ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on public support as a key resource that both terrorists and the state forces that oppose them must acquire and maintain if they are to achieve success. The general public, we will argue, is in the case of terrorist campaigns not merely a spectator on the sidelines but an active participant. The public is an actor that needs to be engaged, surprised, shocked and won over in order to bring closer the goals the terrorist group espouses (Boyla 2015; Siqueira and Sandler, 2006). To paraphrase Sluka (1989), terrorists may not need widespread active support, but they cannot survive the active hostility of their popular base. This applies equally to those attempting to counter terrorist activities. Without a degree of support and a larger measure of at least acquiescence, counterterrorism policies are unlikely to succeed, irrespective of whether they reflect a ‘soft’ or ‘hard’ approach.
