IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/compsc/v22y2005i2p135-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Victim of Success: American Dominance and Terrorism

Author

Listed:
  • David Sobek

    (Department of Political Science Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, dsobek@lsu.edu)

  • Alex Braithwaite

    (Department of Political Science Pennsylvania State University University Park, Pennsylvania, USA)

Abstract

While terrorist attacks against American interests represent an important topic, few studies use international relations theory and a rigorous statistical methodology to examine their occurrence. In recognition of these shortcomings, this paper hypothesizes and tests a simple yet powerful relationship: as American dominance of the international system increases, the number of attacks against its interests will also rise. This relationship exists because American dominance leaves little room for revisionist actors to alter the status quo through conventional means, which makes terrorist methods an increasingly likely choice. Using ARIMA modeling techniques on a data set that spans from 1968—1996, we gain confirmation that increasing levels of American dominance are positively correlated with large numbers of attacks against American interests.

Suggested Citation

  • David Sobek & Alex Braithwaite, 2005. "Victim of Success: American Dominance and Terrorism," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 22(2), pages 135-148, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:compsc:v:22:y:2005:i:2:p:135-148
    DOI: 10.1080/07388940590948565
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/07388940590948565
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/07388940590948565?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Atkinson, Scott E & Sandler, Todd & Tschirhart, John, 1987. "Terrorism in a Bargaining Framework," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(1), pages 1-21, April.
    2. D. Scott Bennett & Allan C. Stam, 2000. "Eugene : A conceptual manual," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 179-204, March.
    3. Enders, Walter & Sandler, Todd, 2000. "Is Transnational Terrorism Becoming More Threatening? A Time-Series Investigation," Staff General Research Papers Archive 1823, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    4. Walter Enders & Todd Sandler, 2000. "Is Transnational Terrorism Becoming More Threatening?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 44(3), pages 307-332, June.
    5. Sandler, Todd & Tschirhart, John T. & Cauley, Jon, 1983. "A Theoretical Analysis of Transnational Terrorism," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(1), pages 36-54, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brockhoff Sarah & Krieger Tim & Meierrieks Daniel, 2016. "Heterogeneous Terrorism: Determinants of Left-Wing and Nationalist-Separatist Terrorism in Western Europe," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 22(4), pages 393-401, December.
    2. Tim Krieger & Daniel Meierrieks, 2015. "The rise of capitalism and the roots of anti-American terrorism," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 52(1), pages 46-61, January.
    3. Krieger, Tim & Meierrieks, Daniel, 2013. "The rise of market-capitalism and the roots of anti-American terrorism," Discussion Paper Series 2013-04, University of Freiburg, Wilfried Guth Endowed Chair for Constitutional Political Economy and Competition Policy.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sandler, Todd & Enders, Walter, 2004. "An economic perspective on transnational terrorism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 301-316, June.
    2. Bruno S. Frey & Simon Luechinger, "undated". "Terrorism: Deterrence May Backfire," IEW - Working Papers 136, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    3. Khusrav Gaibulloev & Todd Sandler, 2013. "Determinants of the Demise of Terrorist Organizations," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 79(4), pages 774-792, April.
    4. Claude Berrebi & Jordan Ostwald, 2011. "Earthquakes, hurricanes, and terrorism: do natural disasters incite terror?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 383-403, December.
    5. Walter Enders & Todd Sandler, 2005. "Transnational Terrorism 1968‐2000: Thresholds, Persistence, and Forecasts," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(3), pages 467-482, January.
    6. Bruno S. Frey & Simon Luechinger, 2005. "Measuring terrorism," Chapters, in: Alain Marciano & Jean-Michel Josselin (ed.), Law and the State, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Michael Stohl, 2007. "Swamps, Hot Spots, Dick Cheney and the Internationalization of Terrorist Campaigns," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 24(4), pages 257-264, September.
    8. Christopher Gelpi & Nazli Avdan, 2018. "Democracies at risk? A forecasting analysis of regime type and the risk of terrorist attack," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 35(1), pages 18-42, January.
    9. Kollias, Christos & Kyrtsou, Catherine & Papadamou, Stephanos, 2013. "The effects of terrorism and war on the oil price–stock index relationship," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 743-752.
    10. Faria Joao Ricardo, 2003. "Terror Cycles," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-11, April.
    11. Jeff Victoroff, 2005. "The Mind of the Terrorist," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 49(1), pages 3-42, February.
    12. William F. Shughart, 2011. "Terrorism in Rational Choice Perspective," Chapters, in: Christopher J. Coyne & Rachel L. Mathers (ed.), The Handbook on the Political Economy of War, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Walter Enders & Todd Sandler, 2005. "After 9/11," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 49(2), pages 259-277, April.
    14. Marek Loužek, 2009. "Ekonomie bezpečnosti - jsou teroristé racionální? [Economics of security - are terrorists rational?]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2009(2), pages 177-193.
    15. S. Blomberg & Khusrav Gaibulloev & Todd Sandler, 2011. "Terrorist group survival: ideology, tactics, and base of operations," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 441-463, December.
    16. Claude Berrebi & Jordan Ostwald, 2011. "Earthquakes, hurricanes, and terrorism: do natural disasters incite terror?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 383-403, December.
    17. José Garcia Montalvo & Marta Reynal-Querol, 2018. "Earthquakes and terrorism: the long lasting effect of seismic shocks," Economics Working Papers 1599, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    18. Nicole Crain & W. Crain, 2006. "Terrorized economies," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 317-349, July.
    19. Caruso, Raul & Schneider, Friedrich, 2013. "Brutality of Jihadist terrorism. A contest theory perspective and empirical evidence in the period 2002–2010," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 685-696.
    20. Patrick T. Brandt & Todd Sandler, 2010. "What Do Transnational Terrorists Target? Has It Changed? Are We Safer?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 54(2), pages 214-236, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:compsc:v:22:y:2005:i:2:p:135-148. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.