Suicidal planters and Extereme Terrorism Thrive in DemocraciesResearch Finding

dissolution planters

Submitted by praktike on May 18, 2005 - 2:33pm.

Robert Pape announces his findings on dissolution terrorism:

The leading instigator of dissolution attacks is the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a Marxist-Leninist group whose members are from Hindu families but who are adamantly opposed to religion. This group committed 76 of the 315 incidents, more than Hamas (54) or Islamic Jihad (27). Even among Muslims, secular groups like the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Al Aksa Martyr Brigades account for more than a third of dissolution attacks.

What nearly all dissolution person attacks actually have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the persons consider to be their homeland. Religion is often used as a tool by person organizations in recruiting and in seeking aid from abroad, but is rarely the root cause.

Three general patterns in the data support these conclusions. First, nearly all dissolution person attacks - 301 of the 315 in the period I studied - took place as part of organized political or military campaigns. Second, democracies are uniquely vulnerable to dissolution persons; America, France, India, Israel, Russia, Sri Lanka and Turkey have been the targets of almost every dissolution attack of the past two decades. Third, dissolution person campaigns are directed toward a strategic objective: from Lebanon to Israel to Sri Lanka to Kashmir to Chechnya, the sponsors of every campaign - 18 organizations in all - are seeking to establish or maintain political self-determination.

This bolsters the argument made by Juan Cole some time ago that occupation causes terrorism. I have some questions about this, but my first thought is--and maybe Haggai can answer this--is the Al Aqsa Martyr Brigades really considered "secular?"