The first of the dual purposes of this work has been to describe the research that has been done regarding the root causes of terrorism and second, using a general causal theory and examining the political dimensions of it, to discuss whether or not general causal theories (grand-theories) are helpful for researchers and policy-makers when reacting to social developments in the form of terrorism. The essay is a qualitative literature analysis and I have based my studies on mostly new books treating root causes of terrorism. I have concentrated on discussing international terrorism and how political dimensions may impact the occurence of this form of political violence. The conclusions I have made is that there is no widespread consensus among researchers and scholars as to what really causes terrorism. Neither can the general model examined in chapter 5 be used to predict when and where terrorism will occur next. The author of the model says that different types of political systems may act as catalysts for terrorism, although some democracys are targeted by terrorists and some are not. That strongly indicates to me that there is no strong causality between type of political system and terrorism, at least not between type of political system and international terrorism.The above leads me to believe that there is no way of constructing a grand-theory that can explain all occurence of terrorism. There will always be factors that cannot be charted and that no one can predict. If one were to continue mapping the political factors that catalyst terrorism one would do well by looking at the relationship between policy and the occurence of terrorism. What political factors do the countries that have been attacked have in common?Instead of trying to manufacture grand-theories explaining why terrorism occurs I conclude that researchers and scholars studying the political causes of terrorism ought to approach terrorismstudies in an intense empirical way, analyzing specific cases in depth...
