Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

An analytical history of terrorism, 1945–2000

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Public Choice Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper traces the history of modern terrorism from the end of the Second World War to the beginning of the twenty-first century. It divides that history into three stylized waves: terrorism in the service of national liberation and ethnic separatism, left-wing terrorism, and Islamist terrorism. Adopting a constitutional political economy perspective, the paper argues that terrorism is rooted in the artificial nation-states created during the interwar period and suggests solutions grounded in liberal federalist constitutions and, perhaps, new political maps for the Middle East, Central Asia and other contemporary terrorist homelands.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alexander, Y., & Pluchinsky, D. (1992). Europe’s red terrorists: the fighting communist organizations. London: Frank Cass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry, J.M. (2004). The great influenza: the epic story of the deadliest plague in history. New York and London: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caputo, P. (2005). Acts of faith. New York: Knopf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coll, S. (2004). Ghost wars: the secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, L., & Lapierre, D. (1972). O Jerusalem! New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, H.H.A. (2001). Terrorism: the problem of definition revisited. American behavioral scientist, 44(6), 881–893.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crenshaw, M. (1990). The logic of terrorism: terrorist behavior as a product of strategic choice. In W. Reich (Ed.), Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, theologies, states of mind, (pp. 7–24). Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center and Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins, R. ([1976] 1989). The selfish gene. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dostoevsky, F. ([1872] 1994). Demons: a novel in three parts. Pevear, R., & Volokhonsky, L. (trans.) Knopf: New York.

  • Enders, W., & Sandler, T. (1993). The effectiveness of antiterrorism policies: a vector-autoregression-intervention analysis. American Political Science Review, 87(4), 829–844.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enders, W., & Sandler, T. (1995). Terrorism: theory and applications. In K. Hartley, & T. Sandler (Eds.), Handbook of Defense Economics, vol. 1, (pp. 213–249). Amsterdam: North-Holland.

  • Enders, W., & Sandler, T. (2000). Is transnational terrorism becoming more threatening? a time-series investigation. Journal of Conflict Resolution 44(3), 307–332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Enders, W., & Sandler, T. (2004). What do we know about the substitution effect in transnational terrorism? In A. Silke, & G. Ilardi (Eds.), Researching terrorism: Trends, achievements, failures, (pp. 119 –137). Ilford: Frank Cass.

  • Enders, W., Sandler, T., & Cauley, J. (1990). UN conventions, technology, and retaliation in the fight against terrorism: an economic evaluation. Terrorism and Political Violence, 2(1), 83–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferracuti, F. (1990). Ideology and repentance: terrorism in italy. In W. Reich (Ed.), Origins of terrorism: psychologies, ideologies, theologies, states of mind, (pp. 59–64). Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center and Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.

  • Frey, B.S. (2004). Dealing with terrorism – stick or carrot? Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA.

  • Frey, B.S., & Eichenberger, R. (1999). A new proposal for federalism and democracy in developing countries. In M. S. Kimenyi, & J. M. Mbaku (Eds.), Institutions and collective choice in developing countries: applications of the theory of public choice, (pp. 315–326). Aldershot, UK and Brookfield, VT, USA: Ashgate.

  • Fromkin, D. (1989). A peace to end all peace: the fall of the ottoman empire and the creation of the modern Middle East. New York: Henry Holt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gurr, T.R. (1990). Terrorism in democracies: its social and political bases. In W. Reich (Ed.), Origins of terrorism: psychologies, ideologies, theologies, states of mind, (pp. 86–102). Washington, DC:Woodrow Wilson Center and Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.

  • Hardin, R. (1995). One for all: the logic of group conflict. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, R. (1999). Liberalism, constitutionalism, and democracy. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinlein, R.A. ([1966] 1994). The moon is a harsh mistress. New York: Tom Doherty.

  • Hilton, I. (2001). The pashtun code. New Yorker, 77(38), 58–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirshleifer, J. (1991). The paradox of power. Economics and Politics, 3(3), 177–200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobbes, T. ([1651] 1996). Leviathan. Revised Student Edition. In R. Tuck (Ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge University Press.

  • Hoffman, B. (1998). Inside terrorism. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horne, A. (1977). A savage war of peace: algeria 1954–1962. New York: Viking Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, L.C. (2001). The future of terrorism. American Behavioral Scientist, 44(6), 894–913.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keegan, J. (2004). The Iraq War. New York: Knopf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kellen, K. (1990). Ideology and rebellion: terrorism in West Germany. In W. Reich (Ed.), Origins of terrorism: psychologies, ideologies, theologies, states of mind, (pp. 43–58). Baltimore and London: Woodrow Wilson Center: Washington, DC, and Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimenyi, M.S. (1999). Spatial competition, ethnicity, and the optimal size and composition of units of collective choice. In M. S. Kimenyi, & J. M. Mbaku (Eds.), Institutions and collective choice in developing countries: applications of the theory of public choice, (pp. 355–380). Aldershot, UK and Brookfield, VT, USA: Ashgate.

