Do we really know how many terrorists are there in the world today? In the United States? How many terrorist incidents occurred last year? How do we know all the events qualified as terrorism fit the statutory framework?
As you have seen in this week’s readings, it may actually be very difficult to answer these questions. As a result, it’s also difficult to answer a simple question like ‘Are we winning or losing the war on terror?’
For this week’s discussion, please begin by visiting the START terrorist incidents database, found here: https://start.umd.edu/Links to an external site.
Read about the databaseLinks to an external site.
Now read about some of the METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES which researchers have faced in defining and measuring terrorismLinks to an external site.:
Spend some time exploring the database. Choose a country and look at some trends in that country regarding terrorist incidents over time.
Then respond to the following questions. But as you do, consider Josef Pieper’s “countless superficial information bits” in the absence of knowing the core of the matter while also pondering Brigadier S.K. Malik’s statement that the object of terror is the destruction of faith:
- What organizations support or assist START in the development of the data set it puts out on terrorism?
- Why is it so difficult to define and label terrorism and terrorist activities? Compare and contrast the issues raised by Englund and Stohl to the issues raised in the terrorism database. Are the major obstacles to defining and measuring terrorism purely political, purely methodological or some combination of the two? How are the methodological and political obstacles intertwined?
- What controversies have arisen in trying to label and measure terrorism? What specific problems did you identify in your exploration of the START database for your particular country?
- Why does this debate about DEFINING terrorism matter to policymakers and what are some ways which academics have tried to resolve it?