Publication
Transnational Terrorism as a Threat: Cross-Border Threats
In this article, Jake Wright and Silvia D'Amato describe the transnationality of terrorist organisations, including fundraising, communications, alliance-forming, as well as movement and target selection.
- Author
- Jake Wright and Silvia D'Amato
- Date
- 27 December 2023
- Links
- Read the full article here
This research reviews and discusses previous research on transnational terrorism and will specifically focus on four dimensions of ‘going global’, meaning: ‘going global in movement and targeting’, ‘going global in communication’, ‘going global in allegiance’, and ‘going global in business’. While doing so the authors emphasise the role played by globalisation in facilitating the transnational turn of many terrorist activities. Transnationalism, indicating the presence and activities across different countries, might indicate terrorist organisations respond to different strategic needs and actually manifest in different formats and dimensions.
Transnationality today is a key, generalised and undeniable feature of many terrorist organisations. Across different world regions, political settings, and ideologies, groups can be found implementing or taking advantage of transnational possibilities, especially facilitated by the dynamics of globalisation. As the authors indicate, the question for many policymakers and academics is how to respond to this.
This article aims at addressing the main dimensions of transnationalism in order to discuss the varieties of features of this threat and the challenges it poses. The authors discuss, in particular, transnationalism over four dimensions indicating different ways to cross-national borders, meaning movement and targeting, allegiance, business, and communication. Across these four dimensions, it can be seen how ‘global’ could be used in order to increase material and ideological support as well as a facilitator for economic interests and communicative strategies. On a conclusive note, what seems fair to argue is that the challenges posed by transnationalism terrorism do not only concern the characteristics of the threat itself but also the characteristics and difficulties related to many states’ structures as well as the features of the international system.