Context Of Terrorism Research Articles

Fragilized Ecologies and Multilayer Violence in Two Oil Films About the Niger Delta

ABSTRACT: Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region has continuously been conceived as a context of terror and political violence. However, this representation of the Niger Delta is deemed too schematic and misleading since it does not account for oil production's complicated local and human issues. In fact, violent mining geographies like the Niger Delta are always permeated by various forms of subtle and imperceptible violence that, if overlooked, may lead to misrepresentations. Rob Nixon has theorized such invisibilized forms of violence as "slow violence." Building on this concept of slow violence as long emergencies that are hard to harness and turn into dramatic stories, this article examines how Black November : Struggle for the Niger Delta (Jeta Amata, 2012) and Oloibiri (Curtis Graham and Samantha Iwowo, 2016), two films set in the vulnerable ecosystem of the Niger Delta oil-producing enclaves, take on the representational challenge posed by the slow violence of ecological destruction. It studies how the filmmakers conceptualize slow violence and explores their strategies to make visible subtle forms of harm that resist representation. More specifically, it analyzes how spatiotemporal relations, images, and narrative sequences are combined to witness the slow violence of oil production and ecological destruction.

UNDERSTANDING THE LONE WOLF PHENOMENON

This study explores the intricate dynamics of lone wolves within the context of terrorism, examining the conceptual challenges in their definition, distinctive behavioral patterns, and their impact on security perceptions in Europe. Through rigorous analysis, the research highlights transformations in contemporary terrorism. It underscores the critical importance of preventive strategies in addressing this emerging threat within the academic, technological, and international security environment.

Terrorism, Political Extremism, and Crime and Criminal Justice

This review focuses on terrorism and extremist crimes, including ideologically motivated hate crimes. Research on these topics has become more rigorous in recent decades, and more scholars have engaged in original data collection. Our assessment found a burgeoning literature that increasingly includes the application of integrated theories, but gaps remain as few studies examine life-course and critical approaches. Our review of the policing of terrorism found a limited evidence base for counterterrorism initiatives. We also found that court/sentencing issues are understudied. We suggest improving data quality in these areas by creating a national data collection protocol on these crimes, enhancing the rigor of offender and victim self-report studies, and requiring more transparency from open-source research efforts. We propose that government agencies fund rigorous evaluations of policing strategies in the terrorism context. Finally, it is hoped that increased access to federal court documents will lead to more scholarly attention on sentencing issues.

Recent Developments in the National Implementation of Biological Weapons Convention: What Happened Since Resolution 1540?

Abstract The national implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) has long been a point of discussion. One aspect of this national implementation concerns the enactment of penal legislation addressing the prohibitions of the BWC. There has been a clear increase in the past 18 years of penal legislation addressing biological weapons. This coincides with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1540. Through a comprehensive assessment of the adopted national legislation it is possible to see trends and consider the extent to which such legislation seeks to address the BWC or Resolution 1540. The assessment clearly indicates that there is a divergence between the legislation addressing biological weapons in a general manner and legislation specifically seeking to address biological weapons in a terrorism context. This analysis will recognize potential avenues to increase national implementation of the BWC by looking at the progress made in the context of Resolution 1540.

The Driving Factors for Recidivism of Former Terrorism Convicts in Socio-Legal Perspective

The phenomenon of recidivism among former terrorism convicts presents a complex challenge within the socio-legal context. This study aims to explore the driving factors behind the recurrence of terrorism-related offenses among previously incarcerated individuals. By employing a socio-legal perspective, the research examines the interplay of social and legal factors that contribute to the re-engagement of former terrorism convicts in illegal activities. Drawing on existing literature and empirical data, this paper identifies various key factors, including societal stigma, socio-economic struggles, and deficiencies in the legal system. The study underscores the importance of comprehensive policies that address both social and legal dimensions to effectively prevent and address recidivism in the terrorism context. By understanding and addressing these driving factors, policymakers and practitioners can develop more targeted and nuanced interventions to facilitate successful rehabilitation and reintegration while safeguarding national security and promoting social cohesion.

