Author(s)

JAN BŘEŇ, TOMÁŠ ZEMAN, RUDOLF URBAN

Abstract

Terrorism is formulated as a planned use of violence targeting a wide range public. The aim of terrorism is to attract attention and cause fear through which specific political, religious or ideological intentions are achieved. An integral part of the issue of terrorism is not only the consequences of committed terrorist acts which lead to subsequent security measures but also the cause of terrorist activities which determine the reasons why people are motivated for these activities. The immediate causes of terrorist attacks vary on a case-by-case basis so their determination is not generally possible. However, it is possible to identify and analyze factors, which create preconditions for the emergence of terrorism. Some publications suggest that poor structural social conditions, economic deprivation and securitypolitical instability situations create frustration, which in turn makes terrorism more likely. The paper deals with the social factors (social inequality, standard of living, level of citizen’s education), economic factors (GDP, unemployment, inflation) and security-political factors (corruption, criminality, political instability, government ineffectiveness, war and violent conflict) which potentially generate future terrorist activities. The main aim is to find out correlations between these factors and terrorism. In order to calculate results we gathered data (relevant indexes and indicators, which express individual social/economic/security-political factors) in 162 countries in the year 2017. Using Spearman’s correlation coefficient as the statistical method, we made comprehensive statements about the link between individual social/economic/security-political factors and terrorism. Many previous analysis, studies and publications have focused on this issue but there are different statements about the causes of terrorism. This paper confirms some of these statements – that social inequality, GDP, current war conflict, corruption and political instability have increased the terrorist threat throughout the world.

Keywords

factors, economic, factors, security-political, social, statistics