Does Terrorism Work? Theoretical Debate and Case Studies

 Experts are divided between those who maintain that terrorism is an effective tool for achieving political concessions and those who argue that only very few terrorist groups have ever secured their strategic goals in the long term. The success or otherwise of political violence is an issue of vital importance at both theoretical and practical levels for governments and societies facing terrorist threats, as well as for terrorist groups themselves (who are interested in the survival of the group). The operational importance is also unquestionable: identifying the conditions that lead to the failure of terrorism would be of great use to the security authorities. This edition addresses these and other recent contributions to the debate on the effectiveness of terrorism. It highlights a number of the inherent problems with the academic discussion and provides a series of case studies, from jihadist terrorism in the United Kingdom and France to the strategy of non-violence in Western Sahara, via revolutionary violence in El Salvador and Uruguay.

DOI: doi.org/10.24241/rcai.2016.112.1