Meredith
September 24, 2003
ERALD
Volume XVVIII, Issue 5
Professor’s research examines iinic
between poverty and terrorism
TIFFANY ADAMS
Editor in Chief
The events of Sept. 11,
2001 have sparked the
interests of various
researchers around die
world and on Meredith's
campus. Dr. James Piazza,
Assistant Professor of
Politics, began work on his
research entitled Rooted in
Poverty?: Terrorism, Poor
Economic Development
and Social Clevages shortly
after the infamous terrorist
attacks.
In the summer of2002
he was provided funding
from the Meredith
Undergraduate Research
Program to hire Amy
Hobbs, a student at the
College, to help him collect
the data needed for the
project.
His study investigated
acts of terrorism from 96
countries between the years
of 1986 and 2002. He used
regression analysis to look
at all types of measures of
poverty - literacy. Gross
Domestic Product per-capi-
ta, caloric intake and
income distribution.
The first round fmdings
revealed there was no sta
tistical link between pover
ty and the rate or intensity
of terrorism in a country.
"Instead, I found that
demographic and political
variables were predictive
[of terrorism],” said Piazza.
"The degree of ethnic
and religious diversity in a
country ai)d the link
between diversity and parti'
san stability is the main
predictor of terrorism.
What diis suggests is that
countries marked by severe
ethnic and religious con*
flicts that have govern
ments qualified by con
tentious and unstable parti
san conflict are unable to
solve their problems peace
fully through the political
process," Piazza said.
He cited India as a clas
sic example. "It is highly
diverse in terms of linguis
tic groups and religious
commimities. It also has a
crazy and highly con
tentious system of party
govenunent at the national
level that realJy just under
girds the highly com*
bustible divisions within
Indian society. This combi
nation is correlated with
one of the highest rates of
domestic terrorism in the
world," he said.
His basic findii^s tiiat
political factors such as
ethno-religious diversity in
a country and the stability
of the country's political
party system were signifi
cantly related to terrorist
acts have several possible
implications.
The first implication
relates to the way society
views terrorism. "The ques
tion of what causes terror
ism is a bit more complex
than world leaders have tra
ditionally thought," said
Piazza.
The second is that the
elimination of poverty
alone will probably not be
enough to reduce terrorism.
"We need to look at how
countries deal with diversi
ty," said Piazza, "Do they
have political systems
capable of negotiating eth
nic or religious conflicts, or
does their political system,
rather, just encourage con
flict?"
Although his fmdings
thus far do not show a sta
tistically significant rela
tionship between poverty
and terrorism. Piazza hopes
that people do not disregard
the importance of alleviat
ing poverty in poor coun
tries.
"Though it may not yield
a benefit in fighting terror
ism, scholars have shown
pretty clearly that helping
reduce poverty in poor
countries yields both
himianitarian and security
benefits for the entire
world," he said.
Piazza presented the first
draft of the paper at the
International Studies
Conference in Richmond,
Vii^inia in October, 2002.
A month later, he presented
it to the faculty at the
College in a symposium.
He revised the paper this
past summer and submitted
it for publication in a jour
nal titled Terrorism and
Political \Holence. Piazza
most recently presented his
fmdings at the American
Political Science
Association conference in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
These fu^t round find
ings revealed some interest
ing but inconclusive rela
tionships between econom
ic globalization and terror
ism. Piazza has conducted
research in the past on
globalization of national
economies, and he pub
lished a book last year
titled Going Global:
Unions and Globalization
in the United States,
Sweden and Germany that
investigated how globaliza
tion affects labor unions in
the United States, Germany
and Sweden.'
"Periiaps a study of
whether or not global inte
gration increases the likli-
hood of terrorism and polit
ical violence, or rather
decreases it. Scholars have
ai^ed both. It would be
interesting to put their ideas
to a statistical test," said
Piazza.
Piazza has published
several papers in journals
such as Economic and
Industrial Democracy, Party
Politics and Southeastern
Political Review. He holds
a master's degree in modem
Middle East studies, spe
cializing in the politics of
Islamic radicalism, from
the University of Michigan,
and he holds a doctorate in
politics from New York
University.
He teaches several inter
national poltics courses,
including the Model United
Nations course at Meredith.
On the inside:
Lecture
Page 2
Convocation
Series
Page 3
Leader
Shape
Page 4
Athiete of
the Weelc
Page 6
Christy’s
Corner
Page 8