International Terrorism, Domestic Political Instability, and the Escalation Effect

authored by

Nauro F. Campos, Martin Gassebner

Abstract

What are the main causes of international terrorism? Despite the meticulous examination of various candidate explanations, existing estimates still diverge in sign, size, and significance. This article puts forward a novel explanation and supporting evidence. We argue that domestic political instability provides the learning environment needed to successfully execute international terror attacks. Using a yearly panel of 123 countries over 1973-2003, we find that the occurrence of civil wars increases fatalities and the number of international terrorist acts by 45%. These results hold for alternative indicators of political instability, estimators, subsamples, subperiods, and accounting for competing explanations.

External Organisation(s)

Brunel University
ETH Zurich

Type

Article

Journal

Economics and Politics

Volume

25

Pages

27-47

No. of pages

21

ISSN

0954-1985

Publication date

03.2013

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics and Econometrics

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1111/ecpo.12002 (Access: Closed)