Lone Actor Terrorism Analysis Paper PDF Download

"Lone-actor terrorism is rising in Europe. Given that current global events, such as civil wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen, and the spread and effectiveness of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) propaganda, all represent potential sources of inspiration for lone-actor terrorist plots, policy-makers in Europe must be adequately equipped to respond. Crucially, the response should be commensurate with the threat posed; however, the threat has hitherto tended to be framed using hypotheses rather than empirical analysis relevant to Europe. The perceived freedom that lone-actor terrorists have in designing and implementing their plots without interacting with individuals or groups that might alert police and security services to their activities is a commonly cited concern. However, as the Countering Lone-Actor Terrorism (CLAT) Analysis Paper shows, other fundamental factors should be considered in terms of attack methodology and logistics. In particular, the diversity in casualty rates, preferences for certain types of weapons that are relatively available in Europe, the ethnographic nature of lone-actor terrorist targeting and the range of actors' competencies have all highlighted in the Analysis Paper. The need to identify these other trends led to the formation of the Countering Lone-Actor Terrorism (CLAT) consortium. Following an extensive data-collection phase with the Royal United Services Institute, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and Leiden University, Chatham House was allocated nine variables from the completed dataset to analyse in order to help develop a more nuanced understanding of the lone-actor terrorism threat in Europe. These variables are: Injuries, Fatalities, Target type, Target details, Weapon type, Weapon details, Legal gun possession, Reported military experience, Indication of a safe space. This paper expands upon those findings and suggests policy recommendations based on that analysis."--Page [1]