ABSTRACT
In this chapter we look to the problem of countering terrorism. Now, there are many angles this chapter could take; we could go global and look at the wealth of global issues that are (to varying degrees) associated with the spread of terrorism around the world. Issues of poverty, the climate crisis, war, and the economic climate all to varying degrees play a role, and each is a field of study in its own right. At the same time, we could look at this as a tactical problem and discuss the effectiveness of leader decapitation (removing the leader), negotiation, surveillance, policing, and the law. Finally, we could look politically and examine the role of politics in preventing the motivations for engagement in terrorism and terrorist behavior (e.g., climate laws, laws against religious freedoms, and so on). The field of countering terrorism is broad, and there are decades of study associated with each of the variables we have just highlighted. So given the size, scope, and general ethos of this book, instead of stretching our focus too thinly across a broad range of topics, I wanted to discuss a single aspect that psychologists have been focused on that really centers on the psychology of the individual: risk assessment.
