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Prof. Dr. Günther Schulze studied economics at the University of Hamburg, earned his PhD at the Uni- versity of Constance in 1995, and completed his ha- bilitation at the same institu- tion five years later. Since 2002 he has served as pro- fessor of economics at the Faculty of Economics and Behavioral Sciences of the University of Freiburg, where he is also head of the Department of International Economic Policy. In addition, he is an adjunct professor at the Australian National Uni- versity in Canberra. His re- search interests include political economics, devel- opmental economics, and the economic analysis of terrorism. He is an expert on Southeast Asia and is a member of the Southeast Asian Studies Group at the University of Freiburg, which receives funding from the German Federal Minis- try of Education and Re- search. Photo: Thomas Kurz Further Reading Kis-Katos, K./Liebert, H./Schulze, G. (2012): On the heterogeneity of terror. Freiburg (= University of Freiburg Department of International Economic Policy Discussion paper series 19). www.pr.uni-freiburg.de/go/ heterogeneity-of-terror Kis-Katos, K./Liebert, H./Schulze, G. (2011): On the origin of domestic and international terrorism. In: European Journal of Political Economy 27/1, pp. 17–36. www.pr.uni-freiburg. de/go/origin-of-terrorism Dr. Krisztina Kis-Katos studied economics at the University of Szeged, Hun- gary, and international eco- nomic relations at the University of Constance. in 2010, she earned her PhD at the University of Freiburg with a study on globalization and child labor. She has since conducted research at the Department of Interna- tional Economic Policy at the Institute of Economic Research, primarily on top- ics in political economics, economic development, and conflict economics. Her re- search is grounded on quan- titative micro-empirical data analyses. Photo: private Most victims of terrorism are currently in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Photos: Miro Novak/Fotolia ine the diverse forms of violence that are typi- cally subsumed under the term. “There is no such thing as terrorism as such,” says Schulze. The economist stresses that terrorism is a strat- egy, not an ideology, and terrorism motivated by different reasons will thus not necessarily have the same background. Left-wing terrorism, for example, occurs more often in countries with high income disparity, but this is not true of reli- giously motivated terrorism. Ethnically polarized societies are, for their part, more prone to sepa- ratist terrorism but not to other forms of terror- ism. The forms of terrorism common to various countries also differ along the lines of variables like political stability, democracy, standard of liv- ing, and degree of urbanization. Developing Strategies against Terrorism In collaboration with the former student Helge Liebert, Schulze and Kis-Katos identified four categories of terrorism: terrorism from left-wing extremist groups that aim to establish a socialist or communist social order – such as the German Red Army Fraction or the Maoist “Shining Path” organization in Peru; right-wing extremist terror- ism aiming to achieve racial or national domi- nance – the series of murders committed by the “National Socialist Underground” under review by the German judiciary is a current example; eth- nic separatist groups fighting for political power or to gain independence like the Basque ETA in Spain; and religious terrorist groups, including not only numerous radical Islamist groups in the Near East and parts of Africa but also Hindu, Christian, and Sikh terrorist groups. Each of these ideologically categorized types of terror- ism has its own pattern. Schulze and Kis-Katos hope the findings of their research project will help politicians to de- velop effective strategies against terrorism. The causes and forms of terrorism have already been studied many times from a sociological and po- litical perspective, but the idea of studying them from an economic perspective is relatively new. “Our methodology is perhaps somewhat more ab- stract and quantitative,” says Schulze, “but eco- nomics is a methodically well-grounded social science that engages in systematic study of the reality of the world we live in. Ultimately, what it’s about is always human fate.” 38