cause-effect methodology 108 8.2 Socio-economic dimensions in Middle Eastern societies 109 18.1 Recruitment motives of guerrillas/terrorists from Jumma and Kashmir 229 18.2 Number of armed conflicts worldwide, mid-1998–mid-2001 235 18.3 Terrorist incidents by region from 26 December 1997 to 8 March 2003 236 Contributors Hisham H. Ahmed is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Birzeit University, Palestine. Born in 1963 in the Deheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem, Dr Ahmed finished two years of university education in Palestine before he travelled to the USA where he obtained a BA degree in political science from Illinois State University in 1985. He obtained his MA and Ph.D. degrees, also in political science, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1986 and 1988, respec- tively. Unable to immediately return to his homeland because of political turmoil during the 1987 Intifada, he taught political science at the Florida International University in Miami, Florida from 1989–91 and at the University of North Dakota from 1991–3, before returning to Palestine as a Fulbright scholar. In Pales- tine, Dr Ahmed has taught at several universities and colleges. In addition to his teaching career, Dr Ahmed is the author of a number of studies dealing with the Middle East, Islamic movements and American foreign policy. Tore Bjørgo is Research Director and Professor of Police Science at the Norwegian Police University College, and Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), where he is heading a research group on terrorism and international crime. A social anthropologist by training, he received his doctoral degree from the University of Leiden, where he was a research associate. Currently, his main fields of research are political extremism and terrorism, racist and right-wing violence, delinquent youth gangs, and international crime. He has authored or edited nine books, including Racist and Right-wing Violence in Scandi- navia: Patterns, Perpetrators and Responses (1997) and Terror from the Extreme Right (1995). Dipak K. Gupta is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at San Diego State University, Co-director of the Institute for International Security and Conflict Resolution (IISCOR) and a Research Associate of the Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace. He is the author of five books and over 70 articles. He has been a visiting Fellow and has lectured in many universities around the world. His primary areas of research include various aspects of political violence and terrorism. xii Contributors Wilhelm Heitmeyer is Professor for Socialization at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, the Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence and head of various research programmes on right-wing extremism, violence, xenophobia and ethnic-cultural conflict. He is also a member of the Council and Theory Sections of the German Sociological Association, a member of the editorial board of the series International Studies of Childhood and Adolescence at Verlag de Gruyter. He also edits several series including Jugendforschung (Youth Research) and Konflikt und Gewaltforschung (Research on Conflict and Violence) at Juventa Verlag and Kultur und Konflikt (Culture and Conflict) at Suhrkamp Verlag. John Horgan is a forensic psychologist and lecturer at the Department of Applied Psychology, University College, Cork, Ireland. He teaches on the psychology of terrorism in universities and colleges around the world, and frequently gives lectures to law enforcement, army, intelligence and other government audiences. His work on terrorism and related forensic issues is published widely. Dr Horgan’s books include The Future of Terrorism (with Max Taylor 1999) and The Psychology of Terrorism (2005). Alison Jamieson is an independent consultant and author who has written exten- sively in English and Italian on issues of political violence, organized crime and drugs. Her books include two school texts on terrorism for Wayland publishers (UK 1991 and 1995), The Heart Attacked: Terrorism and Conflict in the Italian State (1989) and The Anti-Mafia: Italy’s Fight against Organized Crime (2000). Between 1992 and 1997 she was a regular guest lecturer at the NATO Defence College in Rome. She has worked as a consultant to the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), and to the International Narcotics Control Board. She was principal author of the UNDCP’s World Drug Report (1997). She was born and educated in Scotland but has lived in Italy since 1984. Shri D.R. Kaarthikeyan is an advisor on law, human rights and corporate affairs. Born to a farming