Curse Keepers is the first half of a novel that chronicles the story of a secret organization determined to keep the Chicago Cubs from winning the World Series and, thereby, forestalling the end of the world.

CHDS State/Local / As the threat of domestic terrorism increases and the demands on Emergency Responders and the public intensify, a more distributed, efficient, and flexible training and collaboration model is needed to guide future efforts. The current blended learning strategy unintentionally limits collaboration. As learners move away from interactive learning to more static based solutions, continuing education and collaboration is severely limited. This research investigates the potential impact of Homeland Security Communities of Learning on information sharing, training costs, and innovation. This study reviewed current efforts in Internet-based interactive learning through an analysis of Networked Based Learning. A futures forecast was conducted identifying trends and events that may influence the future of Communities of Learning. The research findings support the creation of Homeland Security Communities of Learning that are designed to include collaborative technologies such that information sharing leads to enhanced capabilities and innovation. A strong correlation (r=.798) was attributed to the degree to which Networked Based Learning contributed to knowledge accumulation. The study presents a strategic plan, implementation framework, and Community of Learning pilot. The pilot includes previously excluded participants from non-Emergency Responder public and private stakeholders. Additionally the pilot identifies a significant cost savings with Communities of Learning. / Deputy Chief, Sacramento Police Department

The purpose of this study is to develop further knowledge of how specific educational attributes such as educational quality is affecting domestic terrorism activity. Using a time frame between 1999 and 2007, involving 133 countries. The research results indicate that educational quality does in most instances have a negative correlating effect on domestic terrorism activity. Though not to the same extent as the hypothesis suggests, where school completions rates appears to positively correlate with increased risk of domestic terrorism activity. However as theorized quality education proves to have more significant importance for a reduced risk of domestic terrorism compared to previous educational indicators that generally positively correlate with increased risk of domestic terrorism, when controlling for specific country conditions.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, January 2008.

Despite the increase in terrorism research post September 11, 2001, little is known about domestic terrorism though it occurs at overwhelmingly higher rates as compared to transnational terrorism. Although the use of criminological theory and methods to study terrorism has increased recently, there are relatively few terrorism studies within the criminological literature. Drawing upon extant criminological theories of violence among countries, this study uses the recently created Global Terrorism Database to examine the distribution and correlates of domestic terrorism among 72 developed nations between 1970 and 1997. This study examined the following questions. First, do prior established predictors of criminal violence (i.e., economy, inequality, social welfare, political orientation, ethnic fractionalization, population, and pre-existing violence) also predict domestic terrorism at the country level? Second, is the relationship between these macro-structural and cultural variables in the same direction as found in the previously published literature? Using a series of contemporaneous cross-sectional analyses and lagged cross-sectional analysis, the results from this study indicate that there is considerable similarity between the correlates of cross-national homicide and correlates of domestic terrorism. There was considerable evidence for the relationship between population size and overall levels of domestic terrorism. This relationship was robust across short time intervals (1970s), the full time span (1970-1997), as well as in the long and short term lagged analyses (1970-1990 predictors of domestic terrorism in 1991-1997 and 1991-1994 predictors on 1995-1997 domestic terrorism). On the contrary I did not find evidence that large youth populations are significantly related to higher levels of domestic terrorism. Income inequality (GINI) also emerged as a significant correlate of domestic terrorism in the long and short term contemporaneous analyses. Those countries that had higher overall levels of income inequality for the entire time span also had higher levels of domestic terrorism, compared to those countries with low levels of income inequality. Contrary to theoretical expectations yet supportive of prior criminological research, this study found that stronger democracies actually have more domestic terrorism. In particular, those countries with more restrictions placed on executive decision-making power, tend to have more domestic terrorism events, compared to those countries with less restrictive executive decision-making processes. This study concludes with a discussion of the results within the larger criminological literature as well as future avenues of research.

CHDS State/Local / The analysis of domestic incidents of terrorism has revealed many gaps in our Nation's capability to effectively manage the multi-jurisdictional response. Although many gaps have been addressed through implementation of measures based on lessons learned, the most pervasive unresolved issue remains the ability to properly identify first response personnel on incident scenes. The nature of incidents of terrorism requires force protection to be a priority because of the threat of a secondary attack. Identity must be established and authenticated to protect responders and prevent infiltration to perpetrate a secondary attack. This thesis examines and evaluates several options for closing this pervasive identity management capability gap. The current decentralized identity system, a defined and typed response resource for identity management, and the federal identity project initiated under HSPD-12 are examined and evaluated as mechanisms for improving on-scene identity management in the response to incidents of terrorism. The thesis argues the development of a standardized nationwide responder identity token that can be rapidly authenticated and establishing dedicated identity management response resources are essential to improving the response multi-jurisdictional and catastrophic incidents of terrorism. / Corporal, Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, Frederick, Maryland

Studies of terrorism have explored a number of factors thought to drive the phenomenon. Authors often tie socioeconomic development to reducing terrorism. Among structural explanations of terrorism, however, authors generally neglect the effect of gender inequality, though studies show that gender inequality increases the risk of international and civil conflict. Therefore I explore the impact of gender inequality in important socioeconomic issues on terrorism for 143 countries from 1998-2009. I argue that socioeconomic gender inequality reflects poor state capacity, resulting in grievances that contribute to domestic non-suicide and suicide terrorism. I study gender inequality in the areas of education, labor participation, and life expectancy. Results indicate that education and life expectancy inequality increase the risk of terrorism, while labor inequality is unrelated. While the time frame and data used in this study limit generalizability, results indicate that states should provide socioeconomic gender parity to reduce the risk of domestic terrorism.

The United States has a long history of domestic terrorism, yet U.S. counterterrorism policy has focused almost completely on the threat from international terrorism. The gap in the literature was the absence of an empirical evaluation of U.S. counterterrorism policy on domestic terrorism in general. The purpose of this quantitative study was to describe the impact of 21st century U.S. counterterrorism policy on incidence, lethality, and cost of domestic terrorism using data from the Global Terrorism Database. The multiple streams framework and the power elite theory were used. In this longitudinal trend study using secondary data analysis, domestic terrorism data were analyzed from 749 terrorist attacks using descriptive statistics, visual analysis, and the series hazard model to examine any changes in the frequency and hazard of domestic terrorism in relation to the following 5 policies: USA PATRIOT Act, USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act, Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act, and USA FREEDOM Act. The results empirically supported the greater threat of domestic terrorism and showed that domestic terrorism changed in relation to counterterrorism policy. Further, the addition of the series hazard model in the analysis of domestic terrorism following policy implementation added additional depth to the results. This study contributed to positive social change by providing policy makers and counterterrorism agencies with an empirical, evidence-based method for evaluating U.S. counterterrorism policy and for a non-partisan, non-political, evidence-based method for quantitatively determining terrorist threat.

Thesis (M.A.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2008. / Description based on title page of source document ( viewed on April 23, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-139).

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