Suchergebnisse

Discusses the formation, political agenda, actions, and religious beliefs of various groups that use violent means to achieve their ends

The primary aim of the Terrorist Transgressions network which is presented here was to analyse the myths inscribed in images of the terrorist and identify how agency is attributed to representation through invocations and inversions of gender stereotypes. Although terrorism, its contexts, histories and forms, has been the focus of intense academic activity in recent years, especially in the fields of politics and international relations, cultural representations of the terrorist have received less attention. While the terrorist is predominantly aligned with masculinity, women have been active in terrorist organizations since the late nineteenth century. Particularly since the 1980s, women have perpetrated suicidal terrorist attacks, including suicide bombing, where the body becomes a weapon. Such attacks have confounded constructions of femininity and masculinity, with profound implications for the gendering of violence and horror. The network established that there is a shift away from analyses of cultural representations of the Red Army Faction, which have dominated the literature since the 1980s. New work has emerged examining representations of the terrorist and gender, including investigations of material from the 1970s, recently made available in archives. There also has been a shift in terms of military discourses around the figure of the enemy or terrorist insurgent in relation to visualizing the invisible enemy. Emerging work on colonial insurgencies contributed to a historical understanding of such debates.

Who would strap a bomb to his chest, walk into a crowded subway station and blow himself up? Only by examining how a terrorist understands his own identity and actions can this question be answered. The authors of The Terrorist Identity explore how the notion of self-concept combined with membership in terrorist and extremist groups, can shape and sustain the identity of a terrorist as well as their subsequent justification for violence and the legitimacy of their actions. The book provides an understanding of identity that draws on concepts from psychology, criminology, and sociology. Notably

PurposeThe paper aims to expand and extend previous work on the role of employees who act in non‐violent ways to achieve their personal ends through inducing fear in others in organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe literature surrounding internal terrorists is reviewed and preliminary survey results are presented to support the conclusions derived from that literature.FindingsA model is developed that more carefully identifies how the role of internal terrorists comes about and why they are more likely to engage in non‐violent as opposed to violent behavior.Research limitations/implicationsResearch is needed to identify those aspects of organizations that seem to foster or "bring out" violent and non‐violent internal terrorists. Given the differences between internal terrorists and other terrorists, more careful study of those two groups is clearly needed. Since most terrorists express feelings of injustice, stronger links should be attempted between the research on organizational justice and internal terrorism. Just as employee theft has been linked to perceived injustice, so, too, internal terrorism may be linked to higher levels of such perceived injustice.Practical implicationsResearch is needed to indicate how terrorism evolves over time as well as what measures seem to be most effective in countering such developments within organizations. Of particular interest to practitioners would be determining the extent to which profit‐seeking versus non‐profit organizations accommodate internal terrorists and the extent to which gender matches between the internal terrorist and the target person are common.Originality/valueThis paper fills a gap in the literature about the role of internal terrorists by delineating more fully the dysfunctional role those individuals play in organizations.

Americans are accustomed to thinking of terrorists as foreigners, typically from the Mideast or Afpak region. Probability, not xenophobia, underlies this belief, given the backgrounds of known terrorists and the hundreds of millions of people around the world who despise America's liberal culture, support for Israel, religious diversity, and much else. Those who wish to destroy American power, institutions, and ways of life tend to fit the stereotype. But not all terrorists come the Mideast or from abroad. Just since early May, three American citizens have been arrested in connection with bomb plots -- Faisal Shahzad, for the Times Square attempt, and the other two for international jihadist activities. These three Americans, of course, are not the first to be prosecuted for such crimes. Jose Padilla's dirty bomb plot and Timothy McVeigh's mass murder in Oklahoma City are some earlier examples of acts of terrorism perpetrated by treacherous Americans on American soil. And to further complicate things, an American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki -- who is apparently orchestrating al Qaeda efforts from his haven in Yemen, including some of the citizen-conducted attacks inside the U.S. -- is being openly targeted for assassination by the CIA and the military. Needless to say, an executive branch decision to kill an American citizen without a trial raises extraordinary legal, political, institutional, and moral questions, particularly in the context of a war without determinate battlefields, opposing forces, duration, or clear goals. Adapted from the source document.

Bill and Behnam unpack this week's headlines from the Middle East, including the assassination of Hamas deputy Saleh al-Arouri; the U.S. strike that killed Iran-backed militia commander Abu Taqwa Al-Saedi in Iraq (and subsequent drama with the Iraqi government); the U.S.-led coalition dubbed Prosperity Guardian's "final warning" to the Houthis; and the ISIS bombings at a memorial in Kerman, Iran for slain IRGC-QF commander Qassim Suleimani.
The post Generation Jihad Ep. 131 — Terrorists will be terrorists first appeared on FDD's Long War Journal.

I study how a variety of structural and strategic factors affect terrorist mobilization, the likelihood of a splinter faction forming, and the positions adopted by terrorist leaders. The factors considered include the state of the economy, the viability of institutions for the nonviolent expression of grievance, the ability of the factional leaders to provide nonideological benefits, and the risks associated with splintering. The model highlights that, for strategic reasons, changes in the structural environment often entail trade-offs between decreasing terrorist mobilization and increasing extremism. For instance, strengthening the economy or institutions for the nonviolent expression of grievance is found to decrease terrorist mobilization, increase the extremism of terrorist factions, and decrease the likelihood of a splinter faction forming. These results suggest competing micro-level effects of such changes on the expected level of violence that, because they are offsetting, might not be observed in macro-level data analyses, which have been the mainstay of empirical studies of terrorism. Adapted from the source document.

Discusses US leadership role in the war against terrorism, international cooperation and support, the Al Qaeda terrorist network, financial aspects, and international strategy and policy options; potential role of Great Britain. Debate between "night raiders" who support nation building in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and "reluctant intervenors".

The primary aim of the Terrorist Transgressions network which is presented here was to analyse the myths inscribed in images of the terrorist and identify how agency is attributed to representation through invocations and inversions of gender stereotypes. Although terrorism, its contexts, histories and forms, has been the focus of intense academic activity in recent years, especially in the fields of politics and international relations, cultural representations of the terrorist have received less attention. While the terrorist is predominantly aligned with masculinity, women have been active in terrorist organizations since the late nineteenth century. Particularly since the 1980s, women have perpetrated suicidal terrorist attacks, including suicide bombing, where the body becomes a weapon. Such attacks have confounded constructions of femininity and masculinity, with profound implications for the gendering of violence and horror. The network established that there is a shift away from analyses of cultural representations of the Red Army Faction, which have dominated the literature since the 1980s. New work has emerged examining representations of the terrorist and gender, including investigations of material from the 1970s, recently made available in archives. There also has been a shift in terms of military discourses around the figure of the enemy or terrorist insurgent in relation to visualizing the invisible enemy. Emerging work on colonial insurgencies contributed to a historical understanding of such debates.