PROJECT 5: TERRORISM
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Maryland had multiple terrorist incidents prior to 9/11, however, the most damaging of these to human life occurred in College Park, on the University of Maryland’s campus. On June 27, 1981, a bomb exploded and killed Chinese scholar Cuo Ren Wu and injured four other visiting students from China. Interestingly, the perpetrator and intentions were never discovered, however, due to the placement and timing officials believed that it was intended for the Chinese students and scholar (Global Terrorism Database, n.d.).
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This project analyzes various components of terrorism from 1970 to 2017 at a global, national, and state level. All data was taken from the Global Terrorism Database from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (Global Terrorism Database, n.d.). It is important to note that variables were not converted to similar rates, and thus provide the absolute numbers rather than a rate. According to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, terrorism is defined as “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation” (Global Terrorism Database, n.d.).
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The first visualization gives a depiction of terrorism by country. The number of terrorist events in each respective country is shown by the size of that country’s bubble. Therefore, the data indicates that Iraq, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Colombia face the largest absolute number of terrorist attacks (Global Terrorism Database, n.d.). It is also important, as aforementioned, to note that these are not adjusted for population size. Furthermore, the bubbles are color coded by region. This also makes it evident that three of the five largest “bubbles,” or countries with the most attacks, are in South Asia (Global Terrorism Database, n.d.).
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The second visualization demonstrates the global targets and methods of attack. Therefore, each type of target is broken down into what attack type occurred. For example, the data shows that the top target is private citizens and property—which intuitively makes sense. The second through fourth top targets include the military, the police, and the government. As for weapon type, it is consistent throughout each target type that the greatest number of attack types are bombings/explosions. The second largest attack type is armed assault (Global Terrorism Database, n.d.).
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The third visualization shows a map of terror attacks in the United States sorted by weapon type. Thus, it provides a map, and each point is coded by color regarding the type of weapon and by size which shows the number of casualties. The data indicates that most terror attacks appear to be concentrated near the coast, where large cities are located. Explosives and incendiary incidents are the two most common weapon types (Global Terrorism Database, n.d.).
The fourth and final visualization shows the data for my state, Maryland. The map shows the location of terrorist attacks within the state. Additionally, each point is coded by size to represent the number of attacks, with the larger points having two attacks. The points are also coded by color representing different target types. As shown by the data, the most attacks in Maryland are Government (general) attacks (Global Terrorism Database, n.d.).
While we have not yet discussed terrorism in class, I believe that we will discuss various characteristics—such as reason, target type, and location—of terrorist attacks. Therefore, these visualizations provide a solid foundation for what will be discussed in the coming weeks.
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References
Global Terrorism Database. (n.d.). Retrieved from National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism website: https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/