Blurred Lines: The New ‘Domestic’ Terrorism

The apparent growth of lone wolf violence, combined with the increased use of social media to recruit new mem- bers, contributes to a blurring of the line between domestic and international terrorism. Where a relatively simple distinction used to suffice for scholars, we are seeing more frequent attacks, traditionally classified as domestic terrorism, but that receive inspiration from a foreign ideology or global movement. This article examines some of these trends related to social media and solo perpetrators, and suggests the use of the term “transnational terror- ism”, to account for the growing incidence of terrorist attacks that do not fit properly into either existing category.