How Terrorism Ends - Accounting for Contemporary Realities 15 Years after Cronin by Pierre Musa Halime Wessel

Abstract

This comment revisits Audrey Cronin's How Terrorism Ends, first published in 2009, with the aim of assessing its continued relevance in light of contemporary developments. While Cronin’s framework remains a cornerstone in the study of terrorist decline, new research by scholars such as Jenna Jordan has demonstrated that Cronin’s typology can be enriched by recognizing new developments in global terrorism over time. Throughout, it addresses the new availability of terrorism data and research and developments such as the sharp increase and decrease in terrorist attacks, the rise and fall of active terrorist groups, and the emergence of new threats like cyberterrorism as reasons to revisit Cronin’s model. Her typology proves to still be relevant as a lens to assess contemporary terrorism but may also be limited in its ability to provide full explanation, suggesting the need to reassess her framework.