ABSTRACT
Terrorism has a long history, but its systematic analysis has a short past. Within this relatively brief period of time, spanning perhaps not much longer than three decades, analytical literature on the causes of terrorism has mushroomed.1 The rate of publication of academic and journalistic books and articles is even more accelerated since the days when the USA and other Western countries started to feel terrorism’s nefarious effects. If there are a few thin but resolute threads running through this rapidly burgeoning literature, despite its sheer volume and diversity, they are:
• It is nearly impossible to define ‘terrorism’. • The link between socio-political and economic structural factors, such as
poverty, lack of economic opportunity, etc. and terrorism is weak. • There is no single profile of a ‘terrorist’.
