Institutionalizing the Field of Terrorism Studies

The author of this chapter has been in the field of terrorism studies for forty years and, as co-editor of Terrorism and Political Violence and later editor-in-chief of Perspectives on Terrorism—two of the three leading journals in the field—has observed, and stimulated, the growth of research since the 1970s. He describes his efforts to arrive at a consensus definition of terrorism both in the context of the United Nations and in the academic world, his contribution towards the development of a typology of terrorism, as well as a communication theory of terrorism. He reflects, inter alia, on the relationship between the academic and the intelligence communities, and the contribution of some of the chief protagonists in the field to the maturing of terrorism studies.