A Complex Topic

March 25, 2004

Prominent scholars from around the world will converge on USC April 16 and 17 to participate in a high-level academic conference on the political economy of international terrorism.

At the two-day conference, economists, policy analysts and political scientists from the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences will discuss how resources can be better allocated to deter terrorism, what motivates terrorists and what nation-states can do to stop — or at least reduce — such violence.

Peers from Columbia, Yale, the Wharton School of Business and other universities will attend the event sponsored by the Center for International Studies at USC.

“This is the first academic conference on terrorism research in the history of USC College,” said Peter Rosendorff, director of CIS, who is organizing the conference along with economist Todd Sandler, who studies the cyclical pattern of terrorism.

“It shows how the college is taking the lead on emerging issues that directly impact society,” said Rosendorff, an associate professor of international relations and economics in the college.

The conference will address changes in national security since 9/11 and whether democracy promotes transnational terrorism. Other papers will examine cycles of terrorist violence and determinants of terrorist activity by modeling attack occurrences across space and time.

“Terrorism is a very complex topic. To make a valuable contribution to the field, it is important to include economic modelers and scholars who conduct empirical research,” said Sandler, who recently received a prestigious award from the National Academy of Sciences. The award is given once every three years for research that advances understanding of issues relating to the risk of nuclear war.

From hostage negotiations to the installation of technological barriers — such as metal detectors and embassy fortification — economics models can provide many policy insights, Sandler said.

Sandler, holder of the Robert R. and Katheryn A. Dockson Chair in Economics and International Relations, has been studying the dynamics of international terrorism for decades.

“Since 1968, 40 percent of all incidents have been against the U.S., but very few of these occurred on U.S. soil,” Sandler said. “Until 2001, far more Americans were killed by lightning in any year than were killed by all forms of international terrorism.”

But it's the increase of incidents — and devastating events such as 9/11 — that researchers strive to understand.

“Creating a high-powered intellectual environment that brings together top people in this field,” Rosendorff said, “puts all of us a step closer to making policy recommendations to government and other groups about how to best deal with and deter transnational terrorism.”