What Makes a Terrorist

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Alan Krueger, who teaches economics and public policy at Princeton and has been an adviser to the National Counterterrorism Center, feels economists ought to have something to say about the matter. Although it seems plausible that those who have little turn their frustrations on others, empirical evidence is clear that it is not the have-nots or the uneducated who become terrorists, but the better-educated and more advantaged. In fact, the author writes, it makes little sense to look at the supply side for explanations or, for that matter, for interventions. People are motivated to join extremist causes for a variety of reasons. Correcting or countering one will leave diverse others.

That suggests to me that it makes sense to focus on the demand side, such as by degrading terrorist organizations’ financial and technical capabili­ties, and by vigorously protecting and promoting peaceful means of protest, so there is less demand for pursuing grievances through violent means. Policies intended to dampen the flow of people willing to join terrorist organizations, by contrast, strike me as less likely to succeed.

The evidence we have seen thus far does not foreclose the possibility that members of the elite become terrorists because they are outraged by the economic conditions of their countrymen. This is a more difficult hypothesis to test, but, it turns out, there is little empirical sup­port for it.

Not only do terrorists not arise from the poorer segments of societies, but they do not tend to come from the poorest countries. The sociopolitical factors that correlate most with the creation of terorists turn out to be suppression of civil liberties and individual freedoms. Even international terrorists appear to be motivated by local concerns. In short (and it sounds obvious when stated in this way):

The evidence suggests that terrorists care about influencing political outcomes. They are often motivated by geopolitical grievances. To under­stand who joins terrorist organizations, instead of asking who has a low salary and few opportunities, we should ask: Who holds strong political views and is confident enough to try to impose an extrem­ist vision by violent means? Most terrorists are not so desperately poor that they have nothing to live for. Instead, they are people who care so fervently about a cause that they are willing to die for it.

(The American)