The Role of Translation in ISIS Propaganda: International Online Radicalization Methods and Its Effect on Extremism in Indonesia

This research aims to compile data and information that will contribute to understanding the online radicalization phenomenon through translation. There are many studies on using the internet and propaganda in a terrorism context. However, only a handful studied the correlation between translation and terrorism propaganda, especially in Indonesia. There was little discussion on the role of translation in bridging communication between different nations, cultures, and languages and using it to propagate radical/propaganda narratives worldwide and amplify those messages to its target audience. The research method is descriptive qualitative using primary and secondary data; the sample is taken from the book of Nadharat Fi Al Ijma' Al Qath'i and previous findings and news. This research revealed at least ten roles of translation in the online radicalization phenomenon; among others, translation in the target language can be used to identify the target audience of the propagandist, and many terrorist sympathizers were willing to volunteer to translate the propaganda. However, although the translation is used to leverage the spread of propaganda, it can also assist law enforcement officers in combating terrorist/propaganda narratives. Indonesian law enforcement officers may use translation to counter-terrorism as Indonesia has hundreds of vernacular languages that can be used to 'encrypt' and disseminate their extremist narratives.

Terrorism as an interactive process: a tool for the assessment of terrorist affiliation degree

ABSTRACT The present paper proposes an instrument to measure the risk of terrorist conflicts through the concept of affiliation to a terrorist organization. The proposed instrument is called the Tool for the Assessment of Terrorist Affiliation Degree (TATAD) and measures how close the respondents are to a complete affiliation, on a scale of four degrees. Based on the Methodology for the Analysis of Computerised Textual Data, each degree is characterized by specific interactive modalities that differ in the ways they contribute to conflict or to community cohesion. Based on the degree of affiliation, it is possible to anticipate acts of conflict that are coherent with the modality of interaction measured by TATAD. By considering the interactive modalities, and not only the contents linked to terrorism, the process of affiliation is the same independently of the type of terrorist society and its beliefs (ideological, religious, etc.). Therefore, TATAD can be used independently of the specific context and motives of terrorism. By detecting critical modalities of interaction, TATAD can be used to support decision making and plan interventions to promote community cohesion in prisons and migration services, and to evaluate the efficiency of counter-terrorism strategies, policies and projects aimed at promoting social cohesion.

Understanding Lone-Actor Terrorists: The Global Context and How it can be Applied to New Zealand

While the Christchurch mosque attacks on 15 March 2019 were asserted to have changed New Zealand’s national security context, arguably the possibility of such an attack was foreseen, and, internationally, there was evidence of increasing risk of such attacks occurring. This paper explores the current state of international lone-actor research, and looks at how this can be applied in an endeavour to prevent future attacks in New Zealand. This paper combines an overview of the international lone-actor phenomenon, with New Zealand’s historical and contemporary terrorism context, and explores the extent that international research may have a bearing on current and future lone-actor terrorism risk here. It argues careful attention to identifiable indicators and protective factors, as well as local context, as essential in the contemplation of current and future attempts to pre-emptively identify and prevent potential lone-actor terrorism in New Zealand.

Do Female Entrepreneurs Take Higher Risks in Extreme Contexts?

We investigate if environmental threats affect gender-inequality in entrepreneurial innovation. Building on role congruity theory and evolutionary psychology, we theorize that while women-led ventures are less likely to take risks and innovate due to the gendered view of risk-taking, evolutionary adaptations triggered by environmental threats increase their risk-taking and experimentation. Using the context of terrorism in Pakistan, we found that compared to ventures led by men, women-led ventures were more innovative in regions with frequent terrorist attacks than in regions with fewer attacks. Although a large workforce decreased risk-taking and innovation due to the reinforcement of social constraints, women collaborators buffered women-led ventures from these constraints. We show that environmental threats trigger evolutionary adaptations that enable women-led ventures to overcome the limitations of role incongruence.

Predicting non-state terrorism worldwide.

Several thousand people die every year worldwide because of terrorist attacks perpetrated by non-state actors. In this context, reliable and accurate short-term predictions of non-state terrorism at the local level are key for policy makers to target preventative measures. Using only publicly available data, we show that predictive models that include structural and procedural predictors can accurately predict the occurrence of non-state terrorism locally and a week ahead in regions affected by a relatively high prevalence of terrorism. In these regions, theoretically informed models systematically outperform models using predictors built on past terrorist events only. We further identify and interpret the local effects of major global and regional terrorism drivers. Our study demonstrates the potential of theoretically informed models to predict and explain complex forms of political violence at policy-relevant scales.

Internal Defense in Containment Theory in the Context of Teenagers Engagement in Indonesia Terrorism

The history of acts of terrorism in Indonesia, which began in 2003-2019, shows several shifting trends in terrorism crimes, terms of action strategies, targets, and characteristics of perpetrators. Based on the action strategy and the features of the perpetrators, the authors found the involvement of children and adolescents. Horgan, Taylor, Bloom, and Winter (2017) state that the involvement of children in acts of terrorism is part of the regeneration of terrorist organizations to continue to exist and survive for a long time. This research aims to illustrate how the internal defense system in the containment theory contributes to the terrorism context. This research is qualitative which uses in-depth interviews for gathering data. Results showed that internal defense could not support teenagers to avoid their engagement with radical or terrorist groups.

