A consortium of researchers dedicated to improving the understanding of the human causes and consequences of terrorism

November News: Spatial and ideological analysis of US terrorist attacks; Marginalization: Recasting CVE as a grand strategic response to terrorism

FEATURED RESEARCH
U.S. perpetrators tend to attack close to home
In recent years, more than half of terrorism incidents have occurred within 30 miles of the perpetrator’s city of residence, indicating an increasing prevalence for terrorists in the United States to live closer to the target than in years past, according to a new START report based on data from the American Terrorism Study. Read more.
 
Proportion of terrorist attacks by religious and right-wing extremists on the rise in United States
Terrorist attacks in the United States between 2010 and 2016 were typically carried out by individual perpetrators who were only loosely linked to a specific organization or ideological movement, according to a recent START report. Based on analysis from START’s Global Terrorism Database (GTD), the report categorizes the 2,794 terrorist attacks and 3,659 resulting deaths in the United States from 1970-2016 by the ideology of the attacker(s) and explains the ideological patterns of these attacks by decade. Read more.
 
Fact Sheet: American Deaths in Terrorist Attacks
From 1995-2016, more than 3,600 Americans have been killed in terrorist attacks worldwide.  Of those, 3,277 Americans were killed in attacks in the United States – 2,902 in the September 11 Attacks alone. Read more.
 
DISCUSSION POINT
Recasting and repositioning CVE as a grand strategic response to terrorism
In a new editorial piece, START Executive Director William Braniff posits that traditional counterterrorism efforts must be subordinated to the CVE paradigm to successfully marginalize terrorism. Read more.
 

PUBLICATIONS
Defensibility and Risk Management
Homeland Security Affairs
Bier, Vicki, and Alexander Gutfraind, Ziyang Lu
 
Are Honor Killings Unique? A Comparison of Honor Killings, Domestic Violence Homicides, and Hate Homicides by Far-Right Extremists
Homicide Studies
Hayes, Brittany E., and Colleen E. Mills, Joshua D. Freilich, Steven M. Chermak
 
Autologistic Models for Benchmark Risk or Vulnerability Assessment of Urban Terrorism Outcomes
Statistics in Society
Liu, Jingyu, and Walter W. Piegorsch, A. Grant Schissler, Susan L. Cutter
 
Understanding Terrorism and Counter-terrorism
Routledge
Singh, Rashmi, and Jorge Lasmar
 

START NEWS
 
ICONS simulates Baltic security crisis to help students understand the 'gray zone'
ICONS will give students the opportunity to serve as diplomats attempting to organize a relief effort and navigate through political tensions during a hypothetical school bombing as part of a just-released simulation, “Baltic Security Crisis.” Read more.
 
Middle Eastern Values study data available
A recently published dataset with about 24,000 completed face-to-face interviews has just been made available through the Middle Eastern Values Study, a project led by START affiliated researcher Mansoor Moaddel. The "Comparative Cross-National Study of Religious Fundamentalism, Developmental Idealism, Values, and Morality” project consists of cross-nationally comparable nationally representative sample data collected in eight countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Read more.

START graduate student earns IALEIA honors
The International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysis (IALEIA) recently honored Jason Bakas, a START graduate certificate student, with an award and scholarship for his research on the use of violence risk assessment tactics in counterterrorism efforts, focusing specifically on lone actor terrorism incidents. Read more.

Iconic website gets a refresh
The ICONS team recently overhauled its website to better serve students, teachers, policymakers and business leaders who turn to ICONS to strengthen their ability to make decisions, navigate crises, think strategically and negotiate collaboratively. Read more.
 
Combatting terrorism with data analytics
Thomas Guarrieri recently joined START’s Unconventional Weapons and Technology Division, where he examines the intersection of adversarial behavior and unconventional threats, such as chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. Read more.

 


EVENTS
 
Best Practices in Preparing for and Responding to Domestic Terrorism & Mass Casualty Incidents” hosted by the Insight Exchange Network, in partnership with START
Nov. 15-16 at the Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center, Washington, D.C.
 
Book Talk: "Rebel Power: Why National Movements Compete, Fight, and Win" by Peter Krause
12 p.m. Nov. 20 at START Headquarters
 
UMD Center for Disaster Resilience Distinguished Lecture on future of safety and risk analysis for critical infrastructure by Paul Orzeske, CEO of Jensen Hughes
6 p.m. Nov. 29 at UMD’s St. John Learning and Teaching Center Rm 1224
 
Information Sessions: Graduate Certificate in Terrorism Analysis
6 p.m., Dec. 7 online
 

OPPORTUNITIES
 
**Career Opportunity: Director, Unconventional Weapons and Technology Division**
Within the overall mission of START, UWT integrates a portfolio of research projects seeking to improve the holistic understanding of CBRN and other emerging technology threats emanating from non-state actors and applying these insights to practical measures to reduce these threats. The Division focuses on the social and behavioral elements of terrorism involving unconventional weapons and places strong emphasis on transitioning cutting-edge research to the larger policy and practitioner communities. Open until filled.
 
START: Translation Support and Qualitative Researcher (Part-time) Open until filled
 
Call for Proposals: Causes, Conduct and Consequences of Terrorism book series Submissions accepted on rolling basis.
 

TRAINING
Community-led Action in Response to Violent Extremism (CARVE) online training. Learn more and register here.
 
Using the Global Terrorism Database online training. 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.
 

START IN THE NEWS
The New Yorker: The Ignominious End of the ISIS Caliphate
This New Yorker article about the decline of ISIS and their ideals includes a quote from START Executive Director William Braniff and uses data from START’s Global Terrorism Database (GTD).
 
Colorado Public Radio: When is someone a terrorist? Do journalists get it right?
START Researcher Bryan Arva and START TRA Erin Kearns are featured in this Colorado Public Radio segment about their research into media coverage on terrorism. (11/9)
 
The Washington Post: What political science can tell us about mass shootings
START Researcher Erica Chenoweth is quoted in this article about data-based insights into mass shootings.
 
ABC News Atlanta: FBI lays groundwork to prevent truck attacks in Georgia
START Researcher Anthony Lemieux is quoted in this  ABC-WSB Atlanta articleabout preventing future attacks akin to the one in New York.
 
The Hill: Cities grapple with how to protect soft targets from new attacks
START Researcher Victor Asal is quoted in this article about public safety in the wake of the New York City attack.
 
Bustle: Can vehicle attacks in the US ever be stopped?
START Executive Director William Braniff is quoted in this article about decreasing the lethality of vehicle based attacks in the United States.
This is a selection of news clips from the past month.
A complete list of START’s media coverage can be found 
here.

SUPPORTING START

Help Support START Research and Education
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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