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Understanding lone wolf terrorism
Understanding lone wolf terrorism
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There has been a recent spike in the number of lone wolf terrorist activities inspired by radical terrorist groups with the United States being the primary target of these aggressions. Scholars and researchers have warned that as the Islamic State loses control over territory in Iraq and Syria there will be even more lone wolf attacks abroad. This research project attempts to contribute to the broader study of understanding the dangers and combatting lone wolf terrorism. Specifically to answer the question: Why do terrorist organizations, the Islamic State in particular, accept credit for lone wolf attacks? The U.S. does not have a standardized definition of ‘lone wolf terrorist’. For the purpose of this paper the National Counter Terrorism
America has seen a rise in terrorist attacks since September 11, 2001. Preceding these attacks by Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida an ostensibly new threat emerged on American soil. However, this apparent growing new threat of terrorism to America has been active for decades and is known as the Lone Wolf terrorist. Mark S. Hamm and Ramon Spaaj have indicated and disclosed in their research that the lone wolf terrorist has been active in 98 cases in America between 1940-2013. In their 2015 grant report after further examinations were concluded; the definition of lone wolf terrorism needs to include the following:
The FBI defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives (fbi.gov).” By this definition, terrorism can be classified as internal or international based on the overall intent of the attack. Terrorism has been around since the beginning of time, but it’s only since 2011 that the world has come to fully understand the meaning of terrorism. The following paragraphs will highlight four different types of terrorist attacks that all took place within the United States, spanning over a 40 year time period. One of the more famous stories of our times is the 1996 arrest of Theodore Kaczynski, also known as the unibomber.
Nothing does more to tear our families apart than violent crime, guns, gangs, drugs, and the fear that walks alongside those terrors. Violent crime and victim rights have become a major concern for most citizens in the United States of America. Statistics indicate a decline in violent crimes in our country and an increase in our national prison population. Released prisoners commit most violent crimes. Gun control legislation, reform programs, victim rights awareness, and other programs are abundant in our country, but do little to alleviate violent crime. In this paper I will try to present the liberal and conservative views on this issue as well as my own views.
Terror management theory (TMT) asserts that human beings have natural tendency for self-preservation if there is threat to one’s well–being (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). It notes that we are the cultural animals that pose self-awareness on the concept of past and future, as well as the understanding that one day we will die. We concern about our life and death but aware that it is unexpected by everything. The worse matter is that we become aware of our vulnerability and helplessness when facing death-related thoughts and ultimate demise (Pyszczynski & Greenberg, 1992). The inevitable death awareness or mortality salience provides a ground for experiencing the existential terror, which is the overwhelming concern of people’s mortality and existence. In order to avoid the continued existence of threats, people need faith in a relatively affirmative and plausive cultural worldview and meaning of life (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1995). Cultural worldview is a perceptual construction in the society which explaining the origins of life and the existence of afterlife. We have to invest a set of cultural worldviews by ourselves that are able to provide meaning, stability and order to our lives and to offer the promise of death transcendence (Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2004). On the other hand, we hold a belief that one is living up to the standards of value prescribed by that worldview and social norm shared by a group of people. This belief is derived by self-esteem of individual. We maintain the perception and confident that we are fulfilling the cultural prescriptions for value in the society and are thus eligible for some form of personal immortality (Landau & Greenberg, 2006). We Together with the assump...
A United States citizen turning against one’s own government and embracing an ideology to kill another citizen or commit an act of violence is a growing phenomenon commonly known as homegrown terrorism. This transition or radicalization process that transforms an individual into an adversary has intensified since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The problem continues to persist in other parts of the world such as Canada, United Kingdom and even in Saudi Arabia, a Non-Western country. This form of extremism has shown its propensity in the United States since the turn of the century when Muslim extremism had its early beginnings as a venue to support a black separatist movement. Today, the threat emerges more rampantly with the accessibility and excess of information technology; as well as the political and socio-economic environment influencing many spectrums of perception and intent.
