Does terrorism always terrorize?

85 Pages·2016·0.85 MB·English

Does terrorism always terrorize?
If so, whom and for how long? A study of reactions to the September 11th 2001
attack, and the London bombings of 7th July 2005 in the light of public opinion

polls.

Risto Robert Alexander Connal
ID: s1639382
Msc Crisis and Security Management
Leiden University College The Hague - Governance and Global Affairs
Date: 13.1.2016
Words: 24,604
Supervisor: Prof. Alex P. Schmid
2nd Reader: Prof. Edwin Bakker

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Abstract

This thesis considers the question: Does terrorism always terrorize; if so whom, and for how long?
The topic is initially approached by: formulating a research design; creating a theoretical framework
via a literature review; and discussing and analysing the concept of terror - culminating in a
definition of terror visualized by a diagram and brief explanation. The main part of the thesis
concentrates on the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and the 7/7 2005 bombings in
the United Kingdom. One the basis of the information presented in the thesis, it demonstrates that
terrorism does not always terrorize, from a pragmatic standpoint. Evidence is found that gender as
well as social background may affect the degree of terror. The effects of terrorism are two-fold.
Terrorism as an issue tends to last longer on the minds of people, whereas the risk of a terrorist
strike, or being a victim of one, decrease much faster. Terrorism does not equally affect an entire
population. A minority of people remain terrorized long after an incident, whereas a majority either
remain somewhat worried, or less. The thesis brings forth current limitations in the academic study
of terrorization effects, introducing future avenues of research, and identifying crucial elements that
may guide the approach to the topic among practitioners of public administration, in its many fields.

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Table of Contents
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 2
List of Figures and Tables ........................................................................................................................ 5
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 7
2. Research Design ............................................................................................................................ 10
2.1 Subject of the Master’s thesis ..................................................................................................... 10
2.2 Scientific and societal relevance ................................................................................................. 10
2.3 A link with public administration in general and CSM in particular ........................................... 10
2.4 Brief literature review ................................................................................................................. 11
2.4.1 Nature of Terror ................................................................................................................... 11
2.4.2 The 9/11 and London Attacks .............................................................................................. 12
2.5 Central research question ........................................................................................................... 14
2.6 Indicators .................................................................................................................................... 14
2.7 Data collection methods ............................................................................................................. 15
2.7.1 Presentation of data collection methods ............................................................................ 15
2.7.2 Available data review ........................................................................................................... 15
3. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................................. 17
3.1 Literature Review ........................................................................................................................ 17
3.2 Discussion .................................................................................................................................... 25
3.2.1 Hypotheses........................................................................................................................... 25
3.2.2 Limitations ............................................................................................................................ 26
4. Terror ............................................................................................................................................ 27
4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 27
4.2 History of Terror .......................................................................................................................... 28
4.3 Terror as Communication ........................................................................................................... 29
4.4 Terror & Terrorism and Media .................................................................................................... 31
4.5 Response to Terror...................................................................................................................... 34
4.6 Discussion .................................................................................................................................... 36
4.7 Defining Terror ............................................................................................................................ 37
5. Public Opinion Polls........................................................................................................................... 41
5.1 Terrorism as an issue .................................................................................................................. 41
5.2 September 11 2001, United States ............................................................................................. 44
5.2.1 Response to 9/11 ................................................................................................................. 44
5.3 London 2005, Before, During and After ...................................................................................... 48
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5.3.1 UK Reactions to September 11, 2001 .................................................................................. 48
5.3.2 UK opinions prior to London 7/7 bombings ......................................................................... 51
5.3.3 UK reactions to the London 7/7 bombings .......................................................................... 52
5.4 Muslims, Arabs, Terrorists .......................................................................................................... 54
5.5 Responder demographics ........................................................................................................... 57
5.6 Discussion .................................................................................................................................... 60
6. Analysis ......................................................................................................................................... 63
7. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 68
8. Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 70
9. Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 75

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List of Figures and Tables

Figure 1. Google Trends keyword search ‘terrorism’, ‘terrorist’, and ‘terror’. ....................................... 8
Figure 2. Fear in public attitudes towards terrorism. ........................................................................... 20
Figure 4. Terror Diagram ....................................................................................................................... 39
Figure 5. Immigration among public’s most important issues ............................................................. 56
Figure 6. Eurobarometer. - The most important issues our country is facing at the moment,
Terrorism. (p. 44) .................................................................................................................................. 72
Figure 7. United States - What do you think is the most important issue facing our country today?
(Terrorism). (p. 45) ................................................................................................................................ 73
Figure 8. Gallup.com. How likely is it that there will be acts of terrorism in the United States over the
next several weeks -- very likely, somewhat likely, not too likely, or not at all likely? (N=1527) ........ 74
Figure 9. Gallup.com. Now, thinking for a moment about terrorism, how worried are you that you
are or someone in your family will become a victim of terrorism -- very worried, somewhat worried,
not too worried, or not worried at all? (N=1527) ................................................................................. 74

