Barack My Science Mag

Accuracy in Academia ^ | November 13, 2009 | Bethany Stotts

[bs9021]

Barack My Science Mag

Bethany Stotts, November 13, 2009

Do political leaders who alienate other nations increase the probability of a terrorist attack against their homeland? Recent research conducted by then- Princeton University professor Alan Krueger and Czech professor Jitka Malečková suggests that it does. (Prof. Krueger joined the Obama Administration as the Assistant Secretary of Economic Policy in May of this year).

In their Science study, Krueger et al. compared Gallup public opinion polls with the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) database, finding that a 20% increase in “the disapproval rate of a country’s leaders” (one standard deviation) correlated with to a 93% “increase in the number of terrorist attacks” against that country. However, the total number of NCTC-recorded attacks ranged between .41 and 1.57 attacks from 2004 to 2008—a relatively small number. “Another issue concerns causality: Our data do not allow us to infer whether terrorists respond to public opinion per se or whether the political preferences of terrorists respond in the same way as those of the general public to external events,” they write. “Moreover, it is not possible to draw inferences concerning individual motivations from regressions with aggregate data.”

“Nevertheless, public opinion appears to provide a useful indicator of terrorist activity.”

Krueger et al.’s analysis was restricted to 19 MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) nations, which are, arguably, more disposed toward attacking other countries than more peaceful regions. They argue in the study that additional research with a larger sample of countries is necessary because restricting their study “to the MENA region, where terrorism is relatively more common, could attenuate the correlation between public opinion and terrorist incidents.”...

[marron]

Do political leaders who alienate other nations increase the probability of a terrorist attack against their homeland?

No.

But political leaders who look weak draw attackers like flies. And, using O as a prime example, the attacks won't only be on the US. Weakness will aggravate instabilities around the world. Tinpot dictators will get rambunctious who might otherwise have feared to cause any trouble outside their own borders.

[Talisker]

Do political leaders who alienate other nations increase the probability of a terrorist attack against their homeland?

Chamberlain thought so.

[dila813]

"Do political leaders who alienate other nations increase the probability of a terrorist attack against their homeland? Recent research conducted by then- Princeton University professor Alan Krueger and Czech professor Jitka Malečková suggests that it does" Very Damning to Obama if you ask me. Look what has happened, UK, France, Poland, Ukraine, Japan, China, ..... The only people Obama is cozy with is Chavez, Castro, Putin.

[SunkenCiv]

Do political leaders who alienate other nations increase the probability of a terrorist attack against their homeland?

How about political leaders who alienate the nation in which they allege to have been born?