How World Pictured, Understood Terrorism, Counterterrorism before the Release of 2018 Global Terrorism Index Report

Credit: GTI, Infoprations Analysis, 2018

The Global Terrorism Index Report is an annual report that details terrorism and extremism incidents throughout the world. Beyond the description and presentation of various incidents, the cost and impact of the incidents are highlighted by professionals at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland. The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) is the producer of the report.

This year’s report indicates that stakeholders are making headway in the war against the scourge. For instance, the highest number of deaths reduction due to terrorists’ activities occurs in Iraq and Syria. The report notes that the total number of deaths fell by 27% between 2016 and 2017. Despite this, terrorism is still widespread and getting worse in some regions, the report suggests. This indicates that stakeholders need to intensify their counter terrorism strategies.

Picturing Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Trends

Before the release of the report, Infoprations’ analysis shows that people across the world had significant interest in understanding terrorism more than counter terrorism. The volume of knowledge sought about terrorism was higher than those sought on counter terrorism, from January to December, 2018. The analysis further reveals that 47.1% of knowledge sought about counter terrorism was due to knowledge had about terrorism, while the need to understand terrorism connected with the categories of related knowledge sought about counter terrorism by 68.7%. One unit interest on terrorism increases interest about counter terrorism by 46.5%, while the need to understand terrorism influenced the need to also seek knowledge about counter terrorism by 21.6%.  

Picturing Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism Trends and Global Status

To set the report into a new perspective, considering the world’s interest about terrorism and counter –terrorism, Infoprations modelled the trends along with the Global Terrorism Index Score of countries where people sought knowledge about the two concepts the most. The result indicates that terrorism trends connected with Global Terrorism Index Score of select countries by 27.2%, establishing a strong connection. The analysis also reveals that Global Terrorism Index Score of select countries connected with terrorism trends by 52.5%.

One of the striking results of the analysis is that countries’ percentage of interest about terrorism and Global Terrorism Index Score of select countries connected, negatively, whereas strong positive connection exists between the percentage of interest about counter terrorism and GTI Score of select countries.