Table 1. Central research question(s) ................................................................................................... 14
Table 2. Eurobarometer. - The most important issues our country is facing at the moment, Terrorism..
.............................................................................................................................................................. 42
Table 3. United States - What do you think is the most important issue facing our country today?
(Terrorism) ............................................................................................................................................ 43
Table 4. Gallup.com, Terrorism in the United States. ........................................................................... 44
Table 5. Q50. New Yorkers are reacting to the terrorist attack in various ways. What about you? At
any time since the terrorist attack, did you have any trouble sleeping? IF YES, ASK: Are you still
having trouble sleeping.? ...................................................................................................................... 45
Table 6. As a result of concern about terrorism since September 11, have you... ............................... 45
Table 7. How did you feel after terrorist attacks? ................................................................................ 46
Table 8. Would you say that your life has changed in any way since the attack, or not? (IF CHANGED)
Has it changed a lot or a little? ............................................................................................................. 46
Table 9. Q6. If the United States can identify the groups or nations responsible for today’s attacks,
would you support or oppose taking military action against them? .................................................... 46
Table 10. Q7. What if that meant getting into war - in that case would you support or oppose taking
military action? ..................................................................................................................................... 47
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Table 11. Q8. How worried are you that something like this can happen in the UK? Q3. After the
Terrorist attacks in the USA do you fear the risks of you and your family being caught in a terrorist
attack are greater, less or about the same as before? ......................................................................... 49
Table 12. Q1. Since the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11 and all that
has happened since would you say you feel? ....................................................................................... 50
Table 13. How worried are you about the threat of terrorism in your country? Would you say you are
very worried, somewhat worried, not too worried or not at all worried? ........................................... 51
Table 14. Q1. Given the terrorist atrocities on 9/11 and more recently in Madrid, are you more
concerned about your safety? .............................................................................................................. 52
Table 15. Q4. Would you say that here in (OUR COUNTRY) we should fear some terrorist actions
shortly? ................................................................................................................................................. 58
Table 16. ICN Unlimited Iraq War poll questions .................................................................................. 59
Table 17. ICM Unlimited Iraq War poll, Don’t Know, Male & Female .................................................. 60
Table 18. Definitions of terror and terrorism. ...................................................................................... 70
Table 19. United Kingdom Social grades............................................................................................... 71

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1. Introduction

Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush, used to say “The purpose of
terrorism is to terrorize”1. This thesis will examine the question, “does terrorism always terrorize?”
Terrorism, as an act, is often presumed to terrorize. That is to say, it inflicts chronic fear on its target
and surroundings. The aim of terror, however, is also often to violently coerce governments and
scare citizens of the target population. The topic remains relevant, as recent opinion polls in the
United States, following the Paris attack as well as the attack in California in early December, show a
rise in worry concerning terrorism and safety2 3. Understanding the reactions of the public to such
events is of importance for public administration, as it can provide us with tools to identify those
towards whom attention may need to be directed, or the most critical time following a terrorist
event. Optimally, one hopes to see zero events take place, but the reality will be different, as
absolute safety may adversely affect too many of our freedoms to be justifiable.
The thesis will use two cases of large-scale terrorist attacks to examine whether terrorism does
indeed terrorize. The chosen cases are the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11
2001, and in London on July 7 2005. In both cases, one of the motives of the terrorists was
apparently to terrorize the population, owing to their governments’ involvement in what the
terrorists saw as a general crusade against Islam.
Terror and terrorism are extremely widely used terms. Often they are used as synonyms. In some
cases, terror is reserved for a certain type of large-scale government repression while terrorism is
used for a particular type of political violence by non-state actors. Since the September 11 2001
attack on the United States, the concept of ‘War on Terror’ has also entered our vocabulary. This,
however, is not a war on the feeling of terror but an effort to wage war on terrorism. This only
illustrates how misleading the terminology can be. It is therefore imperative to define those terms
(and related terms such as horror, anxiety, fear, panic) as they are used in this thesis. However, since
the term terrorism has been defined countless times in the literature, the major emphasis will be
placed on the term terror.

1 PBS Newshour. Interview with Donald Rumsfeld, 10.9.2003. (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east-
july-dec03-rumsfeld_09-10/ visited: 11.11.2015). Much of the literature attributes the quote originally to
Vladimir Lenin.
2 Foreign Affairs. ‘Terrorism in the American Psyche’, 10.12.2015.
(https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2015-12-10/terrorism-american-psyche accessed:
10.1.2016)
3 John Mueller and Mark G. Stewart. ‘Trends in Public Opinion on Terrorism’, in Chasing Ghosts: The Policing of
Terrorism (New York, Oxford University Press, 2016), chapter 2.
(http://politicalscience.osu.edu/faculty/jmueller/terrorpolls.pdf accessed: 10.1.2016)
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The main sources of information on whether terrorism terrorizes are public opinion polls. By
inspecting these polls for signs of massive public fear (terror) and related topics, as will be discussed
in the Theoretical Framework chapter (p. 17), the thesis attempts to answer the seemingly simple
questions of whether terrorism indeed terrorizes, and if so whom, and for how long. The
methodology for this is discussed in the Research Design chapter (p. 10).
Some of the material covered in the thesis will come from outside the United States and London
incidents in order to illustrate existing background knowledge relating to the topic of terror. A great
deal of this literature will concentrate on the 9/11 attack, as it has been widely studied around the
globe.
A search on Google Trends4 with the keywords ‘terrorism’, ‘terrorist’, and ‘terror’, reveals a
surprising trend among search parameters used by the public, as illustrated below in figure 1.

