Earthquakes, hurricanes, and terrorism: do natural disasters incite terror?

Berrebi, Claude; Ostwald, Jordan

doi:10.1007/s11127-011-9868-x

Cited by 74 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(54 reference statements)

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“…Governance relates to the type of political regime (Omelicheva, ), whereby repressive (Olsen and Drury, ) and mixed regimes (Nel and Righarts, ) or regimes with low levels of democracy (Bhavnani, ), weak legitimacy and rule of law (Keefer, ; Berrebi and Ostwald, ) or deficient relief responses (Mandel, ) tend to exacerbate the potential for conflict. It is argued that the incapacity of a government to respond to and mitigate effectively a disaster can provide opportunities for militant groups to politicise an event in their favour, increasing the likelihood of conflict.…”

Section: Disasters and Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lastly, the severity of a disaster is cited frequently as a factor that contributes to an outbreak or prolongation of civil conflict (Olson and Drury, ; Bhavnani, ; Brancati, ; Nel and Righarts, ; Berrebi and Ostwald, ). This aspect includes the number of people affected as well as economic damage and the level of destruction of natural and urban environments.…”

Section: Disasters and Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

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Bridging international relations and disaster studies: the case of disaster–conflict scholarship

Hollis

2017

Disasters

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International relations and disaster studies have much to gain by thinking critically about their respective theoretical and epistemological assumptions. Yet, few studies to date have sought to assess the potential value of linking these two disciplines. This paper begins to address this shortfall by examining the relationship between disasters and conflict as a research sphere that intersects international relations and disaster studies. Through an analysis of whether or not disasters contribute to intra-national and international conflict, this paper not only provides a review of the state of the art, but also serves to invite scholars to reflect on related concepts from other fields to strengthen their own approaches to the study of disasters in an international setting. An evaluation of the conceptual and theoretical contributions of each subject area provides useful heuristics for the development of disaster-conflict scholarship and encourages alternative modes of knowledge production through interdisciplinarity.

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Section: Disasters and Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Disasters and Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging international relations and disaster studies: the case of disaster–conflict scholarship

Hollis

2017

Disasters

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“…) utilized terrorism data from the from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), which includes data on both transnational and domestic terrorism; however, it does not distinguish between the two types. The GTD contains information on target type, weapons used, date of attack, number of casualties, and location.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploiting the Chaos: Terrorist Target Choice Following Natural Disasters

Berrebi

Ostwald

2013

Southern Economic Journal

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This article explores the differences between transnational and domestic terrorism, further differentiating by private versus government targets, to estimate the effect of exogenous catastrophic shocks on a country's level of domestic and transnational terrorism. The empirical analysis uses detailed data on terrorism, natural disasters, and other relevant controls for 176 countries from 1970-2007 to illuminate several key disparities in a postdisaster target choice of terrorists. The results indicate that natural disasters incite both transnational and domestic terrorism; however, evidence is found for dissimilar motivations between the two. While both types of terrorism increase after disasters, transnational attacks against the government increase immediately following the disaster, suggesting an impetus to exploit weakened ''hard'' targets during the chaos. Conversely, domestic terrorism against the government takes longer to manifest, suggesting a period of time for which the public recovers and assesses the government's response.

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“…First, we exploit an association between disasters and terrorist attacks in order to assess the causal direction of terrorism on our outcome. Berrebi and Ostwald (2011) painted a compelling picture of how natural disasters could create weaknesses in a government and society, which might incite terrorist groups to act thus increasing the incidence and severity of terrorism subsequent to a disaster. Their empirical results were robust and significant across a wide range of specifications of terrorism and disaster measures.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All results indicate that terrorist attacks lower subsequent female labor force participation and increase the labor gender gap; however, this robust association is not enough to establish the full case for a causal effect. To reinforce the causal argument for an effect, we instead implement two novel instrumental variable approaches using natural disasters' effect on terrorism as first reported in Berrebi and Ostwald (2011) as well as lagged terrorism in neighboring countries. As a further precaution to ensure exogeneity, and because the earlier results indicated an effect concentrated primarily in the first lag, we use only the first lag of terrorism incidence.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Terrorism and the Labor Force

Berrebi

Ostwald

2014

Journal of Conflict Resolution

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Recent studies have identified correlational associations linking terrorism and females' standing in the labor market. Theories have been proposed to explain these associations. Some concluded that women's participation in the labor force could be the driver that moves terrorism; others proposed that terrorism motivates the deviations in the labor force. No study has adequately explored causality and the direction of this association. Using a panel data set of 165 countries and terrorism data from 1980 to 2007, we find that terrorist attacks decrease female labor force participation and increase the gender gap between male and female labor force participation. By exploiting variation across countries and time, we are able to identify and quantify these effects; we are also able to address endogeneity concerns by using two novel instrumental variable approaches. The results are statistically significant and robust across a multitude of model specifications.

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Earthquakes, hurricanes, and terrorism: do natural disasters incite terror?

Abstract: Terrorism, Disaster, Panel data, D74, H56, Q54, C23,

Cited by 74 publications

References 54 publications

Bridging international relations and disaster studies: the case of disaster–conflict scholarship

Bridging international relations and disaster studies: the case of disaster–conflict scholarship

Exploiting the Chaos: Terrorist Target Choice Following Natural Disasters

Terrorism and the Labor Force

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