MEASURING AND UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF TERRORISM

In the last two decades the West has been a target by some terrorist groups based in
Afghanistan or Iraq. More recently ISIL has replaced al-Qa’ida as the biggest threat for
attacks in the West through lone wolf tactics. On 22 September 2014 the spokesperson
of ISIL called for sympathisers to engage in attacks in Western countries. 11 This section
of the report uses ISIL’s designation of the West which includes Europe, the United
States, Canada and Australia.
Despite this link between Middle-East and South Asia based terrorist groups and
attacks in the West, the West is not the main focus of these groups with domestic
considerations dominating their actions.
In 2014 there were 37 deaths in the 38 countries categorised as the West. This
constitutes 0.11 per cent of total deaths from terrorism in 2014. In the 15 years between
2000 and 2014 there were 3,659 deaths from terrorism in the West.
FIGURE 23 DEATHS FROM TERRORISM IN
WESTERN COUNTRIES, 2000-2014
Deaths from terrorism in the West constitute
2.6 per cent of all deaths in the 15 years up to
2014. Most of these deaths occurred in the
September 11 attack which killed 2,996 people.
140,000
However, Western countries have also seen some of the most
deadly terrorist attacks in the last 15 years. This includes the
September 11 attacks which killed nearly 3,000. On its own, the
September 11 attack accounts for 82 per cent of the total number
of deaths from terrorism in Western countries from 2000 to
2014. The Madrid train bombings which killed nearly 200 people
represents five per cent of total deaths from terrorism, whilst the
Norwegian massacre which killed 77 and the London bombings
which killed 56 account for around two per cent each. These
attacks caused mass panic and are considered serious security
breaches by citizens of the West expecting their governments to
provide protection from such events.
DEATHS
120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
In 2014, in the countries classified as the West, the United
States had the most deaths from terrorism with 18 deaths.
Eighty-two per cent of fatal attacks in the US involved a
firearm where the assailant was an American citizen. Of the 19
attacks that occurred in the United States in 2014, all but five
were committed by individuals. These attacks were largely
motivated by right wing extremism or white supremacists.
There were eight attacks by right wing extremists undertaken
by individuals or people with an affiliation to Sovereign
Citizens, which is a network of individuals that have antigovernment
views. Two attacks were motivated by antigovernment
views and two attacks by anti-semitism.
Source: START GTD
REST OF WORLD
WESTERN COUNTRIES
Four out of the 19 attacks in the US had a jihadist element.
These attacks were three shootings by Ali Muhammad Brown
who cited opposition to US foreign policy as the motivation for
his attacks, and the hatchet attack of police officers in New
York by Zale Thompson.
GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX 2015 | Terrorism in Western Countries
50