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Assessing the Impact of the Political Environment on INGO Vulnerability to Terrorist Attack
Author(s) -
Lambert Kathryn M.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
risk, hazards and crisis in public policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.634
H-Index - 8
ISSN - 1944-4079
DOI - 10.1002/rhc3.12145
Subject(s) - terrorism , polity , politics , vulnerability (computing) , language change , political science , proxy (statistics) , political stability , political violence , good governance , fragility , corporate governance , business , computer security , law , art , literature , computer science , chemistry , finance , machine learning
International Non‐Governmental Organizations (INGOs) operate in dangerous environments where their humanitarian missions are often in jeopardy. This study analyzes the relationship between four political variables—Regime Type, Political Corruption, Political Stability, and Level of Terrorism—and terrorist attacks against INGOs. What political conditions exist when INGOs are targeted by terror organizations? Do these conditions differ from international terror attacks in which INGOs are not targeted? The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is used to identify INGOs attacked by terrorists and to describe the nature of the terrorist threat posed to the organizations. Additionally, data from the Polity IV Project, the State Fragility Index (SFI), and Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGIs) are used to create proxy variables for Regime Type, Political Stability, and Political Corruption. Binary logistic regression of these four variables reveals Political Stability and Level of Terrorism as the best predictors of INGO attacks. These two variables predicted 82.0 percent of the INGO attacks but were much less successful (58.1 percent) in predicting terrorist attacks in which INGOs were not targeted. INGOs can more effectively align resources with their security needs as they gain a better understanding of how the political environment impacts or does not impact their vulnerability to terrorist attack.