“Terrorism involves the use of violence by an organization other than a national government to cause intimidation or fear among a target audience;” at least, this is how Pape (2003) defines terrorism in his article “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism” (343). The goal of this article by Pape is to discuss suicide terrorism and how it “follows a strategic logic, one specifically designed to coerce modern liberal democracies to make significant territorial concessions” (343). Similar to Pape, Bloom (2004) and Horowitz (2010) also delve into the exponential increase of suicide terrorism and why it occurs. Although Pape, Bloom, and Horowitz concur that suicide terrorism is increasing, they disagree why it is so prominent. While the arguments presented from each of these researchers is powerful and certainly plausible, suicide terrorism is in fact not irrational, but strategic and is most often caused by state occupation and, when organized, aimed specifically at democracies.
The threat of global terrorism continues to rise with the total number of deaths reaching 32,685 in 2015, which is an 80 percent increase from 2014 (Global Index). With this said, terrorism remains a growing, and violent phenomenon that has dominated global debates. However, ‘terrorism’ remains a highly contested term; there is no global agreement on exactly what constitutes a terror act. An even more contested concept is whether to broaden the scope of terrorism to include non-state and state actors.
Despite numerous high-profile terrorist attacks that have been committed by individuals operating independently from terrorist groups, little attention has been given to explaining how these lone actor terrorists can emotionally perform violent acts against others. Recent studies of violence suggest that micro-level situational factors are essential in emotionally enabling violent action. Perhaps the most critical factor is enabling violence is situational emotional dominance. This dominance is most often established through several group dynamics that include an entrainment with the physical and emotional states of confederates, mutual monitoring (a form of peer pressure), as well as the role of emotionally supportive observers. Indeed, Collins highlights the
The United States, like any large nation, experiences its fair share of domestic terrorism. Domestic terrorism comes in two forms, within the United States, secular terrorism and religious terrorism. The broader category of terrorism, of which secular and religious terrorism fall under, is defined as a violent act committed against defenseless civilians in order to incite change. The distinctive difference between secular and religious terrorism is the motivation to commit the act. Secular terrorist are motivated by ideology, that is separate from religion, and Religious terrorist are motivated by an interpretation of their religion. Because of these terrorist acts the United States is forced to take action, in order to prevent terrorist acts,
The U.S. is struggling to find a way to prevent domestic terrorism. Local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and the armed forces are working tirelessly to neutralize domestic terrorist cells and dismantle the influence of international extremist. This is a short summary discussing three domestic terrorist groups, and the similarities and differences between them. The three groups are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), Earth Liberation Front (ELF), and the Army of God.
On Wednesday January 7th, a group of masked gunmen shot and killed 12 people at Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical newspaper. Top journalists and police officers were among those killed. Four prominent cartoonists were killed, who have drawn cartoons which made fun of Islamic terrorists and the Prophet Muhammad.
For my paper I chose to evaluate the differences/similarities with two groups in the U.S. and two domestic terrorist groups in another country. For my domestic terrorist groups I chose the Ku Klux Klan and the Earth Liberation Front. For my foreign terrorist groups I chose Hamas and Boko Haram. I chose these groups because of their relevance in current times. The fact that these groups have been brought to my attention by the American media has stricken my interest. We as a planet need to acknowledge these potentially hazardous groups and utilize what we can to stop these groups from causing harm to innocent lives and to themselves.
The East is a fictional terrorist group that was maybe up of your average day people. What maybe this movie realistic to me was that they were an eco-terrorist who was starting a war with different organizations that are similar to the problems that we are facing today. To help develop a better understanding of their group we will apply two different theories those being instrumental theory and organization. This will help with the viewing of behavior that goes on in terrorist organizations with terms of two explanations. First being an instrumental theory, the act of terrorism, which is an intentional choice (Crenshaw 1987:13). The second theory, organization, which is a unit of acts to achieve collective values which involve radical changes
Terrorism has many forms, and many definitions. “Elements from the American definitional model define terrorism as a premeditated and unlawful act in which groups or agents of some principal engage in a threatened or actual use o...
Terrorism is one of the most extensively discussed issues of our time and at the same time it is also one of the least understood. The term itself “terrorism” means many different things to different people, cultures, and races. As a result, trying to define or classify terrorism with one universal definition is nearly impossible. The definition of terrorism used in this research is a reflection of much of the Western and American way of defining it. The definition of terrorism is,