Why Do Terrorists Attack Other Terrorists? Knowledge Discovery from the Global Terrorism Database

ABSTRACT

The global terrorism database (GTD) shows that 3,207 out of the total 191,464 terror incidents across the world from 1970 to 2018 were targeted at other terrorists and non-state militias. This study investigated why terrorists attack other terrorists. The GTD has three variables on terrorism criteria that indicate the motive of an attack. The criteria include criteria 1: the attack incident was aimed to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal; criteria 2: the attack incident was aimed to coerce, intimidate, or publicize to larger audiences; criteria 3: the attack incident was an action outside international humanitarian law. Obviously, all terror attacks satisfy criteria 3 by default. The risk ratio was deployed on the GTD to evaluate which of the two criteria (criteria 1 and 2) has an association with terror attacks on terrorists. It was discovered that terrorists attack other terrorists when the purpose is to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal (criteria 1). However, when the purpose of an attack is to coerce, intimidate, or publicize to larger audiences (criteria 2), it is very unlikely that such an attack would be targeted at other terrorists. The relevance of these findings in counterterrorism is discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Terror attack
• global terrorism database
• risk ratio
• divide and conquer
• knowledge discovery

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Donald Douglas Atsa’am

Dr. Donald Douglas Atsa’am is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of the Free State, South Africa. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from the Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus. He has been a Computer Science lecturer since 2012 with the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria. His research interests are in Machine Learning, Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery.

Ruth Wario

Dr. Ruth Wario is a Senior Lecturer and a researcher at the Department of Computer Science and Informatics, University of the Free State, South Africa. Her areas of specialization are M-Learning, application development, Human Computer Interaction and database management. She has published several papers which can be found online.

Uju Violet Alola

Dr. Uju Violet Alola obtained her PhD degree in Tourism Management from Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta-Northern Cyprus. She also holds MSc from Marketing Management at Eastern Mediterranean University and Bachelor degree from Anambra State University Nigeria. Currently, she teaches at Istanbul Gelisim University, Turkey, in addition to over seven years working experience in the hospitality industry. Her research interest includes employee maltreatment, incivility, organizational behavior, human resource management, work stress and sustainable tourism. She has published in several journals; Tourism Management Perspectives, International Journal of Tourism Research, Sustainability, Current Issues in Tourism and International Journal of Tourism Research among many others. [Email: [email protected]]