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Terrorism

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Encyclopedia of Law and Economics

Synonyms

Political violence; Terror

Definition

Terrorism is the premeditated use, or threat of use, of extra-normal violence by non-state outside the context of legitimate warfare with the intention to coerce and intimidate an audience larger than the immediate victims in order to obtain political, economic, religious, or other social objectives through intimidation or fear.

Introduction

The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) defines terrorism as any action by a non-state actor (usually, a terrorist organization) outside the context of legitimate warfare with the intention to communicate (through the use of violence) with, coerce, or intimidate an audience larger than the immediate victims of a terrorist act, where this act is associated with achieving political, economic, religious, or other social objectives. Especially the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, have sparked a renewed interest in the economic analysis of terrorism and...

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Further Reading

  • Cronin AW (2011) How terrorism ends: understanding the decline and demise of terrorist campaigns. Princeton University Press, Princeton

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  • Enders W, Sandler T (2011) The political economy of terrorism. Cambridge University Press, New York

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  • Hoffman B (2006) Inside terrorism. Columbia University Press, New York

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  • Walker C (2011) Terrorism and the law. Oxford University Press, Oxford

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Correspondence to Friedrich Schneider .

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Schneider, F., Meierrieks, D. (2019). Terrorism. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7753-2_554

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