Problems, Promise and Pitfalls of Terrorism Research.

Since the events of September 11th, many conflict scholars have shifted their attention to understanding the causes and consequences of political terrorism. Given the increased awareness of this form of violence, increased scholarly attention is warranted. With this rise of attention, however, we argue that there has not been a critical appraisal of how to study terrorism, especially from a quantitative perspective. We survey all of the articles in eight of the most prominent journals in political science from 1980 to present and identify several trends in the literature. We also highlight several pitfalls that researchers increasingly fall into including: using the wrong unit of observation, not distinguishing among different types of terrorism, using minimalist and maximalist definitions of terrorism, and not linking terrorism with other strategic choices of dissidents, and then show how these mistakes can influence causal inferences. In the conclusion, we offer suggestions for the next wave of terrorism researchers. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]