TerrorismPerspectives on terrorism and responses to it
The Strategic Multi-Layer Assessment office within the Office of the Secretary of Defense has published a new white paper, in Looking Back, Looking Forward: Perspectives on Terrorism and Responses to It Strategic Multi-layer Assessment, which offers discussions of different perspectives of terrorism and approaches to understanding the phenomenon. The papers cover topics ranging from strategic and adaptive considerations of terrorism to analytical considerations.
Researchers from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) contributed articles to a recent white paper covering different perspectives of terrorism and approaches to understanding the phenomenon. The papers cover topics ranging from strategic and adaptive considerations of terrorism to analytical considerations.
The new white paper expands on a previous paper that sought better to refine and address the “disease” (preconditions, perceptions, and underlying drivers) and not just the “symptoms” (terrorist attacks) of terrorism.
A START release reports that START researchers’ contributions include:
“Two Possible Profiles of Lone-actor Terrorists,” by Clark McCauley and Sophia Moskalenko. In the paper, the authors argue that lone-actor terrorists may share common characteristics that could help identify high-risk individuals. Specifically, they examine the profile types: disconnected-disordered, in which individuals are loners with a history of mental disorder; and caring-compelled individuals who feel personal responsibility to bring to justice those responsible for making innocent others suffer.
“Leveraging Advances in Qualitative Methodology to Analyze Radicalization,” by Peter Henne, Jonathan Kennedy, John Sawyer, and Gary Ackerman. In the paper, the authors discuss radicalization research’s shortcomings, several aspects of the study of radicalization that complicate attempts to understand the phenomenon, and how qualitative methods can, at least partly, address those issues.
The white paper was written and published by the Strategic Multi-Layer Assessment office within the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
— Read more in Looking Back, Looking Forward: Perspectives on Terrorism and Responses to It Strategic Multi-layer Assessment, Occasional White Paper (September 2013); and Over a Decade Later…What Now? What Next? A Multi-Layer Assessment of Terrorism in its Current and Future Manifestation Strategic Multi-Layer Assessment (SMA)(July 2013)
