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On reducing terrorism power: a hint from physics

Author

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  • Galam, Serge
  • Mauger, Alain

Abstract

The September 11 attack on the US has revealed an unprecedented terrorism worldwide range of destruction. Recently, it has been related to the percolation of worldwide spread passive supporters. This scheme puts the suppression of the percolation effect as the major strategic issue in the fight against terrorism. Accordingly the world density of passive supporters should be reduced below the percolation threshold. In terms of solid policy, it means to neutralize millions of random passive supporters, which is contrary to ethics and out of any sound practical scheme. Given this impossibility we suggest instead a new strategic scheme to act directly on the value of the terrorism percolation threshold itself without harming the passive supporters. Accordingly we identify the space hosting the percolation phenomenon to be a multi-dimensional virtual social space which extends the ground earth surface to include the various independent terrorist-fighting goals. The associated percolating cluster is then found to create long-range ground connections to terrorism activity. We are thus able to modify the percolation threshold pc in the virtual space to reach p

Suggested Citation

  • Galam, Serge & Mauger, Alain, 2003. "On reducing terrorism power: a hint from physics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 323(C), pages 695-704.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:323:y:2003:i:c:p:695-704
    DOI: 10.1016/S0378-4371(03)00006-2
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Nizamani, Sarwat & Memon, Nasrullah & Galam, Serge, 2014. "From public outrage to the burst of public violence: An epidemic-like model," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 416(C), pages 620-630.
    2. James, Nick & Menzies, Max & Chok, James & Milner, Aaron & Milner, Cas, 2023. "Geometric persistence and distributional trends in worldwide terrorism," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    3. Husain, Syed Shariq & Sharma, Kiran & Kukreti, Vishwas & Chakraborti, Anirban, 2020. "Identifying the global terror hubs and vulnerable motifs using complex network dynamics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 540(C).
    4. Paolo Pellizzari & Elena Sartori & Marco Tolotti, 2015. "Optimal Policies In Two-Step Binary Games Under Social Pressure And Limited Resources," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(05n06), pages 1-16, August.
    5. Serge Galam & Marco Alberto Javarone, 2016. "Modeling Radicalization Phenomena in Heterogeneous Populations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(5), pages 1-15, May.
    6. Alvarez-Ramirez, J. & Ibarra-Valdez, C. & Rodriguez, E. & Urrea, R., 2007. "Fractality and time correlation in contemporary war," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 1039-1049.

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