Thematic Subject Area I: The Causes and Underlying Factors of Terrorism
Working Group 3
Economic explanations

March 8th, the International summit on Democracy and terrorism will host an eleven member working group which will investigate how economic factors sustain or inhibit the rise of terrorist movements. This group will try to untangle the sometimes confusing relationship between economic factors and political violence. Topics to be addressed are the following:

• The role that economic and social factors play in the rise of terrorism, and their relationship to other: political, cultural and religious explanations.
• Has globalisation has effected the rise of terrorist movements?
• The function of diaspora communities, which often help to organise, finance and sustain terrorism campaigns.
• How can economic and social policies be targeted to address some of the underlying factors of terrorism?

The conclusions of this working group and 16 others will be incorporated into the Agenda of Madrid, which will be published on March 11th, 2005.

Working group members will include:

Working Group Coordinator:

• Ted Robert Gurr (USA), distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland. Founder of the Polity project, tracking democratization worldwide, and the Minorities at Risk project, monitoring 300 communal groups in conflict. Books include Why Men Rebel (Princeton Press, 1970).

Members:

• Jose Antonio Alonso (Spain), professor of Applied Economics at the Complutense University of Madrid. Director of the Department of Development and Cooperation. Advises the Spanish government on issues related to development assistance and international trade.
• Tore Bjorgo (Norway), Professor at the Norwegian Police University College. Also, a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), he heads a research group on terrorism and international crime. Author of Root Causes of Terrorism (Routledge 2005).
• Sue Eckert (USA), senior fellow at Brown University. Current interests include terrorist financing, targeted sanctions, and critical infrastructure. Former US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration.
• David Gold (USA), professor of international relations at the New School University, New York. Fifteen years at the United Nations, most of which at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Interests include economic impacts of military spending and foreign direct investment.
• Atanas Gotchev (Bulgaria), associate professor of international relations at the University of National and World Economy, Sofia. Former Director of the UNDP-sponsored Bulgarian Early Warning System. Main research interests include risk assessment and conflict prevention.
• Jeroen Gunning (UK), lecturer in international politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Main research interests are political Islam and critical approaches to terrorism. Author of Hamas in Transition (Cambridge, 2005).
• Lyubov Grigorova Mincheva (Bulgaria), professor of international relations at the University of Sofia. Author of six edited volumes, she is an expert in East European processes of democratization and ethnic conflict. Author of Local Conflicts, Regional Wars (Berghan 2005).
• Joshua Sinai (USA), manager of the Social, Behavioral and Economics Studies of Terrorism Project at the U.S. Department for Homeland Security. Work focuses on root causes of terrorism. Author of How to Forecast Terrorism (Carnegie Endowment 2002).
• Gabriel Sheffer (Israel), professor of political science at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Has published many books and article on ethno-national diasporas in general and on diasporas and security in particular including Diaspora Politics at Home Abroad (Cambridge Press 2003).
• Michael Stohl (USA), professor of communication at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Currently works on a project dealing with the networks of terrorism. Author of, among others, The Politics of Terrorism (Marcel Dekker 1979).
• Ekkart Zimmermann (Germany), professor of sociology at the Dresden University of Technology. Published widely in the field of conflict research. Currently completes work on a book on Development, Change and Globalisation.