TerrorismHow political science helps combat terrorism
Richard Nielsen, an MIT expert on Islamic terrorism, estimates that about 10 percent of Muslim clerics on the Internet are jihadists. “I don’t know if this number should strike readers as high or low; it’s higher than I expected,” he says. The question he tackles is the internet changing the nature of religious authority in Islam? “The problem of modern jihadism is rooted in an ongoing crisis of Islamic authority brought about by the rise of media — first print, then cassette tapes, and now the online Fatwa Bank.” He adds that data show that the odds of dying violently are lower now than they’ve ever been. “This isn’t to say that terrorism isn’t a problem, but we should keep the true level of threat posed by terrorism in perspective.”
Science and technology are essential tools for innovation, and to reap their full potential, we also need to articulate and solve the many aspects of today’s global issues that are rooted in the political, cultural, and economic realities of the human world. With that mission in mind, MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences has launched “The Human Factor” — an ongoing series of stories and interviews that highlight research on the human dimensions of global challenges. As the editors of the journal Nature have said, framing such questions effectively — incorporating all factors that influence the issue — is a key to generating successful solutions. Contributors to this series also share ideas for advancing the multidisciplinary collaborations needed to solve the major global issues.
Richard Nielsen is an MIT assistant professor of political science who writes on international law, the political economy of human rights, political violence, and political methodology. His current book project, Deadly Clerics (see Deadly Clerics: Blocked Ambition and the Paths to Jihad [Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics series, forthcoming]) explores why some Muslim clerics adopt the ideology of militant jihad while most do not.
He answered questions posed to him by MIT News.
Q: War and terrorist activity pose significant threats both to human health and to the health of the planet. What can political science scholarship contribute to addressing these threats?
A: It is very easy to believe that the world is becoming a more dangerous, violent place, but data on the incidence of violence throughout human history collected by Steven Pinker, as well as by Bethany Lacina, Nils Gleditsch, and Bruce Russett, show that the odds of dying violently are lower now than they’ve ever been. This isn’t to say that terrorism isn’t a problem, but we should keep the true level of threat posed by terrorism in perspective.
Counterterrorism policies can have serious unintended consequences. For example, some of my own research shows that drone strikes against jihadist preachers makes their ideas more popular. Others have raised the concern that drone strikes might fuel terrorism by adding to the grievances of the vulnerable populations in which terrorists circulate.
