Terrorism and the Percolation of Passive Supporters

Abstract

Dealing with terrorism is extremely delicate. Too much sorrow, passion, hate, and death are at stake. But that should not prevent us from trying to model the issue to try to single out its bare mechanisms and to eventually be able to curb its destructive capacity. The use of equations combined with what could look a priori like a simplistic viewpoint, but in fact is inspired from the physics of disorder, may indeed provide a new insight, which could eventually open unexpected paths to help in reducing terrorism. Any improvement is urged and should be welcomed. But modeling does not mean discovering the one and only “truth”. The problem is multi-fold, difficult, complex, emotional, and operated by archaic passions. This is precisely why the use of “nonhuman” frames and concepts could turn out to be quite productive in providing us with a different paradigm for encompassing the phenomenon, which may lead to useful solid steps in curbing terrorism.