A new research brief from START’s ICONS team offers lessons learned from simulation exercises exploring capabilities needed for effective operation in Gray Zone crises in the Middle East/North Africa region and Eastern Europe. Read more.
Terrorist threats to critical infrastructure
A recently released START report provides an overview of terrorist threats to critical infrastructure in the United States, based on patterns of terrorism from 1970-2015. The report highlights trends, perpetrators and tactics and weapons. Read more.
Threats of violent Islamist and far-right extremism: What does the research say?
In this editorial piece, START researchers William Parkin, Jeff Gruenewald, Brent Klein, Joshua Freilich and Steven Chermak present data from the Extremist Crime Database on far-right and Islamist extremists that shows both groups pose threats to Americans. The researchers advocate for polices, programs and research that focus on countering all forms violent extremism. Read more.
Criminology & Public Policy: Vol 16, Issue 1
- Assessing the Effectiveness of High-Profile Targeted Killings in the “War on Terror” Carson, Jennifer Varriale
- Terrorist Use of the Internet by the Numbers Gill, Paul, and Emily Corner, Maura Conway, Amy Thornton, Mia Bloom, John Horgan
- Do Targeted Killings Increase or Decrease Terrorism? Gruenewald, Jeff
- Terrorism and the Internet LaFree, Gary
- Countering Violent Extremism Online and Offline Szmania, Susan, and Phelix Fincher
- Morality, Efficacy, and Targeted Assassination as a Policy Tool Young, Joseph K.
The Role of Anger in the Radicalization of Terrorists
ABC-CLIO
Davenport, Cory
Know thy enemy: Education about terrorism improves social attitudes toward terrorists
Journal of Experimental Psychology
Theriault, Jordan, and Peter Krause, Liane Young
The clock is ticking: Temporal dynamics of campus emergency notifications
Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management
Madden, Stephanie
Experts explain the complexities of counterterrorism
START researchers Martha Crenshaw and Gary LaFree recently addressed challenges facing counterterrorism policymakers during a lecture about their new book Countering Terrorism. The pair highlighted both the complications practitioners face in countering terrorism and complications scholars face in studying counterterrorism efforts. Read more or watch now.
START director returns to the classroom
START Director Gary LaFree characterized his year as “bursty,” a term that is used to describe phenomena that are highly concentrated in time and space. Between 2015 and 2016, LaFree published seven refereed research articles, co-authored two books, and wrote five book chapters. Already this year, he’s published two books with another book and three book chapters forthcoming. As if that were not enough, he returned to the classroom this spring semester. Read more.
Through START, students can intern abroad
This summer, START and University of Maryland Education Abroad will launch a new program giving students the opportunity to spend seven weeks in Yogyjakarta, Indonesia, interning with a combination of an interfaith non-governmental organization, boys and girls madrasas (educational institutions) and an Indonesian nonprofit organization. Students will also spend time studying principles and practices of countering violent extremism and gaining a background in the local Bahasa dialect, international development, and citizen diplomacy. Read more.
TEVUS portal becoming go-to research tool
Now, with more than 500 users from more than 300 different organizations, START’s TEVUS portal is becoming a go-to research tool for counterterrorism practitioners and scholars. Built from four related open-source databases, the TEVUS Portal compiles behavioral, geographic and temporal characteristics of terrorism and extremist violence in the United States dating back to 1970. Through the portal, users are able to build search queries on four data types: events, perpetrators, groups and/or court cases. The dynamic, unique interface allows users to quickly identify relationships between these types of data and conduct sophisticated analysis on terrorist attacks, pre-incident activities and extremist crimes in the United States. Access to the portal is free. Learn more or register to use the portal.
“Trauma-informed approaches to CVE,” lecture by Peter Weinberger
10:30-11:30 a.m. Thursday, March 16 at START
Online information session: START Graduate Certificate in Terrorism Analysis
6 p.m. April 5, May 3, June 7 online
Summer study abroad: CVE and Deradicalization in Singapore Apply by March 15
Summer internship abroad: Community Resilience in Indonesia Apply by March 15
Career Opportunity: GIS Researcher Apply by March 20
Learn how to navigate and analyze world's largest unclassified database on terrorist attacks
With systematic data on more than 150,000 terrorist attacks that have occurred since 1970, the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) has become a critical resource in providing empirical data on terrorism. To help new and seasoned GTD users better understand the analytical power of the database, START has launched a new self-paced, video training series. The first module focuses on the data collection process, instruction on analytical strengths and weaknesses of large datasets and an introduction to pivot tables and foundational graphing. The online training modules are appropriate for security professionals and scholars, and are designed to improve their analytical and critical thinking skills while advancing their competency in Microsoft Excel. Additional training modules – which focus on patterns over time, perpetrators, weapons and tactics and bivariate relationships – will be released over time. Learn more and register here.
The Terror-Crime Nexus & Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Threats online course. Register now.
Understanding Terrorism and the Terrorist Threat online open course is now on demand. Participate now.
Free online short series of video lectures on “Core Capabilities and Potential Durability of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).” View now.
PBS Newshour: When it comes to defining ‘terrorism,’ there is no consensus
Erin Miller is quoted and the Global Terrorism Database is cited in this article about how experts define terrorism. Research from Peter Krause is also cited. Read more.
USA Today: What’s wrong with terror coverage: Our view
The USA Today editorial board wrote this piece, which references START data on domestic attacks, about media coverage of terrorism. Read more.
Foreign Policy: How the Islamic State indoctrinates children with math, grammar, tanks and guns
Peter Weinberger is quoted in this piece from Foreign Policy about Islamic State propaganda aimed at children. Read more.
Lawfare: How local law enforcement uses community policing to combat terrorism
Steve Weine writes this piece for Lawfare blog about the role of local law enforcement in CVE. Read more.
Washington Post: Domestic terrorists killed his son. He wants Trump to remember that American makes extremists, too
START data on domestic extremism were mentioned in this piece from the Washington Post. Read more.
NPR: National security adviser reportedly urged Trump to soften terrorism language
Martha Crenshaw was interviewed by NPR News about the language President Trump uses when describing terrorism. Listen Now.
A complete list of START’s media coverage can be found here.
SUPPORTING START
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The START Consortium is dedicated to generating knowledge of the human causes and consequences of terrorism. Applying rigorous standards to both research and education, START seeks to illuminate one of the most highly politicized and understudied phenomena in the social sciences for students, practitioners and policy-makers. Funded primarily through research grants to date, START is seeking to generate an endowment that will provide the flexibility and autonomy to ensure that it can continue to serve as an objective source of data and empirically based analysis into the future. To donate, or for more information, please click here.
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