JSPES, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Summer 2014)
pp. 186 –218

Economic, Social and Political Globalization and Terrorism

Brenda J. Lutz

Indiana University

James M. Lutz

Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne

Globalization and modernization have been linked with outbreaks of terrorism as groups disadvantaged by a changing world react in violence. An analysis of linkages between globalization and terrorism, based on two global databases, indicates that countries more affected by global impacts suffered from more terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s. In later decades, the relationships became more complex and more difficult to interpret. There is a possibility that there was a threshold effect that was in operation. This article will note the correlations, both positive and negative, between globalization and terrorism, and will discuss how causal forces were likely to have produced the correlations. Particular emphasis is placed on sub-Saharan Africa.