Terrorism and State Response

The research aims to examine many elements of terrorism and to represent the difficulties that people encounter as a result of continuing violence. The causes and repercussions of radical ideologies have been highlighted in a detailed analysis of terrorism. The goal of this research is to recognize how violent actions have affected economies, communities, and civilizations both worldwide and locally. Pakistan had to reemerge following the eventual end of terrorism, which was aided by military and police operations carried out in terrorist hotspots and densely populated regions. This paper looked into the root causes of terrorism on a global scale, as well as the consequences of terrorism that have had a significant impact on our country's political, cultural, and economic domains, as well as the historical context of terrorism, as well as the repercussions, aftermath, and critical challenges that the country has faced to date

A Study of Factors Affecting Travel Decision Making of Tourists

Tourism is considered as one of the major sources for creating employment opportunities, generating revenues and supporting culture and entertainment. Travel and tourism plays a vital role by associating themselves with other industries of Pakistan which leads to rise in foreign investment, opportunities of trade, investments in private, local development, and public infrastructure. This study aims to explore the influence of the factors (travel decision making, media, perceived risk, terrorism and safety & security) tourists’ decision making of tourists residing in Pakistan. This is a quantitative study, data was collected from 50 people using questionnaire at 5-point Likert Scale. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and regression method. The results of this study depict that role of media, safety & security, and terrorism have significant impact on travel decision making. Within the context of Pakistan terrorism is always a highlighted area on which every tourist think a lot while making a destination choice. Particularly negative media coverage also has significant importance on travel decision making of a tourist. In Pakistani context, this study found that risk perception was supposed more than the actual risk because travel decision to a new place is always riskier somehow, therefore, it has no effect on travel decision making. Tourist develops an insight that what factor is more significant in travel decision making. This study recommends that media, safety and security and terrorism policies are critical for Pakistan to cater the number of tourist by helping them in travel decision making.

Natural resource rents, political regimes and terrorism in Africa

The study adds to the stock of existing literature on the supposed crises-inducing role of natural resource rents, by specifically linking same to political regime and growth of terrorist attacks for a panel of forty-nine (49) African economies for the period, 1980–2012. To avail room for more policy implications, four terrorism indicators, namely: domestic, international, uncertain, and total, are used on a negative binomial regression estimator due to the count nature of terrorism data. Our findings reveal the following: first, natural resource rents have unconditional effects on transnational and total terrorism. Second, political regimes equally exert unconditional impacts on domestic and total terrorism, with both democracy and autocracy mitigating the terror-inducing effects on the one hand, with anocracy acting as a magnifying apparatus on the other hand. Third, the interaction between natural resource rents and anocracy has negative marginal effects on both domestic and total terrorism measures. Fourth, the corresponding effects of interaction, however, turned positive for both domestic and total terrorism. Lastly, the considered conditioning variables equally received extensive empirical backings but not on an equal basis. Thus, understanding the terror context of natural resource rents and the dynamics of political regimes represent formidable counterterrorist measures.

Censusless: Arab/Muslim Interpolation into Whiteness and the War on Terror

This essay explores the unstable racial positioning of Arabs and Muslims in the United States by analyzing the implications of their censusless/white legal status coupled with their hypervisible racialization through containment, surveillance, and repression in the War on Terror context. The author situates Arab/Muslim racialization within a genealogical overview of racial formations of power in the United States and particularly focuses on how these processes have conditioned the historical and current legal status of Arabs as white on the U.S. decennial census. Next, the author examines the 2018 decision by the U.S. Census Bureau to omit a separate category for Middle Eastern and North African communities in 2020. The author demonstrates how racially tinged moral panics of Arab/Muslim proclivity for violence, terrorism, and radical extremism, coupled with their invisibilization through their white legal status, cultivates the breeding grounds for expansive forms of racial state violence for other communities as well. Drawing from scholar-activist research while working with the Arab community in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 2010 census campaign, the author concludes by offering examples of how censusless communities can work to strengthen their collective well-being in the absence of a given census category.

