Ever since World War II up to the 80`s the world had not witnessed any form of suicide terrorism. Since then the rate of such attacks have been growing on a global level. Nowadays, suicide terrorism is one of the most researched and still not fully explained syndromes that imposes threat to nations, societies, individuals, groups, governments and other parties. Many studies and analyses focus on determining the reasons and the motives for such acts, including the damages that suicide terrorism causes on global level. There have been multiple variables determined as key factors influencing suicide terrorism, including religion, political occupation, nationalism and many others, yet there is no single answer as to why organizations and/or individuals decide on such radical tactic. Thus, as a modern phenomenon, suicide terrorism triggers the analysis from several perspectives of the individual, organizational and psychological background. This master thesis deals with the case study of Chechen suicide terrorism and its implications in the studies of suicide terrorism. The main focus of the research is on determining main motives and reasons of Chechnya to use suicide bombing against Russia. The analysis uses the Robert Pape's theory on suicide terrorism and done by using qualitative research, with...

My thesis entitled: "Robert A. Pape: Critical Presentation of One of the Theories of Suicide Terrorism." Its aim is to critically present the Roberts A. Pape theory of suicide terrorism to the Czech reader. Robert A. Pape's concept is very beneficial as per its point of view on the studied phenomena - detailed and enormous amount of analysis, statistics that his colleagues and him were capable to gain along with the original data interpretation. The core of my thesis is presented by Robert A. Pape's second book: Dying to Win, it also creates the centerpiece of his suicide terrorism theory. It contains the basics of the concept, which is extended in his third and newest book: Cutting the Fuse and partially is and outcome of his first book Bombing to Win. Key words: Robert A. Pape, suicide terrorism, occupation, religion, nationalism, coercive strategy

explains the reasons behind Boko Haram's unconventional tactic of kidnapping uses abductees as 'human bombs' Boko Haram's unconventional Kidnapping for at Boko Haram's martyrdom concept must have failed Overall, this dissertation concludes that Boko Haram's Kidnapping

The international political landscape of the 21st century is strewn with terrorist groups that choose to act violently in order for their political messages to be heard. Around the world groups have been formed to defend their ideologies and fulfill their political agendas through acts of terrorism. The Baader-Meinhof Gang [also known as the Red Army Faction], the Weather Underground, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Hezbollah, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, HAMAS, and the Irish Republican Army have existed for many decades. They represent only a small handful of terrorist groups that have kidnapped, targeted public institutions with bombs, and employed suicide terrorism. More often than not innocent civilians become involved in the carnage of an act of terrorism when they are caught off guard as unassuming bystanders. On September 11th, 2001 both the American public and US government officials bore the weight of that horrific day. Since 9-11, Americans were robbed of their sense of safety, and the American dream of tranquility was shattered. A general unease spread from the wreckage of the World Trade Centers, and with the passing of time a keen sense of awareness about terrorism took its place. The events of 9/11 have made US citizens fully cognizant that there are many actors actively plotting the destruction of the US. Now, eight years later, Americans live with the daily realization that such a heinous act could happen again, in some other unimaginable form. For the US government, the past eight years have been marked with as many successes as failures. The consequences of the inability of the US intelligence community to foresee the international plot unfolding, within and outside of the homeland, resulted in a major reorganization within the US government. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established on November 25, 2002, and was created solely to address US vulnerabilities highlighted by the actions of nineteen al-Qaeda suicide terrorists. The DHS' main responsibility is to improve communication and information sharing among various intelligence-gathering agencies, so another attempt to plan an attack like 9/11 on US soil would be foiled before it materialized. The US government would no longer be noncommittal in the face of terrorism, as it had before 9/11. Clear messages to terrorists were sent on October 7th, 2001, through the US invasion of Afghanistan, and subsequently on March 20th, 2003 through the US invasion of Iraq. Thus, the US' stance on the War on Terrorism was effectively and clearly communicated to al-Qaeda and throughout the rest of the world. The US might once have been labeled a paper tiger, but hitting the US at the core of their financial and military symbols struck a nerve. The terrorist attacks of 2001 taught the US government a vital lesson, but the military campaigns of Afghanistan and Iraq would demonstrate that the US had even more to learn about the newest military tactics and techniques employed by the enemy, and how these tactics impacted on US military operations, strategies, and policies.

