Citation

Beasley M. Contrib Conflict Manag Peace Econ Dev 2008; 7: 331-348.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S1572-8323(08)07018-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

PURPOSE: The majority of academic and policy studies on counterterrorism rely on what is termed "the terror stock model." According to this model, terrorist activity can be viewed as a product of a stock of terror: a combination of human, physical, and monetary resources needed to launch terrorist attacks. Consequently, countering terrorism is a matter of reducing the capacity of terrorist organizations to operate via direct assaults on terrorists themselves. Defining terrorism as a form of collective action, this article examines how various Israeli initiatives influence Palestinian acts of terrorism.

METHOD: This paper investigates how the rate of suicide terror attempts is affected by violent, non-violent, and socioeconomic forms of initiatives by the Israeli government between 2000 and 2006 using a series of event-history analyses. While directly addressing the efficacy of what the Israeli government terms as its methods of counterterrorism - violent repression of insurgents and terror suspects - it also explores the applicability of various social movement theories to exact a more accurate awareness of what activities actually incite or inhibit terrorism.

FINDINGS: The results indicate that while certain forms of repression that the Israeli government identifies as counter-terrorist measures (such as killing of insurgents and detentions) have the intended outcome - a lower rate of suicide bombings - other forms and measures of repression have mixed effects. The results suggest that suicide bombings can be explained at least partly by a mixture of increased hostility, limited capacity to mobilize, and socioeconomic distress. © 2008 Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Language: en