55 research outputs found
Conducting Field Research on Terrorism: a Brief Primer
No full textThis article focuses on the practical aspects of field research on terrorism. Firstly, it outlines some issues involved in the process of attaining a human research ethics/institutional review board clearance in order to be able to even begin the field research. It suggests some ways in which researchers can positively influence this review process in their favor. Secondly, the article focuses on the real and perceived dangers of field research, identifying practical steps and preparatory activities that can help researchers manage and reduce the risks involved. The article also covers the formalities and dilemmas involved in gaining access to the field. It then provides some insights into the topic of operating in conflict zones, followed by a section covering the ways of gaining access to sources, effective communication skills and influence techniques and addresses key issues involved in interviewing sources in the field. The final section focuses on identifying biases and interfering factors which researchers need to take into account when interpreting the data acquired through interviews. This article is a modest attempt to fill a gap in the literature on terrorism research by outlining some of the key issues involved in the process of doing field research. It incorporates insights from diverse disciplines as well as the author’s personal experiences of conducting field research on terrorism in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Colombia, Mindanao, Uganda, Indonesia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and India.</p
Conducting Terrorism Fieldwork on a Shoe-String Budget:Researching Suicide Terrorism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
No full textThis article addresses some of the key challenges faced when attempting to conduct fieldwork as a solitary researcher in a conflict zone with very little in the way of funds. The author’s experience in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) is used here to outline how to setup and conduct fieldwork with minimal resources and a handful of contacts to begin with, the logistical and practical hurdles that may arise in such an endeavour as well as some mechanisms to overcome these challenges without compromising the integrity of the research project at hand. Other issues such as how to address region specific challenges including entering the OPTs and travelling in the region are also covered. The paper also provides tips on a range of issues including, how to successfully manage prevalent risks and follow up on interviews when budgetary constraints prevent another trip back into the region
Tactical and technological innovation in terrorist campaigns
No full textThis thesis explores the subject of tactical and technological innovation in terrorist campaigns. The key question concerns the global historical trends in terrorist innovation, as well as the critical factors that are responsible for the differences in innovative practices among individual terrorist organizations. The principal method used is based on the model of structured, focused comparison developed by Alexander George. The final product then is a historical explanation of the trends in terrorist innovation, which besides contributing to theory development also has a policy relevant value by identifying the distinct characteristics of especially innovative terrorist organizations. The question of these factors is highly important, as a terrorist organization’s willingness and ability to innovate is one of the key components necessary for achieving a mass-destruction CBRN capability. Our ability to identify signature characteristics of innovation-prone terrorist organizations is thus a critical element in predictive threat assessment of future terrorist violence.DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (RSIS
The ‘Black Widows’ of Iraq
No full textON September 28, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in the border town of Tal Afar, 420 km northwest of Baghdad, killing six people and wounding 35. With the increasing level of violence in Iraq, such an incident would hardly attract a lot of attention, especially given the comparatively small number of casualties. However, in this case there is an alarming new twist – the suicide bomber was a woman. This tactical shift is highly significant, and has the potential of intensifying the Iraqi insurgency
Negotiating in Beslan and beyond
No full text[extract] On September 1, 2004, a group of terrorists took more then 1,200 hostages on the first day of school in the North Ossetian town of Beslan. The deadliest hostage crisis and at the same time the third deadliest terrorist attack in histOlY was about to unfold. After a fifty-two-hour stand-off, detonation of explosive devices inside the school triggered a chaotic rescue operation, in which 331 victims and thirty-one terrorists were killed, 176 of them children. The Beslan school hostage crisis was an unprecedented terrorist attack, both in its scale and targeting. Much more grand than the 1974 Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack in Ma\u27alot, Israel, or the 1977 take-over of a school in Bovensmilde in the Netherlands, this was the largest ever terrorist take-over of a school (Mickolus 1980, p. 494). In addition, following 911 I and the 1978 torching of a movie theater in Iran (still unresolved), Beslan is the third deadliest terrorist attack in histOlY (tied with the 1985 Air India flight 182). And finally, with the exception of the 1979 hostage crisis in Mecca and the 1996 Chechen take-over of a hospital in Kizlyar, Beslan involved the largest number of hostages in any similar crisis in history. Stemming from the above facts, it is clear that understanding the lessons of Beslan is one of the key prerequisites of designing counter terrorism strategies for the twenty-first century
Transnational terrorism: unlimited means?
No full textSince the mid-1990s, the possibility of the use of chemical, biological radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons by non-state actors ha~ beco~e a t?pic of an extensive academic and public debate. Originally, the dISCUSSIO~ ~~ncentrated primarily on capabilities, where the alleged ease of acqUIsItIOn of CBRN materials following the break-up of the Sovietynion as well as the arguably more widespread availability of expertIse needed for the production and weaponization of such agents were the main sources of concern. Later, the debate was brought to a more realistic level through the acknowledgement of technical hurdles associated with the successful delivery of CBRN agents, as well as the possible motivational constraints involved in the decision of terrorist groups to use such weapons. Another shift in the debate was represented by the claim that the rise of a phenomenon known as the \u27new terrorism\u27 had eroded these constraints. In other words, the \u27new terrorists\u27-typically defined primarily by the religious nature of their ideology-were believed to be unconstrained by the political considerations that had traditionally led secular terrorist organizations to place limits on their violent activities (Hoffman 1998)
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