National power and the search for a generalized theory of terrorist target selection: An introduction to the Uyo School

The assumption that terrorist organizations (TO) select their target(s) putting into consideration its own limited resources and the impact of the selected target on the national power of the victim state has been the underlying assumption of the Uyo School. In the face of the increasing search to uncover the determinant of terrorist target selection which has become central in terrorism literature does the Uyo School provide a generalized theory on the issue? And are its assumptions robust enough to provide the needed theoretical framework as a research program for more rigorous and scientific study on the subject matter? This paper makes a presentation of the core propositions of the school. It concludes that the school provides the most promising theorization on the subject. Key words: National power, political capacity, economic capacity, demography, terrorist attack, terrorist organization, power foregone, endurance capacity.