Who Attacks America? Islamist Attacks on the American Homeland

The twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist strikes presents a good occasion for scholars and policymakers to take stock of what has been learned about Islamist, anti-American terrorists. In this article, the author evaluates a number of proposed causes of terrorism against the empirical record of 60 individuals who, claiming to have been motivated by their understanding of Islam, have plotted or carried out attacks against the American homeland. The analysis finds that while many theories of terrorism fail to explain the phenomenon of Islamist, anti-American terrorism, these terrorists do share a few traits, namely that they tend to be well-educated, young men reared in countries characterized by government repression, many of which happen to be security partners of the United States. The insights of this analysis suggest a number of policy prescriptions.