ABSTRACT
The term ‘terrorism’ is mostly used to convey the meaning that a violent action is perpetrated and politically motivated, targeting non-combatant citizens of a country by sub-national groups or clandestine agents, with a clear intention to influence an audience. International terrorism involves international targets, international audience and foreign, or multinational, perpetrators. The literature on terrorism and counterterrorism has well-recognised contributions from economists for more than three decades. Since the terrorist attack on US soil on 11 September 2001, there has been a virtual explosion of research with important studies on the economic causes of terrorism and its economic consequences. Many excellent research publications appeared on investigating the structural determinants of terrorism. Interesting behavioural questions were posed about who becomes a terrorist. Obviously, as an indispensable aid to policymaking, economists offer models to examine the optimal counterterrorism policy to deter terrorism, break terrorist networks and arrest radical mobilisation.
