Primary Motivators of Suicide Terrorism

After September 11th 2001, the United States (US) has come to regard terrorism, specifically catastrophic terrorism, as one of the gravest threats to its national security. In particular, the threat from terrorism involves the use weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or attacks that generate mass casualties, enormous economic damage, catastrophic psychological effects, or some combination thereof. From 1980 to 2003, suicide terrorists conducted only three percent of all terrorist attacks yet they caused more than forty-eight percent of the casualties.2 The particular case of suicide terrorism deserves extra attention due to its demonstrated lethality and targeting accuracy. Thus, this paper focuses on the primary motivators of suicide terrorism because of the expectation that terrorist groups will most likely carry out catastrophic events through the use of suicide attacks.

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