The first module of this series provides a brief overview of the field of terrorism studies, following the evolution of terrorism throughout the 20th century to today, and its increasing importance as a subject of academic study. Starting with typical academic approaches (chiefly, the "psychological" and "power-political" models), we discover how these models are alone insufficient for explaining the complex motivations behind terrorist group and individual actions. As a supplement or alternative to these traditional models, Social Identity Theory (SIT) is posited as a way of accounting for the seemingly inexplicable or "irrational" acts of terrorist and other violent subnational groups.

Anders Strindberg - Faculty, NPS Center for Homeland Defense and Security