Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

RED ARMY FACTION • 573behavior. In the analysis and explanation of terrorist events, groups,and motivations, rational-choice theory seems particularly barren.While terrorism appears to have paid off as a political strategy forcertain groups, such as the Irish Republican Army and the PalestineLiberation Organization, which have moved from pariah status tobecoming partners in negotiations with the very states that once anathematizedthem, there are scores of other groups whose actions failed toachieve success and whose tactics and behavior cannot be understoodin rational-choice terms. Moreover, this approach cannot easily explainthe actions of suicide bombers or the tactics of Holy Terror, in whichindividuals sacrifice themselves to achieve a transcendental ideal thatoutsiders cannot fathom. The most convincing work applying rationalchoiceanalysis has been that of Marsha Crenshaw, who argued that thecontagion effect of terrorism can be understood as a variation of the“free-rider problem,” a concept elaborated by rational-choice theory.Crenshaw has also argued that the internationalization of terrorism byIslamic fundamentalist or national-separatist groups that formerlyoperated within more constrained geographical boundaries can be bestexplained by a rational-choice calculus of these groups internationalizingtheir conflict in order to gain more attention and possible benefitsto their respective causes.RED ARMY FACTION (RAF). The Rote Armee Fraktion, alsoknown in the popular press as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, was agroup of German anarchistic leftist terrorists active from 11 May1972 until 20 April 1998. While the RAF did not originally appear tohave state sponsorship, evidence found in East German governmentfiles following the reunification of Germany showed that in the preceding10 years the German Democratic Republic provided logisticalsupport, sanctuary, and training to the RAF. In the period 15–30June 1990, East German police arrested 10 fugitive RAF memberswho had been given asylum by the former Communist regime. Evenin the formative Baader-Meinhof period, however, the group wasclearly dependent on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine(PFLP), which itself received Soviet and other Eastern Blocassistance, for initial training. The RAF did collaborate with DirectAction and the Communist Combatant Cells, both now defunct,and later appeared to collaborate with the October First AntifascistResistance Group.