Targets of Terror

Laura N. Bell

doi:10.5771/9781786613929

Summary

Targets of Terror addresses the repercussions of assassination as a tactic of terrorism and delineates post-assassination political outcomes across target types. Assassination of heads of state, such as John F. Kennedy and Yitzhak Rabin, are rare events, but the political murders of police personnel, local government officials, politicians, and journalists occur frequently. These “softer” targets are often pursued during broader campaigns of terrorist violence, and the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) records a significant number of these assassination events—16,246 to be exact—between 1977 and 2017.

Utilizing survival analysis and the Polity IV Index to examine the span of time from a terrorist assassination to potential shifts in state political institutions, Laura N. Bell compares changes in authoritarian, mixed, and tumultuous regimes with democratic governments. She argues that these cases illuminate the extent to which the type of assassination target may or may not be linked to significant institutional change. By establishing differences in post-assassination political outcomes across regimes and targets, Bell provides a baseline study upon which to build future examinations of the types and severity of risks to governmental institutions during terror campaigns.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2021
ISBN-Print: 978-1-78661-391-2
ISBN-Online: 978-1-78661-392-9
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 182
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
4. 1. Tables No access
  2. Figures No access
1. An Overview of Assassination Norms No access
2. Contemporary Assassinations No access
3. Premise and Empirical Aim No access
4. Structure of the Book No access
1. Assassination Defined No access
2. Contemporary Assassination No access
3. Defining Terrorism No access
4. Previous Research on Terrorist Assassinations No access
5. The Relevance of Terrorist Assassinations No access
6. Why the Targets Matter No access
7. Conclusion No access
1. The GTD No access
2. Assassination in the GTD No access
3. Terrorist Assassination Target Categories No access
4. Cleansing the Data No access
5. Regime Type and the Polity IV Index No access
6. Repressive Regimes and the Political Terror Scale No access
7. Where Terrorist Assassinations Occur No access
8. Other Descriptive Data No access
9. Conclusion No access
1. Target Selection Literature No access
2. Methodology No access
3. Survival Analysis: Regime Changes and Target Types No access
4. Conclusion No access
1. Second-Level Categories of Government Officials No access
2. India—Prime Minister Indira Gandhi No access
3. Greece—British Military Attaché Brigadier Stephen Saunders No access
4. Survival Analysis Models—Targets and Political Change No access
5. Survival Analysis Models—Targets and Repressive Regimes No access
6. Conclusion No access
1. Second-Level Categories of the Politically Active—Politicians and Political Party Members No access
2. Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri No access
3. Peru—The Shining Path and Red October No access
4. Survival Analysis Models—Targets and Political Change No access
5. Conclusion No access
1. Second-Level Categories of Law Enforcement No access
2. Russia—Deputy Chief Justice Aza Gazgireeva and Judge Eduard Chuvashov No access
3. Spain—Police Chief Joseba Pagazaurtundua No access
4. Survival Analysis Models—Targets and Political Change No access
5. Conclusion No access
1. Second-Level Categories of Journalists No access
2. France—Charlie Hebdo No access
3. Algeria—The Black Decade No access
4. Survival Analysis Models—Targets and Political Change No access
5. Conclusion No access
1. Second-Level Categories of Military and Religious Targets No access
2. Assassinations of Military Leaders No access
3. Assassinations of Religious Leaders No access
4. Survival Analysis Models—Targets and Political Change No access
5. Conclusion No access
1. Quantitative Findings No access
2. Qualitative Findings No access
3. A Framework No access
4. Future Research No access
1. Chapter 1 No access
2. Chapter 2 No access
3. Chapter 3 No access
4. Chapter 4 No access
5. Chapter 5 No access
6. Chapter 6 No access
7. Chapter 7 No access
8. Chapter 8 No access
9. Chapter 9 No access
Bibliography No access Pages 165 - 174
Index No access Pages 175 - 180
About the Author No access Pages 181 - 182