SHIFTING QUESTIONS IN RESEARCHING THE MOTIVATIONS FOR EXTREME VIOLENCE

摘要

Terrorism is a complex planetary emergency requiring sophisticated understanding of the widely varying motivations for, and pathways to, extreme violence. Only in understanding these motivations and pathways can we hope to prevent attacks that are becoming more frequent, from Paris to Dhakar, Istanbul to Brussels, and to try and mitigate the slide into ever worsening conflicts across the world. But, as in most fields of research, as one question is answered others replace them: as children discover young, one can always ask "why"? in response to the answer to any question. This has been called the philosopher's regress, but it can be applied to any field (no sooner were sub-atomic particles found, but they, too, were found to be divisible), and the study of terrorism is not exempt.