Date of Award
2011
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Social Sciences
First Advisor
Hicks, Barbara
Keywords
Terror, Terrorism, Terrorists, Hamas, Provisional Irish Republican Army, PIRA, Tamil Tigers, LTTE, Organizational Framework, Instrumental Framework, Civil Conflict, Securitization, Militias, Ethno-nationalism
Area of Concentration
Political Science
Abstract
Despite the large amount of research done on terrorism of all stripes, an overall theoretical framework of terrorism has not yet been developed. Political terrorism is a vastly complicated and politically sensitive phenomenon; as a result, the overall state of the literature is incomplete, making any attempts to develop such a model unlikely and possibly even undesirable. Even basic definitions, assumptions, and relational models are still a matter of intensive debate. This study examines two dominant approaches to terrorism analysis, the instrumental/strategic model and the organizational/incentive framework. It contains a breakdown of existing theoretical perspectives on terrorism and applies the instrumental and organizational frameworks to intensive case studies of three prominent militia-type terrorist organizations � the Provisional IRA, the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. An analysis of these case studies reveals that the assumptions of the organizational framework are more accurate in examining and analyzing domestic militia-type terrorist organizations. This study does not claim to advance a unified theory of terrorism. Instead, through studying and problematizing the major theoretical perspectives of terrorism, this project will contribute to future attempts to create more realistic analytical assumptions within terrorism theory and thus the findings have direct implications for policymakers and security officials.
Recommended Citation
McKay, Thomas, "As the World Burns Theoretical Frameworks for Analyzing Domestic Terrorism" (2011). Theses & ETDs. 4407.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/4407
Rights
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