Domestic Terrorism: An Examination of the Boston Marathon Attack Research Paper

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Established in 1897 and traditionally held on Patriots’ Day, the third Monday in April, the Boston Marathon is the oldest and one of the most popular annual marathon events in the world today. The annual celebration of the Boston Marathon was disrupted on April 15, 2013, though, when two lone wolf terrorists, Chechen Kyrgyzstani-American brothers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, detonated two homemade bombs which killed three people and injured hundreds of others, including at least 14 limb amputations. This grisly chapter in the Boston’s Marathon’s history underscores the potential for terrorist groups to recruit and radicalize new aspirants. The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion concerning the recruitment and radicalization process of lone wolf terrorists and an explanation why terrorists focus on soft targets. In addition, an analysis of the sociological and psychological impacts that these attacks have had on society is followed by a discussion of strategies that can be used to further strengthen the Internet and social media platforms from being used to recruit members, promote propaganda, and radicalize terrorists. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning the lone wolf Boston Marathon terrorist attack are presented in the paper’s conclusion.

Recruitment and radicalization process of lone wolf terrorists in the domestic United States and abroad using the Internet and social media platforms

In this context and despite a strict interpretation, the term “lone wolf” refers to “the use or threat of violence by up to three people” (Feldman, 2013, p. 52), making the Boston Marathon perpetrators so-called “lone wolf” terrorists (Becker, 2016). The ubiquity of the Internet and social media platforms combined with their growing popularity among consumers of all ages around the world make these resources especially powerful tools in the hands of terrorist organizations that seek to recruit and radicalize new members. Indeed, the anonymity of Internet-mediated forums, their global reach and their tolerance for even the most extreme speech and religious views make these platforms veritable breeding grounds for new terrorists that may have previously been undecided about joining such an organization (Miller, 2019) which have historically favored soft targets for the reasons discussed below.

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Why terrorists focus on soft targets

Terrorists are fanatics, of course, but they are also pragmatists. Given the asymmetrical nature of their respective military capabilities, it just makes good sense for terrorists to focus on high-profile targets that offer the greatest chance of causing the most damage possible, including…

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…freely (Chidiac & Chidiac, 2019). Perhaps the best opportunity to further strengthen the Internet and social media platforms from exploitation by terrorist organizations is to partner with their top executive teams to develop algorithmic strategies that can identify the source of radicalizing propaganda for follow-up by intelligence operatives.

Conclusion

The research was consistent in showing that it does not require a well organized, well funded, international terrorist organization to carry out extremely deadly attacks on United States’ interests at home and abroad. The research also showed that the Boston Marathon terrorist attack on April 15, 2013 was characterized as a lone wolf incident because there were three or fewer perpetrators involved, a definition that may be misleading but which nevertheless underscores the fact that it does not take many people to engage in a terrorism conspiracy that can have a profoundly adverse impact on the nation’s already fragile psyche. Finally, and most troubling of all, the review of the relevant literature indicated that defending against lone wolf terrorist attacks is especially difficult and even impossible depending on the circumstances, so it is reasonable to conclude that more papers will be written about lone wolves in the future without ever really solving….....

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