Suchergebnisse

Includes a contribution on the US narcotics policy and its impact on Latin America.

Leftist revolutionary terrorism during the period 1970-90 shows high internal variation regarding its lethality. Using my own data set of fatalities, I present a new index of impact of terrorism for 21 developed countries. In order to account for this variation, I argue that terrorism is a mix of chance & necessity: it emerges randomly, but its survival & reproduction depend on economic & political factors. The statistical analysis reveals that revolutionary terrorism is particularly strong in countries that have undergone an authoritarian period during 20th century, in highly populated countries, & in countries with a high rate of participation in protest demonstrations. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

This paper explores the recent shift in international efforts -- particularly within the framework of the UN -- to fight terrorism based on banning the financing of terrorism. Though preceded by this switch to a new approach, terrorist attacks of September 11 made that goal to become a main front. The analysis reveals how the logic of this financial strategy has its source in the drug trafficking & money-laundering crusade of late 1980s, & identifies its major drawbacks. Serrano's basic contention is that a financial typifying of terrorism not only deprives it of its political intricacies, but also makes it misguidingly appear as a mere economic crime. The author concludes that for international war on terrorism to succeed the accent should not be put on the financial dimension of terrorism, but rather on more complex aspects, such as the ideological motivation & the informal economy of grassroots support. Adapted from the source document.