POLB81H3 Study Guide - Liberation Tigers Of Tamil Eelam
13 Aug 2012
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Document Summary
Terrorist groups attack civilians to force their governments into making policy concessions. If target countries systematically resist rewarding terrorism, the international community is armed with a powerful message to deter groups from terrorizing civilians. The prevailing view within the field of political science, however, is that terrorism is an effective coercive strategy. Target countries are routinely coerced into making important strategic and ideological concessions to terrorists, their victories will reinforce the strategic logic for groups to attack civilians, spawning even more terrorist attacks. This study analyzes the political plights of twenty-eight terrorist groups the complete list of foreign terrorist organizations as designated by the u. s. department of state since 2001. First, the groups accomplished their forty-two policy objectives only 7 percent of the time. Second, although the groups achieved certain types of policy objectives more than others, the key variable for terrorist success was a tactical one: target selection.