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The central hypothesis of this study is that terrorist organizations choose to use females as suicide bombers not only as tactical innovation but also to “signal” or send a message to various audiences. In order to meet the research objectives of this study, two terrorist organizations—the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Chechen Separatists or those individuals associated with the Chechen Resistance—are examined in detail from their inception through 2013 using a structured focused comparison methodology. Evidence is found to support both of the studies’ main hypotheses. First, female suicide bombers are used by terrorist organizations because they are a 1) tactical advantage, and 2) to “signal” or send a message to various audiences. Their “entertainment” or shock value maximizes the psychological punch intended for delivery to a variety of audiences. These two reasons are not mutually exclusive but are colored by contextual considerations unique to each case. While deliberation was given to a variety of socio-political factors unique to each organization—such as popular support for suicide attacks perpetrated by females, indication of rival terrorist organizations, counterterrorism and political events that may have affected the terrorist organizations’ preference for females—insight into the operational characteristics surrounding individual suicide attacks was central in highlighting patterns in the organizational use of female suicide bombers. Those patterns are consistent across both cases and suggest that when females’ use is explained by the tactical innovation model, they are used overwhelmingly in suicide attacks where getting closer to intended targets—usually defined as security and political targets—matter. In contrast, suicide attacks explained by the signaling model are characterized by their novelty usually representing a deviation from terrorist organizations’ operational norms—deemed operational suicide attack anomalies in this study—characterized many times as “only” suicide attacks, “firsts [of that kind of],” or the most spectacular suicide attacks carried out by the organization.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the phenomenon of female suicide terrorism in Chechnya, particularly with the focus on motivation of individual terrorists and organizations. Besides these two levels of analysis, it looks for facilitating and necessary conditions in the specific socio-political environment of Chechnya.

This diploma thesis aims to explore whether international intervention can be the main cause of suicide terrorism. To determine this causal relation between suicide terrorism and international intervention, it tests Robert Pape's nationalist theory. The research sample of the cases of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Palestine was selected based on the Suicide Terrorism Attack database. The thesis applies the empirical-analytical methodology and the method of multiple case study to confirm or refute the validity of the research hypotheses. The outcome of the thesis is that the main trigger for a suicide terrorist campaign is a significantly stronger adversary, a social climate conducive to self- sacrifice, and an individual sense of hopelessness. The presence of international intervention fulfils all these features, but the theory has its limits - an exclusive focus on foreign intervention and state centrality.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the major themes of female suicide bombers in Chechen widows and Tamil Tigers. For my thesis I chose empirical- analytical methodology and methodology of comparative case studies. In both cases, the first studies dealing with the historical circumstances under which the group is established, the status and role of women in society there, leading motivation to attack their targets and then mention the most important examples of attacks perpetrated by members of the terrorist group. Research suggests that in neither case is not only one motive, but rather a multi-causal phenomenon. Black widows are predominantly motivated by religious and secular motives, specifically the personal motivation because of the death of a loved one, they want revenge. In Tamil Tigers is the main motive separatist when trying to get the rights for the Tamil minority and achieve an independent state of Eelam. Despite the geographical distance and differences in religion can be proportioned to find the same in both groups. Both groups can be seen as a gender dimension - women's efforts to deal with men.

The aim of the master thesis is to identify factors on which a motivation of individual, rather terrorist organization is based for committing of suicide attacks as a social phenomenon, that appears to be a priori incomprehensible in the context of European culture setting. The secondary aim of the thesis is to distinguish an eventual difference of motivation between female suicide attackers and male suicide attackers. For these purposes, two terrorist organizations have been analysed within two separately designed case studies, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Hamas for those the suicide attacks have represented the real "modus operandi" and simultaneously engaged women to their suicide missions. These terrorist organizations have been systematically analysed in terms of cultural, political, economic and organizational and social-psychological factors. The levels of analysis used, represent a synthetized reflection of existing theoretic treatment of suicide terrorism issue. The resulting findings confirm, first of all, the fact, that suicide terrorism phenomenon constitutes considerably complicated social phenomenon, whose central motive appears to be political, more precisely nationalistic. However its strength and effectiveness are largely interconnected with other motives, both cultural,...