Some Roots of Terrorism

Although various hypotheses about the causes of terrorism have been proposed, a number of important factors have been largely ignored. Geopolitics, especially rich-world attempts to control oil, help incite terrorist attacks on the rich by people from developing countries. But demographic and socioeconomic factors, especially poverty, inequality and large numbers of young men facing dim economic prospects, also are likely contributors to such terrorism. We show that those factors will not ameliorate soon without determined effort. Developed nations, particularly the United States, could help reduce terrorism by controlling over-consumption and increasing carefully targeted aid to developing nations.