political social and economic causes terrorism Flashcards
P - one political cause of terrorism are dictatorships and authoritarian governments
E- These type of governments provide limited opportunity for peaceful protests, meaning with no other way to protest, many people turn to violence and terrorist groups.
example?
E- the arab spring movements starting 2010, with anti-government protesters, started peacefully but were met with aggression from the state ancd then turned violent, with a wave of protests and unrest spreading across Arab-speaking countries in North Africa and the Middle East
political-dictatorships
R- However, fighting for freedom and democracy made it worse in some cases.
e - Many terrorist groups took advantage of civil conflict and political crises.
example?
E- In syria peaceful protestors protesting for democracy were met with government opposition, after the government’s response to Arab Spring’s protestors violence and civil war broke out, and ISIL , managed to gain strong footholds in Syria.
social - religion
P- One social cause of terrorism is religious beliefs,
religion can lead to terrorism within a country.
E- Religious terrorists may use terrorism to punish what they see as ‘ungodly’ behavior in society or to avenge what they see to be attacks on their beliefs
example?
E- The Taliban is one terror group that has religious motives behind their attacks. In 2021, the Taliban took over Afghanistan changing the name to the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’
Social- religion
R- However, often to achieve this religious power- they need to fight political powers, such as police and military.
e - A terror group needs to target political figures in order to gain control over the country and the government, and to start to implement their religious beliefs across the country.
example?
a?
E- in 2019 the Taliban’s main focus was police and military- which accounted for over half of deaths. 1,835 people were killed in 2019 in attacks on police and military targets. The Taliban were trying to undermine state stability
A- although taliban want a caliphate in Afghanistan, rcenet political attacks suggest altjhough religion underlying motivation, political motivation inextricably linked
economic - poverty
P- One economic cause that can lead to terrorism is poverty.
E- Poorer people in less economically developed countries are more likely to have resentment towards the system, and believe they don’t have much remaining to lose. They may view the consequences of terrorism, death and imprisonment, differently to those people who are not living in poverty
example?
e- ISIL recruited many poorer people to join them, they convinced thousands of people to to travel to Syria and join their group. Syria was ranked as having the highest levels of unemployment in 2017, with 50% of the population being unemployed. In 2020 the GTI ranked Syria the 4th country most impacted by terrorism, therefore it could be argued there is a link between unemployment/poverty and terrorism.
economic- poverty
R- However not all countries have the same link between poverty and terrorism.
E- Many poor countries have very high poverty rates but very low terrorism rates.
example?
a?
e- Guniea-Bissau has extremely high poverty levels at 69.3% however the GTI ranked it very low for terrorism at 135th in the world with a score of 0.000.
A- poverty alone not necessarily strong cause only when the country is also facing political instability that its influential
CONCLUSION
As set out above political causes are the most significant in causing terrorism. Although economic causes are slightly significant because… and social causes are relatively significant because…
Political causes are the most significant because…
INTRODUCTION
Terrorism is caused by many different social, political and economic factors. Political factors that can lead to terrorism can be due to the way a country is governed both dictatorships and democracies..
Economic causes such as…
Finally it could be argued that social factors such as… also give rise to terrorism
overall political factors are the most influential in cauing terrorism
