Unconventional Weapons of Terror
START Researchers Find Age, Employment, and Ideology Correlate with Violent Extremists’ Decisions to Pursue Chemical & Biological Weapons
In February of 2019, authorities arrested a man from Silver Spring, Maryland accused of plotting a domestic terror attack potentially to include the use of chemical and biological agents like the bacteria that causes anthrax and botulinum toxin.
Are there characteristics that correlate with extremists’ pursuit of chemical or biological (CB) agents as opposed to conventional weapons like a gun or a bomb? Research from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland identifies commonalities among violent non-state actors who pursue these methods of attack.
In recently published findings, START Assistant Research Scientist Thomas Guarrieri discovered that older extremists are more likely to pursue CB weapons, as are those who are jobless or students. Additionally, Islamist, far-right and far-left extremists are less likely to pursue CB weapons than those acting on behalf of a single issue. The study found no evidence that gender or education have an effect on whether an extremist will pursue CB weapons.
“As advances in technology make it easier for extremists to adopt more destructive attack modalities, analyzing the data that we collect and maintain at START will be crucial in understanding the terrorist threatscape,” said Guarrieri. “Even though this study is exploratory, there has been little scientific examination to date of unconventional weapon choices among violent extremists.”
In their study, Guarrieri and co-author Collin Meisel, a former START research assistant now at the University of Denver, analyzed and compared two START datasets that include violent extremists from the Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) Dataset and individuals from the Chemical and Biological Non-state Adversaries Database (CABNSAD).
About START
The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism—better known as START—is a university-based research and education center comprised of an international network of scholars committed to the scientific study of the causes and human consequences of terrorism in the United States and around the world.
A Department of Homeland Security Emeritus Center of Excellence headquartered at the University of Maryland, START supports the research efforts of leading social scientists at more than 50 academic and research institutions, each of whom is conducting original investigations into fundamental questions about terrorism.
Published on Fri, Mar 6, 2020 - 2:02PM