On the Radical Cusp: Ecoterrorism in the United States, 1998-2005

Abstract

Political action on the cusp between social movements and militancy provides a robust test of universal theories of both collective action and terrorism. In particular, radical environmentalism and the new wave of ecoterrorism in the United States deserve social science consideration as one such radical cusp movement. Data on 84 ecoterrorist events in the United States, 1998-2005, from the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism's Terrorism Incident Database are considered vis-à-vis previous theories to identify possible patterns. A methodology for research on clandestine organizations, the imputation of cells from incident data, is proposed. Analysis suggests that radicalism is a product of social movements and that it diffuses according to exogenous factors, in particular local political climates. Little support is found for theories of continued radicalization in militant movements, but some evidence indicates that a general life cycle of political violence exists.