Micah Zenko

Politics, Power, and Preventive Action

Zenko covers the U.S. national security debate and offers insight on developments in international security and conflict prevention.

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Showing posts for "Terrorism"

How Many Terrorists Have Been Killed by Drones?

by Micah Zenko
U.S. Predator drone (Handout/Courtesy Reuters). U.S. Predator drone (Handout/Courtesy Reuters).

Yesterday, Senator Lindsey Graham, speaking to the Easley Rotary Club in Easley, South Carolina, offered a standard defense of drone strikes: “It’s a weapon that needs to be used. It’s a tactical weapon. A drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle that is now armed.” Graham also noted that without drones it would be hard to attack terrorists groups along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, where “terrorists groups like the [Haqqani] network and Al-Shabaab are residing, very remote regions.” Forget that Al-Shabaab has never been reported to be in that region, Graham also maintained that the drone program “has been very effective.” Read more »

Guest Post: A Framework for Incarcerating Terrorists

by Guest Blogger for Micah Zenko
A prison cell along cell block "B" (Robert Galbraith/Courtesy Reuters). A prison cell along cell block "B" (Robert Galbraith/Courtesy Reuters).

Melanie Getreuer is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is writing a dissertation about the global use of criminal justice systems to counter terrorism. She lives and works in New York City. Read more »

The Latest in Tracking Global Terrorism Data

by Micah Zenko
A sniper in a control tower checks surrounding areas for al-Shabaab militants (Handout/Courtesy Reuters). A sniper in a control tower checks surrounding areas for al-Shabaab militants (Handout/Courtesy Reuters).

I was fortunate to attend a presentation of recent terrorism research led by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), which is based at the University of Maryland. START produces the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), an open-source database based on publicly-available information about terrorist events from 1970 through 2011 (with plans for annual updates) that includes more than 104,000 cases. (For their data collection and coding methodology, see here.) The GTD attempts to collect information on 120 attributes for each incident with 75 coded variables. It is easy to use, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in having a data-driven understanding of trends in global terrorism over the past five decades. Read more »

Tracking U.S. Citizens’ Deaths by Terrorism

by Micah Zenko
Bangladeshi Muslims attempt to break a police barricade during a protest in Dhaka on September 14, 2012 (Andrew Biraj/Courtesy Reuters). Bangladeshi Muslims attempt to break a police barricade during a protest in Dhaka on September 14, 2012 (Andrew Biraj/Courtesy Reuters).

The viral spread of an incomplete and crude—even by YouTube standards—video defaming the Prophet Mohammed led to a spike in anti-American and anti-Western demonstrations throughout the Muslim world. On September 11, concurrent with these demonstrations, the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, faced a well-coordinated and intense terrorist attack that killed four U.S. citizens. On NBC News, Libyan president Mohammed Magarief called the attack “a preplanned act of terrorism directed at American citizens.” He added, “They chose this date, 11th of September, to carry a certain message.” Read more »