Do economic, social and political globalization affect terrorism? Fresh evidence from international panel data

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of economic, social and political globalizations on the incidents of global terrorism. Design/methodology/approach The authors apply negative binomial regressions model because the variable is event count. The sample size covers 195 countries from 1990 to 2017. Findings There is strong evidence that the higher level of economic and social integrations internationally lead to a reduction in terrorist activities. However, the results relating to political globalization are inconsistent. Comparing the top 20 most affected countries with the full sample, the authors find a negative association between economic globalization and terrorism, whereas social and political globalization is found to be statistically insignificant. Finally, the evidence holds firmly pre-9/11 attacks on World Trade Centre. Research limitations/implications This paper suffers through the lack of consensus on a unique and consistent definition of terrorism. The definition of terrorism varies across time and countries. Furthermore, there is a variation among the main databases of terrorism, which could potentially affect the reliability of findings. Practical implications This paper provides policymakers with a policy recommendation that the economic and social integration across countries should be encouraged, as it might decrease the number of terrorist events taking place worldwide. In addition, the benefits of economic development generated through global integration must be fairly distributed across societies as an effort to decrease motivation of disgruntles population to involve in terrorism. Originality/value This paper contributes empirically to the existing literature through investigating the impact of economic, social and political globalizations on the incidents of terrorism worldwide.

Relationship among Globalization, Terrorism, and Economic Growth in Pakistan

“…Our empirical findings are supported by the prior literature. For instance, Rajput et al (2021) elucidated the globalization-terrorism nexus for developing economies and concluded that economic globalization is inversely connected with terrorism activities. Similarly, Asongu and Biekpe (2018) also provide evidence regarding a negative interconnection between globalization and terrorism for African economies.…”

“…Naseer et al (2021) discussed the case study of a developing economy and elucidated that globalization is one of the leading factors of terrorism. Rajput et al (2021) also illustrated the globalization-terrorism nexus for 195 economies. The empirical analysis revealed that economic globalization exerts a negative influence of terrorism; however, the study could not find the significant correlation between political and social globalization and terrorism.…”

“…For instance, according to Asongu and Biekpe (2018), globalization is giving rise to terrorism in African region whereas Bajaj and Rao (2018) could not prove a direct correlation between globalization and terrorism. While, Rajput et al (2021) found that economic globalization is helping to decrease terrorism activities but social and political globalization is nurturing the terrorism activities, even though the said result is not significant.…”