Title: Terrorism and counterterrorism: an overview | Oxford Economic Papers | Oxford Academic
Headings: Terrorism and counterterrorism: an overview
Terrorism and counterterrorism: an overview
Published:
Abstract
Issue Section:
1. Introduction
2. On terrorism
2.1 Domestic versus transnational terrorism
2.2 Some historical considerations of transnational terrorism
3. Event data sets
4. Domestic and transnational terrorism: some data plots
5. Counterterrorism
6. Findings of the articles of the special issue
7. Concluding remarks
Acknowledgements
References

Content: By limiting terrorism to subnational agents including individuals or a ‘lone wolf’, my definition rules out state terror in which a government terrorizes its own people. The definition, however, does not rule out state-sponsored terrorism where a government clandestinely assists a terrorist group through various means, including supplying weapons, safe haven, intelligence, training, funding, or safe passage ( Mickolus, 1989; Bapat, 2006 ). There was a lot of state sponsorship of terrorism during the final decade of the Cold War with groups such as the Abu Nidal Organization serving as a terrorist group for hire ( Hoffman, 2006 ). 2 The most controversial element of my definition is the victim, since some definitions exclude combatants, so that attacks against an occupying army, such as US forces in Iraq or Afghanistan, are not viewed as terrorism. Generally, an attack against peacekeepers, such as the 23 October 1983 suicide bombing of the US Marines barracks at Beirut International Airport, is considered an act of terrorism. The barracks’ bombing had the political objective of removing peacekeepers from Lebanon, which happened in February 1984. Attacks against US soldiers and their dependents stationed in Germany constitute terrorist incidents, because these targeted individuals were noncombatants when attacked. ‘ Audience’ refers to the collective that terrorists seek to intimidate through their wanton brutality. With sufficient and sustained intimidation, the audience will apply pressures on the besieg