| Abstract
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As an outcome of globalization, 'risk society' is now a 'global risk society' in which risks and vulnerabilities are transgressing boundaries and borders. In general terms, a risk is the culmination of a temporal and spatial meeting between an opportunity, or vulnerability, and a threat. Terrorism is one such risk, and has emerged as a compelling force within the new global environment. Therefore, rather than looking at international terrorism as simply an act of violence, it is more accurate to consider this threat as part of a larger phenomenon that exists within economic, social, and political contexts. While not the sole cause of terrorist activity, or the primary factors which propel individuals to commit terrorist acts, the contexts in which these events take place form the basic environment which allows for its facilitation. To be sure, the causes of terrorism are multifaceted. Yet, without a strategy that focuses, in part, on modifying macro-level variables at the level of the nation-state, which form the enabling environment, other terrorist networks and followers will emerge to replace those that are impacted or removed through tactical approaches. Accordingly, this research examines international terrorism from the perspective of risks and vulnerabilities at the macro-level. Terrorism data from the International Terrorism: Attributes of Terrorist Events (ITERATE) database are merged with macro-level contextual variables obtained from sources including the World Bank and Transparency International. The data are analyzed for the fifteen-year period from 1987 to 2001. Regression analyses show that a country's levels of democracy and state religiosity are pertinent indicators of their risk of experiencing international terrorism, as well as their propensity to 'produce' international terrorists. Levels of development are also related to the emergence of international terrorists, particularly in countries with higher levels of state religiosity. These findings are upheld in a closer examination of Peru and Algeria, both of which experienced relatively high levels of international terrorist activity over the time period. Geographic mapping provides a visual representation of the findings.
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