Introduction to the Special Issue on Lone Wolf and Autonomous Cell Terrorism

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes “Obama: Biggest Terror Fear is the Lone Wolf,” CNN, August 16, 2011, http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/16/obama-biggest-terror-fear-is-the-lone-wolf/. David C. Rapoport, “Moses, Charisma, and Covenant,” The Western Political Science Quarterly 32, no. 2 (June 1979): 123–143. On the contemporary Israeli and American cases, see respectively Ehud Sprinzak, Brother Against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination (New York: Free Press, 1999) and Jeffrey Kaplan, Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right, (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2000), 242–244. This is discussed by George Michael in his article for this volume. See also George Michael, Lone Wolf Terror and the Rise of Leaderless Resistance (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2012). Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (Newly updated and expanded edition) (New York: Anchor Books, 2000). “EU Could Be the Home to 400 ‘Lone Wolf’ Extremists, Expert Says,” EU-Digest, March 22, 2012, http://eu-digest.blogspot.com/2012/03/eu-could-be-home-to-400-lone-wolf.html. “Al Qaeda Fanatic Is DEAD: French Serial Killer Jumps Out His Flat Window With All Guns Blazing in Dramatic End to 32-Hour Siege,” The Mail on Line (British Daily Mail), March 22, 2012, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2118052/Toulouse-shooting-Mohammad-Merah-dead-jumping-flat-window-guns-blazing.html. Given the excitement, Mr. de Kerchove might be forgiven for a bit of hyperbole. The New York Times has posted its complete reportage on the Hassan case at http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/nidal_malik_hasan/index.html. To be sure, there are other motives for lone wolf terrorism. For a partial table of lone wolf attacks, see Ramón Spaaij, Understanding Lone Wolf Terrorism: Global Patterns, Motivations and Prevention (Dordrecht: Springer, 2011), 103–116. For a more comprehensive if not always accurate view, see Jeffrey D. Simon, Lone Wolf Terrorism: Understanding the Growing Threat (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2013), 145–180. The estimated ratio of civilians to terrorist dead is in the neighborhood of 50 to 1. Columbia Law School, Counting Drone Strike Deaths, 2011, http://web.law.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/microsites/human-rights-institute/files/COLUMBIACountingDronesFinal.pdf. Stephen Castle, “Girl Next Door Who Became a Suicide Bomber,” The Independent, December 2, 2005, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/girl-next-door-who-became-a-suicide-bomber-517797.html. “Statement by Edward Snowden to Human Rights Groups at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport,” Wikileaks.org, July 12, 2013, http://wikileaks.org/Statement-by-Edward-Snowden-to.html. Paul Gill, John Horgan, and Paige Deckert, “Bombing Alone: Tracing the Motivations and Antecedent Behaviors of Lone-Actor Terrorists,” Journal of Forensic Sciences (forthcoming). Alex P. Schmid, The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research (London: Routledge, 2011), 242–243. The Leaderless Resistance model analyzed by Schmid is drawn from Jeffrey Kaplan, “Leaderless Resistance,” Terrorism and Political Violence 9, no. 3 (1997): 80–85. FBI, FBI Strategic Plan 2004–2009 (Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation, nd), 15–16; Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, rev. and expanded ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 40–41. Randy Borum, “Lone-Wolf Terrorism,” in Gus Martin and Harvey W. Kushner, eds., The Sage Encyclopedia of Terrorism, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2011), 361–362. See, e.g., Spaaij, Understanding Lone Wolf Terrorism (see note 8 above); Gill et al., “Bombing Alone” (see note 12 above); Jeff Gruenewald, Steven Chermak, and Joshua D. Freilich, “Distinguishing ‘Loner’ Attacks from Other Domestic Extremist Violence: A Comparison of Far-Right Homicide Incident and Offender Characteristics,” Criminology and Public Policy 12, no. 1 (2013): 65–91. E.g., Michael, Lone