Conceptualizing Terrorist Violence and Suicide Bombing

This article presents an analysis of different approaches to terrorist violence, with a particular focus on suicide terrorism, using the above mentioned levels of analysis as a conceptual framework to organize this study. In doing so, the article focuses primarily on four selected studies: Khashan\u27s theory of collective Palestinian frustration operating at individual and structural levels; Pape\u27s strategic theory of suicide terrorism, Devji\u27s notion of global jihad, and Hammes\u27 conceptualization of suicide terrorism as one of the strategies of Fourth Generation Warfare, all studied at a strategic level. Drawing on these analyses, as well as on Tilly, this article attempts to address the question of whether suicide terrorism represents a coherent phenomenon, and whether there is, or may be, a generalized pattern which could account for all possible causes of martyrdom operations