The Rise of Capitalism and the Roots of Anti-American Terrorism

This contribution examines the role of capitalism in anti-American terrorism. Using data for 149 countries between 1970 and 2007, this contribution, contrary to expectations from capitalist peace theory, does not find that Anti-American terrorism increases with external economic liberalization or decreases with higher levels of economic openness. However, consistent with economic norms theory, higher levels of market-capitalism are associated with less anti-American terrorism, whereas the process of marketization fuels it. This suggests that interest groups that have benefitted from the pre-market order deliberately target the USA, where anti-American terrorism serves the purpose of limiting the perceived marketization and Americanization of their communities.