Террористическая активность джихадистов из Центральной Азии на Западе

A number of terrorist acts committed in different parts of Europe and America by radical immigrants from the post-Soviet states of Central Asia, as well as other manifestations of extremist activity, on the one hand, fit into the general global context of jihadist terrorism, and on the other hand, represent a phenomenon with its own specific features. In part, this specificity is determined by the policy of the Central Asian governments to “squeeze out” radicals and extremists from their countries, and in part, it is connected with the high migration mobility of people from the region. At the same time, against the background of attempts by transnational terrorist networks to use the terrorist activity of immigrants from the Central Asian region for their propaganda purposes, it should be noted that the phenomenon of “lone terrorists” will grow in this environment.

The logic of transnational outbidding: Pledging allegiance and the escalation of violence

The phenomenon of outbidding, in which terrorist groups escalate their attacks in response to competition from other groups, has long been studied in a domestic terrorism context. If groups exist in the same state, they may compete with one another for the same resources from civilians of that state. This article argues this outbidding logic also exists in a transnational context. Leveraging a sample of Salafi-jihadist groups that are in competition for resources based on shared ideology, this article explores the full effects of this competition on the quantity and severity of groups’ attacks. Building on this outbidding logic as a theoretical lens, Salafi-jihadist groups adjust their attack profiles in response to competition from other groups following this same ideology. This effect is particularly evident among groups that pledge allegiance to al-Qaeda or ISIS. Once pledged, affiliates must now compete with other affiliates for the additional potential resources and recruits who follow the ‘brand’ of al-Qaeda or ISIS. Consistent with this theory, after examining the attacks of all Salafi-jihadist groups from 2001 to 2014, this article finds increased competition among groups results in more attacks and a selection of more severe targets and types of attacks. Affiliate groups respond to competition to the greatest degree.

Breaking the Mirror of the Spectacle: Mass Murder/Suicide as the Ecstasy of Simulated Experience

This article develops a sociological understanding of the lone mass shooter and the ways in which his affectual constellation is produced within and mirrors the social space. It begins by outlining the contemporary political context of terrorism. The article then explores the affectual constellation of an isolated mass murderer, by asking the question ‘what is a loser?’. Following this, it links the emergence of the radical loser to modernity through an exploration of the genealogy of nihilism. Then, taking the mass murderer Elliot Rodger as a paradigmatic case, it explores the ways in which his affectual constellation can be understood as produced within the capitalist social formation. Finally, it argues that mass murder can be understood as the ecstasy of simulated experience, its violent countertransference, constituting a zone of indistinction between the spectacle and the real, killing and being killed.

ReDup: A software-based method for detecting soft-error using data analysis

ContextSoft error is one of the main sources of failure in the computer systems. The main drawback of the state-of-the-art software-based methods for detecting and handling soft errors is their undesirable performance-overhead. ProblemIn a computer program, different data and instructions have different effects on the program behavior and hence, different data have different sensitivity against errors. One of the main research challenges in this field of study is that which data and instructions of a program, as the sensitive sections, should be duplicated against soft-errors? MethodWe propose an error detection method which precisely identifies and duplicates the most sensitive data in a program. The method, firstly, quantifies the sensitivity of program data by analyzing different features of data such as dependency and life time. Secondly, the most sensitive data are technically relocated in the source code to enhance the rate of error masking by the program. Finally, a small percentage of the identified sensitive data are duplicated to provide error-detection capability in the program. ResultsThe results of extensive fault-injection experiments confirm that relocating and duplicating only 30% of most sensitive data identified by the proposed method enables the program to detect 80% of failure causing errors with 23.99% performance overhead. Furthermore, making technical relocation in the source code of a program by the proposed method leads to 6% improvement in the rate of error masking.

Terrorism, lightning and falling furniture

ABSTRACTFrom time to time, opinion pieces appear in the media that point out that the risk of being harmed by terrorism is very low. This much is true, at least from an actuarial perspective. These opinion pieces are often accompanied by lists of other, usually absurd, ways that a person is more likely to die, including being struck by lightning or crushed by falling furniture. When asked, people do state a likelihood of being harmed by terrorism that is much greater than the actuarial odds. But risk perception is complex and to many people the actuarial odds of being killed by terrorism versus being killed by falling furniture do not adequately reflect the differences in the nature of risks from these two things. A discussion about risk perception and terrorism cannot start and end with the conclusion that people simply overestimate the risk. To do so would be to overlook the nuances of risk perception and decision-making under conditions of risk and uncertainty. An understanding of the complex ways in which risk perceptions are shaped is essential for those who would seek to accurately characterise, compare and regulate risks in the terrorism context.