Arie Perliger

The Changing Nature of Suicide Attacks - A Social Network Perspective

To comprehend the developments underlying the suicide attacks of recent years, we suggest that the organizational approach, which until recently was used to explain this phenomenon, should be complemented with a social network perspective. By employing a social network analysis of Palestinian suicide networks, we have found that, in contrast to prevailing perceptions which view suicide attacks as a product of strategic decisions made within organizational frameworks, decisions have actually been made, to a great extent, by local activists, and struggles between local and family groups have proved to be the best predictor of their actions in this context. We also found that the peripheral nature of suicide bombers has been a characteristic common to most networks. Finally, we have found that the existence of cohesive subgroups, as well as the number of hubs in a network, has an influence on the networks effectiveness. We conclude the paper by showing that the method of network analysis can also be of considerable assistance from the standpoint of dealing with suicide attacks. On the one hand, this is possible by identifying the networks central figures who are essential for its continued existence, and on the other, we identify the grassroots factors responsible for the emergence of these networks.

Social Network Analysis in the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence

The academic community studying terrorism has changed dramatically in the past decade. From a research area that was investigated by a small number of political scientists and sociologists and employed mainly descriptive and qualitative studies that resulted in limited theoretical progress (Schmid and Jongman 1988; Crenshaw 2000), it has in a short time become one of the more vibrant and rapidly developing academic realms in the scholarly world today. Scholars from different branches of the social sciences have engaged in an effort to unravel this phenomenon, introducing new theoretical outlooks, conceptualizations, and methods.

Democratic Attitudes among High-School Pupils: The Role Played by Perceptions of Class Climate.

The present study shed light on the continuing debate among students of political socialisation regarding the effects of civic education on the upholding of democratic attitudes. Our major conclusion is that civic education, in and of itself, has only minor effects on democratic attitudes of pupils. Furthermore, among pupils who attended civic education classes, democratic class climate would have a crucial effect on the internalisation of democratic attitudes, and the association between sociodemographic characteristics and democratic attitudes is partially mediated by perception of democratic class climate. The findings offer a model which involves demographics and class climate for predicting the success of civic education in meeting its main goal—the absorption and internalisation of democratic attitudes. Thus, we hope to take the ongoing debate in the field at least one small step forward. 1

I versus We Collective and Individual Factors of Reserve Service Motivation during War and Peace

This study examines conditions of peace and war to find whether the “rally `round the flag” effect is indeed attributed to rising levels of social collectivism. Reserve service motivation in peacetime and wartime was compared among 1,004 Israeli reservists. Levels of motivation and the factors that affect them were examined during the optimism of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process (February 2000) and about a year and a half into the second Intifada (October 2000). Findings suggest that motivation to serve in wartime is indeed higher than in peacetime. However, they also suggest that similar factors predict motivation in both times, although their relative impact is altered by the situation. Reservists were more likely to be motivated by individual rather than collective incentives (in both peacetime and wartime situations), thus suggesting that “rally `round the flag” occurrences are not necessarily reflective of the social cohesion and collective reasoning.

How Democracies Respond to Terrorism: Regime Characteristics, Symbolic Power and Counterterrorism

While the academic study of counterterrorism has gained momentum in recent years, it still suffers from major theoretical weaknesses. One of the most prominent shortcomings is an absence of theories that can effectively explain the factors that shape the counterterrorism policies of democratic regimes. The present study attempts to fill this theoretical void in two ways. First, it proposes an analytical framework for a classification of counterterrorism policies. Second, it presents a theoretical framework that strives to uncover the factors that have influenced the struggle against domestic terrorism in democratic regimes. The analyses, which have used a unique and comprehensive dataset that documents counterterrorism policies in eighty-three democracies, show that the robustness of the regimes democratic foundations as well as the symbolic effect of terrorism are major forces in shaping the democratic response to it, while the direct impact of terrorism is less influential than assumed in the literature.

Policing Terrorism in Israel

This article challenges the approach that supports the efficiency of the war model in combating terrorism and shows, by drawing on empirical support, the advantages of using the criminal justice model not only because of its response to the legal—moral issue but also because of its effectiveness. A conceptualization of the term policing terrorism is presented through a general model that defines the role of the police in combating terrorism within a democracy. By analyzing how this model is implemented in Israel, the article illustrates that police forces are preferable to military ones in three main realms: counterterrorism intelligence, thwarting of terrorist attacks, and restoration of civilian infrastructure after a terrorist attack.

An alternative approach for defining the boundaries of ‘party families’: examples from the Israeli extreme right‐wing party scene

For many years the ‘party family’ concept has been utilised by scholars for the purpose of classifying political parties across both countries and time. Like many other concepts in political science, the ‘party family’ idea is widely used, yet has suffered from a certain level of ambiguity. In this study, we try to clarify and re‐emphasise the importance of the ‘party family’ concept. We do so by offering an integrative approach for the classification of ‘party families’. This approach brings together two different theoretical schools (the ideological and the sociological approaches) for classifying ‘party families’, and also combines various methodologies (qualitative content analysis, ecological analysis and survey‐based quantitative analysis) as essential tools for defining ‘party families’. The deeply polarised party system in Israel, and especially the expanding extreme right‐wing ‘party family’ in the country, serve as our case study. The decision to focus only on one political system is meant to illustrate the importance of the ‘party family’ concept, not only for its common use as a tool in the comparative classification of parties across countries and time but also for the study of single‐party systems which are characterised by multi‐partism or polarised pluralism.

Counter Cultures, Group Dynamics and Religious Terrorism:

Totalistic ideologies are breeding grounds for radicalization. Communities that adhere to such ideologies tend to rally when they feel threatened by powerful outsiders. Under such circumstances, community leaders become central. If they frame the situation as an existential threat to the community itself or to its most sacred values, they will accelerate the radicalization process and subsequently increase the prospects of violent actions by group members. The shift to violence takes place in the framework of close-knit social networks within the broader radicalized community. These networks consist of individuals who usually live in the same area and engage in continuous interaction among themselves. Such interactions bolster their communal commitment and develop a collective mindset that facilitates the slide of some of the individuals into violence. Those who eventually descend into terrorism usually exhibit strong identification with the community’s values and extreme alienation towards the outside world. They also enjoy high levels of biographical availability. These hypotheses are tested using the case study of Jewish terrorism in Israel between 1948 and 2006.

Coping with Suicide Attacks: Lessons from Israel

This article describes research on the challenges that suicide attacks and other mass casualty attacks have posed to policy-makers and first responders in Israel. The authors describe a model of response to attacks which focuses on defensive responses to terrorism: prevention, crisis management and reconstruction. The authors draw out the lessons for other countries and discuss the problems that still need to be addressed in order to cope effectively with current and future terrorist attacks.

The Changing Nature of the Israeli Reserve Forces: Present Crises and Future Challenges

The Israeli reservists played a major role in the protest movements that developed after the 1973 War and the First Lebanon War (1982–85). In other cases, debates about moral and political issues within the Israeli political system included petitions and rallies conducted by groups of reservists. How can scholars explain the special standing of the Israeli reservists within Israeli society? Why, during the 1970s and the 1980s, did the protests of the reservists lead to significant changes in the Israeli political and social arena, while this was not the case in the aftermath of the Second Lebanon War? The article explores these dilemmas by presenting different facets of the Israeli reserve army and its role in civil–military relations in Israel. The rationale for the establishment of the reserve army in Israel is discussed and is followed by an analysis of the changes the reserve forces have gone through since the establishment of the state.