The report, developed by the Institute for Economics and Peace and based on data from the Global Terrorism Database of START, reveals that terrorism killed more than 32,600 people last year, an 80 per cent increase from 2013 and the sharpest yearly rise on record, according to the Global Terrorism Index 2015.
The index is compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a global think tank based in Sydney, New York and Mexico. The Global Terrorism Index measures the scale and impact of terror attacks across the world.
Important findings by Report
- Report defines terrorism as “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non‐state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation“.
- Nigeria recorded the largest increase in deaths from terrorism, reaching more than 7500.
- Iraq stands out as the worst-affected country, accounting for 30 per cent of all deaths from terrorism. More than 9900 people died in 3370 attacks in Iraq last year. This is the highest number of terrorism incidents and fatalities ever recorded by a single country.
- The statistical analysis was carried out by The Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) prior to attacks on Paris, but it has showed that the vast majority of deaths from terrorism occur in just five Muslim-majority countries – Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria.
Link between US military intervention and terrorism in Iraq
The report highlights the link between US military intervention and terrorism in Iraq.
The index shows that global terrorism only started to increase after the escalation of the Iraq war. This was subsequently followed by further increasing waves of terrorism in Afghanistan and then in Pakistan 18 months later. The start of the increases in deaths from terrorism in Iraq coincided with the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Deaths from terrorism spiked in 2007 with the surge in US troops in Iraq and then subsequently fell by 56 per cent, it was only in 2013 with the rise of ISIL [Islamic State] that Iraq suffered from the same level of terrorism again.
Scenario of global terrorism
- The Global Terrorism Index, ranks 162 countries by how greatly terrorism affects them both directly and indirectly.
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Report stated that- Islamic fundamentalism was not the main driver of terrorism in Western countries. It found “lone-wolf” attackers posed the greatest threat, causing seven out of 10 deaths over the past decade.
[A lone wolf or lone-wolf terrorist (also called a “stray dog”) is someone who commits violent acts in support of some group, movement, or ideology, but who does so alone, outside of any command structure and without material assistance from any group. Although the lone wolf prepares and acts alone, he/she may be influenced or motivated by the ideology and beliefs of an external group.]
- Eighty per cent of lone-wolf deaths were caused by “right-wing extremists, nationalists and anti-government elements, other types of political extremism and supremacism”, the institute found.
- Of the 10 deadliest attacks recorded in 2014, half took place in Nigeria, of which all but one were perpetrated by the Boko Haram militant group.
- The deadliest attack took place in the city of Badush in Iraq in June 2014, where Isis killed 670 people using explosives.
Terrorism in India
- India ranked 4 out of the 159 countries surveyed. While Iraq stood at number 1, Pakistan at number 2, Afghanistan at number 3 and Yemen was number 5.
- The GTI revealed that Pakistan, India and Afghanistan accounted for 12 per cent, 11 per cent and 10 per cent of global terrorist incidents respectively from 2002 to 2009.
- According to the figures put out by the institute, there had been 529 incidents of terrorism in India in 2011 that had taken the lives of 402 people and injured 687.
- India’s high numbers come in the period 2006-2010 when the casualty figures averaged more than 600 per year, peaking at 735 in 2009 and 772 in 2010.
- In terms of public perception there is little doubt that 2008, the year in which the Indian Mujahideen carried out a number of bombing attacks across the country, and the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) strike in Mumbai would have been the deadliest year for the country.
- In 2011, the Middle East, India, Pakistan and Russia were the areas most impacted by terrorism.
Other aspects of terrorism
- According to research, In the West, socio-economic factors such as youth unemployment and drug crime correlate with terrorism.
- In non-OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries, terrorism shows stronger associations with ongoing conflict, corruption and violence.
Suggestion given by the Report
Policies that reduced political violence by governments, increased respect for human rights and religious freedoms and “diffused group grievances” would help address causes of terrorism, Mr Killelea said.
About GTI
The Global Terrorism Index is based on data from the Global Terrorism Database, compiled by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland. The data starts from 1970.
Putting the numbers in context, the index notes that homicides (the killing of one person by another) kill 13 times more people worldwide than terrorism.
Separately, World Health Organisation figures show 38 times more people die worldwide in road traffic accidents than from terrorism.
