POLSCI 329S Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Group Dynamics
17 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Politics of Violence
10.06 Lecture Notes – Terrorism
Terrorism involves the use of violence by an organization other than a national government to
intimidate or frighten a target audience
Two broad purposes: to gain supporters and to coerce
o To gain supporters – dubious
Lake – irregular use of violence by nonstate groups against nonmilitary targets and personnel for
political ends
o Objective of 9-11 to goad the US into a military response that would cost a lot of money
Why war is irrational?
o War is costly, destroy infrastructure
o Argues that two states that bargain should always get an agreement without going to war (with
full information)
o Problem with this – if a contract is signed, commitments are not permanent
▪ Problem of trust
▪ Problem of indivisible properties
▪ Problem of information asymmetry
▪ THREE REASONS FOR WAR
o Application to terrorism
▪ Power asymmetry
▪ Terrorist’s goal – to destroy Western civilization → no space for bargaining
▪ Move in the bargaining space – increase in power, recruitment
▪ Win popular support – provoke the US to generate a retaliatory attack that involves
killing civilians in the Arab world (Iraq and Afghanistan) → turns moderates into
extremists
Domestic v. international terrorism
o Key difference: target’s relationship to the perpetrator
o Homegrown terrorists are often affiliated with international terrorist organizations (problem
with this distinction)
o Try to understand which countries are most likely to suffer from terrorism
▪ Democracy – more international terrorism, less domestic terrorism
• With more viable democratic institutions, people can gain power with legitimate
means
• Democracies also tend to be involved in international affairs
• Democracies try to enforce democracy in other parts of the world
• Democracies are more vulnerable – citizens are vote and governments are
forced to react to threats
Crenshaw – instrumental and organizational perspective
o Instrumental – terrorism represents strategic choice
o Organizational – terrorism is outcome of internal group dynamics
Terrorist strategies
Attrition – constant and gradual infliction of costs
Provocation
Spoiling – using violence to spoil any attempts at peace (another faction in the group is spoiling)
o FARC in Colombia
Intimidation
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