Is terrorism a group phenomenon?

This paper offers a critical review of the role of group processes in terrorist behavior. It draws on a fundamental distinction between terrorist ‘involvement’ and terrorist ‘events’ to explore what group phenomena might contribute to our understanding of actual terrorist behavior, as opposed to the context to terrorism. It does this through the use of a number of case studies of terrorist incidents, and explores how generalizations that might be made about potential group-focused causal accounts fail to offer sufficient explanations of the behaviors identified. These case studies include The Jewel of Medina arson attack, and the PIRA attack that led to the death of Garda Jerry McCabe. The paper concludes by suggesting a need for a greater focus on individual activity in its immediate context, through empirical research into terrorist behavior, rather than its extensive hinterland.