The recent proliferation of studies on terrorism has brought scholars from different fields and approaches to converge on this phenomenon. As a result, economists, social and political scientists have developed theories, evidence and, in a sense, even a peculiar jargon of their own. Starting...

Purpose The purpose of this chapter is to investigate on the relationship between terrorism, criminal organisations, and the so-called ‘new wars’. Methodology/approach Review of the existing literature on the ‘new wars’ and on the terrorism–crime nexus; estimate of the financial...

The main objective of this paper is to empirically investigate the socio-economic causes of terrorism and political violence in a sample of 12 countries in Western Europe. Results are mixed. First, we show that in western European countries the classical economic argument of opportunity cost can...