The RAND Chronology of International Terrorism for 1986

The RAND Corporation annually publishes a chronology of international terrorism. The chronology contains data on international terrorist incidents since 1968, derived from the open literature — newspapers, journals, radio broadcasts, and the foreign press. It provides a comprehensive database with which trends in various aspects of terrorism can be analyzed. This report details and analyzes incidents recorded in the chronology for 1986. Terrorism is here defined as violence, or the threat of violence, calculated to create an atmosphere of fear and alarm. International terrorism, the concern of this study, is defined as incidents in which terrorists go abroad to strike their targets, select victims or targets that have connections with a foreign state, or create international incidents. Among the tactics included in the chronology are kidnapping, bombing, attacks on installations, hijackings, barricade and hostage situations, assassinations and shootings, and incidents involving significant threats or conspiracies. Appendixes include a statistical abstract based on the chronology, as well as several pertinent charts and tables, and a bibliography of terrorist perpetrators.