Brutality of Jihadist terrorism. A contest theory perspective and empirical evidence in the period 2002–2010

Raul Caruso () and Friedrich Schneider ()

Journal of Policy Modeling, 2013, vol. 35, issue 5, 685-696

Abstract: We interpret the emergence of Jihadist terrorism in the light of contest theory. Al Qaeda may be portrayed as a contest organizer, providing a ‘prize’ to the best terrorist group. Each group maximizes its probability of winning by launching attacks more destructive than previous ones perpetrated by competing groups. This hypothesis is confirmed by the empirical analysis which shows that the number of victims of terrorist attacks increases compared to number of victims of previous attacks in the same country. An upward trend in terrorist brutality is the outcome of competition between groups. Results also show that Al Qaeda-style terrorism is associated with poverty and underprivileged socio-economic conditions.

Keywords: Terrorism; Negative binomial regression; Al Qaeda; Suicide attacks; Islamist violence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Working Paper: Brutality of Jihadist Terrorism. A contest theory perspective and empirical evidence in the period 2002-2010 (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jpolmo:v:35:y:2013:i:5:p:685-696

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpolmod.2012.12.005

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