The Political Economy of Terrorism

This book analyzes all aspects of terrorism from the viewpoint of the government, terrorists and other interested participants.

Walter Enders (Author), Todd Sandler (Author)

9780521181006, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 14 November 2011

408 pages, 62 b/w illus. 39 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.54 kg

'Enders and Sandler remain among the very best social scientists doing systematic comparative study on terrorism. This new edition is an essential statement of contemporary theory, evidence, and policy implications.' Bruce Russett, Yale University

The Political Economy of Terrorism presents a widely accessible political economy approach to the study of terrorism. It applies economic methodology – theoretical and empirical – combined with political analysis and realities to the study of domestic and transnational terrorism. In so doing, the book provides both a qualitative and quantitative investigation of terrorism in a balanced up-to-date presentation that informs students, policy makers, researchers and the general reader of the current state of knowledge. Included are historical aspects, a discussion of watershed events, the rise of modern-day terrorism, examination of current trends, the dilemma of liberal democracies, evaluation of counterterrorism, analysis of hostage incidents and much more. The new edition expands coverage of every chapter, adds a new chapter on terrorist network structures and organization, accounts for changes in the Department of Homeland Security and the USA Patriot Act and insurance against terrorism. Rational-actor models of terrorist and government behavior and game-theoretic analysis are presented for readers with no prior theoretical training. Where relevant, the authors display graphs using data from International Terrorism: Attributes of Terrorist Events (ITERATE), the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), and other public-access data sets.

1. Terrorism: an introduction
2. The dilemma of liberal democracies
3. Statistical studies and terrorist behavior
4. Counterterrorism
5. Transference
6. International cooperation: dilemma and inhibitors
7. Hostage taking
8. Terrorist groups and their organization
9. Before and after 9/11
10. The economic impact of terrorism
11. Homeland security
12. The future of terrorism.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Economic theory & philosophy [KCA], Social & political philosophy [HPS]