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Student-Faculty Collaboration Shines Light on Causes of Terrorism
Academic research is an amazing thing. It can create clarity, heighten awareness and it can encourage people to question widely held assumptions that form the foundation of important policy and economic decisions. The latter is exactly what Professor of Political Science Joan Davison and Roxana Ramirez (Class of 2011) hoped to accomplish when they focused their student-faculty research project on the correlation between weak states and domestic terrorism.
“Ever since 9/11, there has been the assumption that weak states are prone to support terrorist organizations,” explained Davison. “Weak states are places in the developing world that have a low capacity to deliver basic services such as law and order, security, basic education, health care, food and shelter.”
“Before we started any research, I was convinced that terrorism was linked to poverty and education levels,” Ramirez reflected. “I figured, like most individuals do, that as an individual becomes more educated, he/she is less likely to support or partake in terrorist activities.”
Davison and Ramirez focused their research on exploring whether weak states tend to have a higher propensity for terrorism, factors that increase the rate of terrorism and, given the causes, policies that might reduce or eliminate terrorist instances in those areas of the world. An assumption was that economic problems such as poverty, unemployment and inequality caused terrorism and therefore economic development assistance might help alleviate terrorism.
