Causes Of Suicide Terrorism

Antiwar Radio: Charles Goyette Interviews Robert A. Pape

By Charles Goyette
Thursday, September 27th, 2007
AntiWar

Robert A. Pape, professor of political science at the University of Chicago and author of the study Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, explains why it is that suicide bombers do what they do:

To rid their land of foreign combat forces. That’s it. Not religion. Not virgins in Heaven. Not Democracy. Not Freedom™. Not women’s rights… Occupation.

MP3 here. (15:25)

Robert A. Pape is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago specializing in international security affairs.

His publications include:

Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (Random House 2005); Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (Cornell 1996),

“Why Economic Sanctions Do Not Work,” International Security (1997),

“The Determinants of International Moral Action,” International Organization (1999);

“The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,” American Political Science Review (2003); and

“Soft Balancing against the United States,” International Security (2005).

His commentary on international security policy has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, as well as on Nightline, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and National Public Radio.

Before coming to Chicago in 1999, he taught international relations at Dartmouth College for five years and air power strategy for the USAF’s School of Advanced Airpower Studies for three years.

He received his Ph. D. from the University of Chicago in 1988 and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982.

His current work focuses on the causes of suicide terrorism and the politics of unipolarity.