Figure 1. Google Trends keyword search ‘terrorism’, ‘terrorist’, and ‘terror’.
This search graph illustrates, at least from a public perspective, the large role the term ‘terror’ plays.
The news headlines connected to the searches read as “London terror bombings...”, “19 suspects in
British terror plot...”, “Teen arrested for terror tweet...”, and “Fight terror with terror”. Whereas the
search term frequencies for ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ have been declining, searches for ‘terror’ have
increased tremendously. This shows how use of the term ‘terror’ has spread in public discourse. As
mentioned above, it has become interchangeable with, or even replaced, the term ‘terrorism’, and

4 https://www.google.com/trends/
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to some extent, ‘terrorist’. This phenomenon can draw attention away from the actual definitions of
what it is to terrorize, or to experience terror from terrorism.
Chapter 3. Theoretical Framework, introduces a large body of literature on the topic of how public
responses to terrorism have been studied. The chapter will also draw attention to possible issues
relating to studying the effects of terror. The hypotheses, based on the literature review, for the
thesis can also be found in the section entitled Discussion - Hypotheses.
Chapter 4. Terror, discusses in detail definitions of terror, the audiences for terror, and the role of
the media. This thesis will concentrate on two cases that represent insurgent terror, as opposed to
state terror. Many of the terror definitions collected in the Appendix describe terror as a fear of
physical violence. While these definitions neatly categorize terror and make the lives of social
scientists easier, they arguably represent an over-simplification of the term. This argument is made
on the basis of what terrorist terror strategy entails. Its function is not solely to make people
fearsome of potential violence, but reaches far beyond this in its aims: an attempt to influence
political, religious, and moral thought as well as to gather support from multiple audiences.
Terrorism in this thesis can be understood as the Fourth Wave of terrorism, generally seen as
stretching from the 1980’s onwards. A historic overview on the use of terror and the previous waves
will also be briefly introduced. The fourth wave can be described as being religiously motivated, as
compared to the more national liberationist motives of the Second Wave (1920’s-1960’s). Though
religion is increasingly seen as a motivator or ideology to garner support, especially in the cases of
9/11 and the London 2005 bombings, other types of terrorism still exist5. These are covered less,
however, in the western media.

5 Zeynep Sütalan. ‘Terrorism Overview: History and Causes’. In M. U. Ersen and M. Kibaroglu (Eds.). ‘Analysis
and Strategies to Counter the Terrorism Threat’, Amsterdam, IOS Press, 2011. p. 7
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2. Research Design
2.1 Subject of the Master’s thesis

The thesis comprises an investigation into the terrorizing effects of the attacks on the United States
on September 11, 2001 and in London on 7th July, 2005 in the light of available public opinion
polling data. This data, in conjunction with existing academic research, will be used to investigate the
following questions: Does terrorism always terrorize? Who is affected? For how long? This also
introduces further underlying questions: Is there a baseline of terror? Can an estimated timeline for
terror effects be established?

2.2 Scientific and societal relevance

The terrorizing effect of terrorism is, surprisingly enough, not a widely researched topic in terrorism
studies, with some exceptions such as Yael Daniel’s The Trauma of Terrorism: Sharing Knowledge
and Shared Care, 2005. The reasons for this are varied. Terror is not confined solely to terrorism, but
rather can be seen as a part of life, as fear in one form or another6. Henar Criado also points out that
the public response to terrorist attacks can be varied, arguing that nations that have experienced
terror may show variations in their response to the saliency of terrorism and terror, depending on
the nature of the attack7.
In preparation for his Handbook of Terrorism Research (2011), Prof. Schmid asked terrorism experts
to define the most important research topic at present. The answers reveal that many of the current
research priorities focus on understanding terrorist(s), and their different factions or motives. Only a
few responses can be seen as overlapping with public opinion issues, such as “public resilience in
times of crisis” and “understanding the role of public perception...”8.

2.3 A link with public administration in general and CSM in particular

Public opinion polling data may provide a way to understand and follow how the general populace
reacts to terrorist attacks. Understanding public mood and opinion is of great importance for public

6 Alex P. Schmid. ‘Handbook of Terrorism Research’, London/New York, Routledge Handbooks, 2011. p. 2
7 Henar Criado. (2015) ‘What Makes Terrorism Salient? Terrorist Strategies, Political Competition, and Public
Opinion’, Terrorism and Political Violence, Vol. 0. pp. 1 - 18. (DOI:10.1080/09546553.2015.1008628) p. 1 - 2.
8 Schmid, p. 7 - 91
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