Spending almost US $700 billion to combat insurgents in Afghanistan, the U.S. population should be hopeful that they "bought" something of value as the Afghan War concludes. This exploratory study focuses on evaluating operations within Afghanistan by accounting for enemy and civilian losses. Integration of civilian losses offers an opportunity to evaluate operations that represent societal losses to the Afghan people. Regression estimates using zero-inflated negative-binomial models indicate that military operations resulted in more civilian casualties than enemy losses.
International terrorism is a relatively new phenomenon considering the age of terrorism. Terrorism has been used for over 2,000 years, but international terrorism as we know it today was made possible by technological advances. This entry begins by reviewing pivotal historical events that led to terrorism's use, as well as the underlying reasons for terrorism today. The article then discusses the influence of political stability and culture on international terrorism. Finally, a brief discussion of counter-terrorism strategies highlights the means by which terrorism is prevented.
Current U.S. counter-terrorism policy deals with terrorists in a somewhat rational fashion. However, the ideology of terrorists has been characterized in a U.S. Government report as involving "oppression, violence, and hate". These ambiguous terms share text with more specific irrational reasons for terrorist activities. In the same report, experts state that terrorists hold "a false belief that the United States is the cause of most problems affecting Muslims today, our enemies seek to expel Western power and influence from the Muslim world and establish regimes that rule according to a violent and intolerant distortion of Islam". Furthermore, the report continues by stating "[f]or our terrorist enemies, violence is not only justified, it is necessary and even glorified – judged the only means to achieve a world vision darkened by hate, fear and oppression". Moreover, they describe terrorists as having a "distorted and violent view of the world"
"This study, in an effort to uncover root reasons for terrorism, will delve into the issue of terrorism by testing if economic, social, and political factors have an effect on terrorism. It is the intention of this study to suggest policies that address the source of terrorist motivations rather than the symptoms. Using data from RAND and the World Bank that spans 12 years8, the researcher uses a negative binomial time series analysis to answer several hypotheses probing the relationship of political, social, and economic institutions' effect on terrorist incidents. Establishing that terrorism is a rational behavior is significant to the discussion; it is only when we prove that terrorism is rational that policy can be effective. That is, if terrorism is irrational, counter-terrorism policy will be ineffective. Therefore, this article will begin with a discussion about the rationality of terrorism. Previous research will then be reviewed that attempts to measure the effect of political, social and economic factors. Weaknesses and strengths of each study will be discussed. The current study will then be introduced including methodology, data and findings. Finally, the discussion and conclusion will highlight important findings of the study and suggest policy implications." --from page 2 8 Data acquired from RAND's MIPT terrorism knowledgebase and the World Bank. Data from 1995 to 2006 are utilized in this study.
