Suchergebnisse

A decade has passed since the attacks of 9/11. The heightened curiosity about terrorism has seen an avalanche of books and articles in recent years. In this article, after tracing the evolution of research in the area of social conflict, in general, and terrorism, in particular, I attempt to understand if the collected wisdom has altered the views of those who make public policies in the US. However, in a rapidly changing world, some of the old theories of mass mobilisation are becoming obsolete with equal speed. At a time when ideas can spread across the world in the speed of light through the Internet, we may have to have a different methodology for understanding how political movements are formed and how the government can mitigate the risks of politically motivated violence.

One of Professor David Rapoport's contributions to academic inquiries into terrorism is his theory of waves of international terrorism. Rapoport argues that there have been four waves in the history of modern terrorism, where an idea has spurred violence across the world. Although his idea has become mainstream there is no research on how ideas actually spread. This article attempts to bridge this important gap by combining recent advances in the fields of business, advertisement and mass communication with research on terrorism. It is argued that understanding the process by which these ideas spread across the world can provide us with the tool to manage future waves of international terrorism.