Ideology and Terrorist Tactics: A Case Study of Palestinian New Left and Religious Fundamentalist Terrorism, 1987-2011

Abstract

This thesis is a comparative analysis of the military tactics employed in New Left and Religious fundamentalist Palestinian nationalist-separatist terrorism from 1987 to 2011. Combining terrorism literature and military theory, it creates a framework to identify patterns in who, where and how the terrorists strike. It also produces a suggested model of the relationship between terrorist ideology and military tactics. The descriptive analysis on the terrorist militancy builds on data from the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Database (IPCD), a dataset created by the author and introduced in the thesis. The analysis finds that ideological adherences do influence where and how terrorists strike; in that Religious fundamentalist terrorists more frequently than its New Left counterparts attack behind enemy lines, and also have a higher usage of explosive-based weapons. No support is found for ideology having an influence on who terrorists strike, as civilian victims constitute the vast majority of targets of both New Left and Religious fundamentalist terrorists.