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Welcome to the RAND-MIPT Terrorism Incident Database Project

RAND and the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) have been working together since April 2001 to prepare an online database of terrorism incidents to help researchers, analysts, and others working to prevent terrorism.

As the MIPT Web site states, "Countering terrorism requires cooperation among federal, state, and local response agencies, researchers, and analysts. This cooperation demands improved communication and collaboration technologies that permit effective data and knowledge sharing across organizations."

The MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base (TKB) acts as a "one-stop shopping place" where authorized users can go online to find comprehensive information and intelligence on terrorism.

The TKB includes two RAND databases, the RAND Terrorism Chronology Database and the RAND-MIPT Terrorism Incident Database. The RAND Terrorism Chronology Database records international terrorist incidents that occurred between 1968 and 1997, while the RAND-MIPT Terrorism Incident Database records domestic and international terrorist incidents occurred from 1998 to present.

RAND has been actively involved in the study of terrorism for the past 30 years. RAND began exploring this problem in the wake of the murder of Olympic athletes in Munich and has carried on this research without interruption since 1972. Indeed, RAND remains dedicated to an investigation of the origins, development, and implications of terrorism for policy officials, the private sector, and first responders.

To complete the Terrorism Chronology and Terrorism Incident Database, RAND staff conduct research on potential terrorist attacks on a ongoing basis, drawing on staff with regional expertise, language skills, and relevant field work. Numerous RAND terrorism analysts have been involved in sustaining the Chronology over time, include Brian Jenkins and Bruce Hoffman. Currently, Michael Wermuth and Kim Cragin manage the Terrorism Incident Database, but the research team includes nine other researchers with language skills that range from Arabic to Chinese to Spanish.

The threats posed by terrorism are constantly changing and evolving, taking on new, often more lethal forms designed to avoid government countermeasures and create an atmosphere of fear in the minds of target populations. For example, suicide bombings are becoming a more prevalent tactic used by terrorist groups. But whereas many attribute this tactic solely to Islamic terrorist groups, the fact is that left-wing and/or nationalist groups, such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam, have also engaged in suicide attacks. Because of these shifts, continuous data collection is crucial to the study of terrorism: it allows policymakers, journalists, and first responders to stay one step ahead of emerging trends. Therefore, by continually updating the Terrorism Incident Database and Terrorism Chronology and making it available to the public, MIPT and RAND form a working partnership to enhance counterterrorism analysis, policymaking, and response.

The following article, "Understanding the Terrorism Database," was published in the MIPT Quarterly Bulletin, first quarter 2002 (online PDF). The bulletin provides additional information about how the database works, as well as selected statistics from 2001.

Understanding the Terrorism Database

The Terrorism Incident Database defines and categorizes terrorist attacks in order to help analysts, policymakers, and practitioners understand general trends in the threat. It is based on over 30 years of research by analysts at RAND who have both regional expertise and relevant language skills, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese. It is important to note, however, that the term "terrorism" is open to interpretation: agencies and institutions often define the term differently. The following section therefore clarifies the definitions used by RAND researchers to determine and whether or not a particular incident should be included in the Database.

For the purpose of this database, terrorism is defined by the nature of the act, not by the identity of the perpetrators. Terrorism is violence calculated to create an atmosphere of fear and alarm to coerce others into actions they would not otherwise undertake, or refrain from actions they desired to take. Acts of terrorism are generally directed against civilian targets. The motives of all terrorists are political, and terrorist actions are generally carried out in a way that will achieve maximum publicity.

Example: Though all terrorist acts are criminal, not all crime is terrorism. Accordingly, the Database does not include basic criminal acts, even if they are perpetrated by a terrorist organization: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attacks against civilians are included, but not drug-trafficking activities.

Example: The Database only includes attacks against military targets if such an attack makes a broader political statement: exchanges of fire between al-Fatah and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in border areas between Israel and the Occupied Territories are not included, but the Database does account for incidents like the attack against the USS Cole in Yemen.

The Database is divided into two different datasets. The incidents collected between 1968 and 1997 [the RAND Terrorism Chronology] only account for international terrorism. International terrorism includes incidents in which the perpetrators go abroad to strike their targets, select domestic targets associated with a foreign state, or create an international incident by attacking airline passengers or equipment. The more recent Database [1998 to present] includes both international and domestic terrorism incidents. Domestic terrorism is defined as incidents perpetrated by local nationals against a purely domestic target.

Example: A suicide bombing by a Hamas member crossing from Palestinian-controlled territory to West Jerusalem on an Israeli bus is an international incident.

Example: Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City is a domestic incident.

Finally, MIPT and RAND have formed a Vetting Committee that oversees the inclusion of what RAND researchers consider "borderline" incidents. This Committee also provides guidance and determines criteria for including or not including incidents. To date, the Vetting Committee has decided the following:

• General rioting, hoaxes, cyber-vandalism, or unsubstantiated threats do not constitute terrorism incidents.

• Bombs that detonate as a perpetrator is building them do not count as terrorism incidents. Once the perpetrator moves towards a target, the detonation counts as terrorism.

• Bombs defused by authorities at the target do count as a terrorism incident.

• Attacks on police forces do not count as terrorism incidents in areas and/or countries in which the police and the military are synonymous.

• "Foiled" bombing plots do not count as terrorism incidents.