Wolf Terror and the Rise of Leaderless Resistance (see note 3 above), Kaplan, “Leaderless Resistance” (see note 13 above). E.g., Simon, Lone Wolf Terrorism (see note 8 above). Spaaij, Understanding Lone Wolf Terrorism (see note 8 above), 27–33. Philip Jenkins, Images of Terror: What We Can and Can't Know About Terrorism (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 2003). For discussion on the changes in organizational structures behind terrorism see, e.g., Bruce Hoffman, “The Confluence of International and Domestic Trends in Terrorism,” Terrorism and Political Violence 9, no. 2 (1997): 1–15; Ian O. Lesser et al., Countering the New Terrorism (Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 1999); David Tucker, “What Is New About the New Terrorism and How Dangerous Is It?,” Terrorism and Political Violence 13, no. 3 (2001): 1–14; Peter R. Neumann, Old and New Terrorism (Cambridge & Malden, MA: Polity, 2009); Martha Crenshaw, “‘Old’ vs. ‘New’ Terrorism,” in Martha Crenshaw, ed., Explaining Terrorism: Causes, Processes and Consequences (London and New York: Routledge, 2011), 51–66. See also Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Leena Malkki, “NO: The Fallacy of the New Terrorism Thesis,” in Richard Jackson and Justin Sinclair, eds., Contemporary Debates on Terrorism (London: Routledge, 2012), 66–79. Brian Michael Jenkins, “Terrorism and Beyond: A 21st Century Perspective,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 24 (2001): 324. Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004). Raffaello Pantucci, A Typology of Lone Wolves: Preliminary Analysis of Lone Islamist Terrorists (London: ICSR, 2011), http://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/1302002992ICSRPaper_ATypologyofLoneWolves_Pantucci.pdf. Jenkins, Images of Terror (see note 20 above), 14. Oscar Bjurling, “Tvedräktens Tid,” in Malmö Stads Historia 4 (1985): 331–394. See, e.g., Tuomo Polvinen, Imperial Borderland: Bobrikov and the Attempted Russification of Finland, 1898–1904 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995). Leena Malkki, “Radicalisation and Terrorism in History: Lessons From the Radical Left Terrorist Campaigns in Europe and the United States,” in Rik Coolsaet, ed., Jihadi Terrorism and the Radicalisation Challenge: European and American Experiences (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), 69–82. Jeffrey Kaplan has been invited to offer a series of lectures on the topic from a “Sinocentric” perspective in the summer of 2014. David C. Rapoport, “Modern Terror: The Four Waves,” in Audrey Cronin and J. Ludes, eds., Attacking Terrorism: Elements of a Grand Strategy (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2004), 46–73. The waves were, in order of appearance: (1) the Anarchist wave, (2) the National Liberation wave, (3) the Left Wing wave, and (4) the Religious wave. Malign in the context of this article adopts the hostile Western view of foreign terrorist groups. We recognize the fact that global viewpoints do not necessarily subscribe to this perception. The Pew Global Opinion Survey tracks opinion trends and demonstrates the diversity of views on what does and does not constitute a malign entity; see http://www.pewglobal.org/. Jeffrey Kaplan, Terrorist Groups and the New Tribalism: Terrorism's Fifth Wave (London: Routledge, 2010). This text posits the “New Tribalism” as constituting the “fifth wave” of modern terrorism in the context of Rapoport's Four Waves theory. In retrospect, aspirational and ascriptive tribal aspirations are a motive force in the fourth or religious wave of terrorism rather than being a distinct wave in and of itself. Fifth wave theory however was of key importance in forming our understanding of the “New Tribalism” with its global tactical and strategic implications. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJeffrey KaplanJeffrey Kaplan is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Institute for the Study of Religion, Violence, and Memory at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. Heléne Lööw is affiliated with the Department of History, Uppsala University. Leena Malkki is a University Lecturer at the Network for European Studies, University of Helsinki.