TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2010//
TI  - Terrorist Spectaculars: Backlash Attacks and the Focus of Intelligence
JO  - Journal of conflict resolution
A1  - Sandler, Todd
A1  - Arce, Daniel G.
SP  - 354
EP  - 373
VL  - 54
IS  - 2
N2  - This article presents a signaling model of terrorist attacks, where the target government faces a trade-off from its counterterrorism responses and the backlash (counterreaction) that such responses incite. An endogenous characterization of terrorist spectaculars is specified, given a government’s counterterrorism stance and the potential for backlash attacks. In particular, spectacular attacks are pooling, rather than separating, phenomena, whereby the government cannot discern, based on past attacks, the militancy of the terrorist group. The definition for ‘‘spectacular’’ terrorist attacks is inversely related to the government’s toughness and its belief that it confronts a militant group. Policy recommendations are specified for non-event-specific intelligence in relation to the avoidance of spectacular attacks or unnecessary concessions. Intelligence must be focused on the propensity for counterterrorism to give rise to a backlash attack.<p />
LA  - 
SN  - 0022-0027
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022002709355414
ID  - ref1
ER  -