Poverty & Militancy do not mix!
Landed via Twitter a reference to an academic paper 'Poverty and Support for Militant Politics: Evidence from Pakistan':https://www.princeton.edu/~jns/publi...istan_AJPS.pdf
Quote:
First, Pakistanis are weakly negative toward a range of militant groups. Second, poor Pakistanis dislike militant groups more than their middle-class counterparts. Third, this effect is likely driven by exposure to the externalities of militant violence, as it is stronger among the urban poor, who are most exposed to the negative externalities of terrorist violence; and stronger among the poor living in urban areas that suffered militant violence in the year before our survey. These results call into question conventional views about the perceived correlation between economic status and militant attitudes in Pakistan and other countries.....
If our results hold true in other countries, they suggest that it is the poor who may be the most natural allies in campaigns to delegitimize militant groups.
Second, it is unlikely that improving the material well-being of individuals will reduce support for violent political organizations.
Rethinking the Relationship Between Poverty and Terrorism
Rethinking the Relationship Between Poverty and Terrorism
Entry Excerpt:
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Don’t Dismiss Poverty’s Role in Terrorism Yet
A Time magazine article from February 2014, with the sub-title The studies are mixed, but our analysis should not be hasty:http://time.com/3694305/poverty-terrorism/
Do poverty and a lack of education produce terrorism?
Thread re-opened after an alert to this article by Bruce Hoffman 'Sorry, Politicians, But Fighting Poverty Isn’t Going to Defeat Terrorism; Despite Popular Political Rhetoric, Many Terrorists Are Well Educated and Well Off'.
He ends with:
Quote:
The reasons why someone picks up a gun or throws a bomb represent an ineluctably personal choice born variously of grievance and frustration; religious piety or the desire for systemic socio-economic change; irredentist conviction or commitment to some utopian or millenarian ideal. The forces that impel individuals to become terrorists are thus timeless
Link:http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/20...1dkJZ4.twitter