Comments on Marc Sageman's Polemic "The Stagnation in Terrorism Research"

• Published in: Terrorism and political violence 2014-09, Vol.26 (4), p.587-595
• Main Author: Schmid, Alex P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Political violence; Sageman, Marc; Terror; Terrorism; Terrorists
• ISSN: 0954-6553; 1556-1836
• DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2014.895651

Marc Sageman's lamenting about The Stagnation in Terrorism Research stands in stark contradiction to my conclusion in the Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research (2011) that Terrorism Studies - despite many shortcomings - has matured and that Terrorism Studies has never been in better shape than now. While I agree with much else of what Marc Sageman says, there are a few points I disagree with. To begin with the notion of stagnation: Terrorism Studies began, with few exceptions (Crozier, 1960; Thornton, 1964; Walter, 1964, 1969; Gaucher, 1965), in the 1970s. Yet there had never been a period of real bloom in the 20th century - something which logically should precede the alleged stagnation after 9/11. As Andrew Silke noted in 2006: Prior to 9/11, the study of terrorism was carried out on the periphery of academia. The funding available for researchers was extremely limited and the number of researchers prepared to focus a substantial element of their career on the subject was paltry. More researchers, and more good researchers, have joined the field in the last decade and the results begin to show in excellent works like Alessandro Orsini's Anatomy of the Red Brigades (2011). Marc Sageman notes that we are no closer to answering the simple question of What leads a person to turn to political violence? than more than ten years ago. The test of progress (as opposed to stagnation) can, however, not be found in a simple answer to Sageman's simple question. In its general formulation, it is as unanswerable as the question What leads a person to turn to crime? There are many types of crime (e.g., crimes of need, crimes of greed, crimes of passion, etc.) and for some forms of crime criminologists are closer to an answer than for others. The same is true for some forms of political violence. Terrorism is a sub-category of political violence but is not co-extensive with political violence, as Marc Sageman implies when he writes: What leads a person to turn to political violence? More on this later. Reprinted by permission of Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.