  • Landes, W.M. (1978). An economic study of u.s. aircraft hijackings 1961–1976. Journal of Law and Economics, 21(1), 1–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laqueur, W. (1999). The new terrorism: fanaticism and the arms of mass destruction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, S.D., & Dubner, S.J. (2005). Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything. New York: William Morris (HarperCollins).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, B. (2001). The revolt of Islam. New Yorker, 77(36), 50–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liddell Hart, B.H. ([1971] 1999). History of the second world war. New York: Da Capo Press.

  • Macmillan, M. (2002). Paris 1919: six months that changed the world. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merari, A. (1990). The readiness to kill and die: suicidal terrorism in the Middle East. In W. Reich (Ed.), Origins of terrorism: psychologies, ideologies, theologies, states of mind, (pp. 192–207). Washington, DC, and Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore and London: Woodrow Wilson Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mickolus, E.F., Sandler, T., & Murdock, J.M. (1989). International terrorism in the 1980s: a chronology of events, 2 vols. Ames: Iowa State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. (2004). The 9/11 commission report: final report of the national commission on terrorist attacks upon the united states. New York and London: Norton.

  • Office of the Coordinator of Counterterrorism (1997). Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1986. US Department of State Publication 10433. Washington, DC: US Department of State.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson, M. (1965). The logic of collective action: public goods and the theory of groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pillar, P.R. (2001). Terrorism and U.S. foreign policy.Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Post, J.M. (1990). Terrorist psycho-logic: terrorist behavior as a product of psychological forces. In W. Reich (Ed.), Origins of terrorism: psychologies, ideologies, theologies, states of mind, (pp. 25–40). Washington, DC, and Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore and London: Woodrow Wilson Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rapoport, D.C. (1990). Sacred terror: a contemporary example from islam. In W. Reich (Ed.), Origins of terrorism: psychologies, ideologies, theologies, states of mind, (pp. 103–130). Washington, DC, and Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore and London: Woodrow Wilson Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rapoport, D.C. (2004). The four waves of modern terrorism. In A. K. Cronin, & J. M. Ludes (Eds.), Attacking terrorism: elements of a grand strategy, (pp. 46–73). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

  • Rashid, A. (2000). Taliban: Militant Islam, oil and fundamentalism in Central Asia. New Haven and London: Yale Nota Bene.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rathbone, A., & Rowley, C.K. (2004). Terrorism. In C. K. Rowley, & F. Schneider (Eds.), The encyclopedia of public choice, vol. II, (pp. 558–563). Dordrecht, Boston and London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

  • Reich, W. (ed.) (1990). Origins of terrorism: psychologies, ideologies, theologies, states of mind. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center and Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowley, C.K. (1999). Rent seeking and rent extraction from the perspective of Africa. In M. S. Kimenyi, & J. M. Mbaku (Eds.), Institutions and collective choice in developing countries: applications of the theory of public choice, (pp. 233–254). Aldershot, UK and Brookfield, VT, USA: Ashgate.

  • Sandler, T. (2006). Recognizing the limits to cooperation behind national borders – Financing the control of transnational terrorism. In I. Kaul, & P. Conceição (Eds.), The new public finance: Responding to global terrorism, (pp. 194–216). New York: Oxford University Press.

  • Sandler, T. (2005b). Collective versus unilateral responses to terrorism. Public Choice, forthcoming.

  • Sandler, T., Tschirhart, J.T., & Cauley, J. (1983). A theoretical analysis of transnational terrorism. American Political Science Review, 77(1), 37–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shughart, W.F. II (2004). September 11, 2001. In C. K. Rowley, & F. Schneider (Eds.), The encyclopedia of public choice, vol. II, (pp. 520–524). Dordrecht, Boston and London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

  • Sprinzak, E. (1990). The psychopolitical formation of extreme left terrorism in a democracy: the case of the weathermen. In W. Reich (Ed.), Origins of terrorism: psychologies, ideologies, theologies, states of mind, (pp. 65–85). Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center and Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tullock, G. (1974). The social dilemma: the economics of war and revolution. Blacksburg, VA: University Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turk, A.T. (2004). Sociology of terrorism. Annual Review of Sociology, 30, 271–286.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vidal, G. ([1964] 1986). Julian. New York: Ballentine Books.

  • Zakaria, F. (2003). The future of freedom: illiberal democracy at home and abroad. New York and London: Norton.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, The University of Mississippi, University, Oxford, P. O. Box 1848, MS, 38677–1848, USA

    William F. Shughart II

Authors
  1. William F. Shughart II
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to William F. Shughart II.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Shughart, W.F. An analytical history of terrorism, 1945–2000. Public Choice 128, 7–39 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-006-9043-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-006-9043-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation