The Internationalization of Terrorist Campaigns

Many scholars have examined terrorism as a conflict between a state and a nonstate actor. However, during terrorist campaigns, terrorists often seek sanctuary from target attacks by crossing into foreign host states. This action effectively transforms the conflict from a purely domestic contest into an international issue. This paper explores why terrorist organizations make the choice to internationalize conflicts by adopting a foreign host. Further, this paper examines why host governments accept terrorist organizations. To address these questions, this research develops a simple game theoretic model to explain the decision to internationalize terrorism. The paper concludes with an empirical test of the model's predictions.