Publication

This paper examines terrorism as an ideologically-driven phenomenon. It describes a spectrum of terrorist ideologies and identifies a threshold of catastrophic terrorism which divides those groups willing to cause mass casualties and destruction (including, but not exclusively with WMDs) from those groups who are not. Further, it describes the ideology embraced by al-Qaida and affiliated terror groups and examines why this ideology has found some resonance in the broader Muslim world. Finally, the discussion explores what all this means regarding the global threat of WMD terrorism and concludes with some initial thoughts on counterterrorism policy and strategy.