conflict lecture 4

Question 1

why is subjectiveness an issue of terrorism?

Answer 1

there is no universal agreement on the definition of terrorism.
This subjectivity makes it difficult to fight against terrorism
* no effective legal regime universally accepted
* coordination problems across governments
* allows room for political surplus (state sponsored terrorism) etc.
“I know it when I see it” - Potter Stewart

Question 2

how does the united terrorism act 2000 define terrorism?

Answer 2

the use or threat of action which is designed to influence government or to intimidate the public or a section of the public and the use or threat is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religous or ideological cause. the action includes serious violence against a person, serious damage to a property, endangers a persons life other than that of the person committing the action. creates a serious risk to the health or safety of the public, is designed to seriously interfere with or seriously disrupt an electronic system

Question 3

what are the two issues which relate to terror and the economy?

Answer 3

the effect of the economy on terrorism and the effect of terrorism on the economy.

Question 4

can we claim that terrorists are rational?

Answer 4

an agent is rational if his preferences are complete (decline to prefer is not an option), and transistive (no cycle). the terrorist must then have well defined goals and they act strategically to achieve their goals.

Question 5

what did Krueger and Makeckova(2003) say were the features of a terrorist?

Answer 5

terrorists are not particularily poor, ignorant, mentally ill or religous. their most notable characteristic is normalcy

Question 6

what is the framework for the rational choice model of terroism?

Answer 6

a consumer has a utility function which describes her preferences and some income. the problem is to find the highest utility that can be given income. we assume there are two commodities which are terrorist activity T and composite good C. the preferences of terrorists are standard. the budget constraint is given by the equation P(T)T +P(C)C =I where P(T) is the price per unit cost of carrying out terrorist activities and P(C) is the price of the composite good. the optimal is determined by the MRS(T,C) =P(T)/P(C). the terrorist groups are dependent upon financial resources to carry out terrorist activites, so they obviously strive to maintain or increase their income. they can generate revenue by increasing terrorist activity.

Question 7

what is an engel curve?

Answer 7

an engel curve describes how household expenditure on a particular good or service varies with household income.

Question 8

what can the engel curve be used to explore?

Answer 8

it can be used to explore the income elasticity of terrorism. if C is a necessity then C would be income elastic. but the sum of weighted income elasticities should be -1, this would imply that the terroism is income elastic.

Question 9

How can governments try to increase the price of terrorism?

Answer 9

• build greater defense of potential targets
• attack against terrorist training centers
• capture terrorist leaders etc

Question 10

what is a detterence policy?

Answer 10

any activity which increases the price of terrorism

Question 11

what is a benevolence policy?

Answer 11

reduce terrorism not by increasing the price of terrorism but by reducing the price of the composite good for example subsidising the consumption and increased access to normal political processes

Question 12

what is the effect of a benevolence policy on the budget constraint?

Answer 12

the benevolence policy will reduce the price of the composites groups therefore the consumer could consume more composite goods causing an extension along the C axis and a rotation around the terrorist activity axis. this will reduce the terrorist activity and increase the consumption of composite goods

Question 13

what is the effect of a deterence policy?

Answer 13

the deterence policy increases the price of terrorism , as a result the total amount of terorsist activity falls so the intersect of the T axis will be smaller and there will be a rotation of the budget constraint around the composite good axis. there will be a reduction in terrorist activity.

Question 14

what is the caveat of benevolence/deterence policys?

Answer 14

these policys may lead to an increase in terrost activity- own price elasticity of C

Question 15

what is the effect of benevolence policy according the income substitution effect?

Answer 15

• T and C must be net substitutes =⇒ SE is positive
• Lower PC implies lower T (SE)
• The substitutability between terrorism and other goods is
  presumably limited, implying that the substitution effect is small.
• Income effect: When P ↓ you should buy more of all normal goods
• So when PC ↓ T ↑ if terrorism is normal
• Terrorism is widely assumed to be a normal good, as evidenced by
  the prevalent policy of restricting terrorists’ resources.
• Composite goods C are substantial part of budget so IE should be
  big.
  since the income effect is greater then the substitution effect, a benevolence policy would actually increase T

Question 16

what is the issue of terrorist substitution possibilities?

Answer 16

a general concern is the potential for terrorists to substitute into other activites eg they could substitute across targets. the rational choice model cannot by itself provide unambigous answers to the direction and magnitude of terrorist substitution behaviour. however it can provide valueable guidance.

Question 17

provide the example of the implementation of metal detectors and the effect of terrorism?

Answer 17

when metal detectors were placed in airports in 1973, there was a decrease in the number of hijackings but the terrorists substitute to other forms of terrorist activity such as kidnapping or takeover of embassies and buildings which were raritys, greatly increasd. this is evidence that the terrorists were rational

Question 18

what are the costs that are involved within the cost benefit analysis of terrorism?

Answer 18

the opportunity costs which include the root causes of terrorism such as discrimination and poverty. there are also the material costs which are the facilitation factors such as geography and military strength of the government

Question 19

what are the benefits that are involved within the cost benefit analysis of terrorism?

Answer 19

the intermediate goals such as destabilisation, media attention and group survival
the ultimate goals such as regime change, territorial change and policy change

Question 20

what are the three fundamental strategies of counter terrorism and what are they based on?

Answer 20

the three fundamental strategies are to increase the cost of terrorism, to reduce the benefits of terrorism and to increase the opportunity cost of terrorism. they are based on the terrorists cost benefits analysis

Question 21

how can the counter terrorism lower the benefit of terrorism?

Answer 21

they can target the short run and long run objectives of terrorism. some methods are:
- limiting the media impact
- increasing politicoeconomic resiliency
- rejecting political concessions
- recognising or enabling alternative means of organisation such as political parties or non violent opposition groups

Question 22

how can counter terrorism raise the opportunity cost of terrorism?

Answer 22

they do this multidimensionally, it includes social policies such as fighting poverty and also individual factors eg religiosity are two important dimensions.

Question 23

what does the cost benefit model of terrorsim capture?

Answer 23

it captures innovation and substitution : terrorists innovate and substitute

Question 24

what does the cost benefit model of terrorism not capture?

Answer 24

it does not capture dynamic thigns such as provocation and escalation: terrorists try to provoke harsh response by the govt to increase support and tension etc/

Question 25

what are the two answers for the question: can increasing education reduce terrorist activity?

Answer 25

yes according to the occupational choice model
no terror organsiations may prefer to recruit high ability individuals

Question 26

what is the effect of terrorism on employment and growth but compare it to other forms of conflict?

Answer 26

time series and cross country studies find that terrorism has geterogenous impacts on employment and growth. but although the effect of terrorism is negative on economic growth, it is considerably smaller and less persistent than that associated with wars or social conflict