Impact Of Terrorism On Socio-Economic Development: A Study On Developing Countries

Background on the impact of terrorism

Terrorism can adversely affect socioeconomic development of various regions across the world. Due to strong conflict between terrorist groups and armed military, many countries have experienced violence (Sönmez and Sönmez 2017). This in turn has created huge trouble for policymakers to develop social and economic framework uninterruptedly. This concept has become a serious issue for both developed and developing countries, especially for those, who have ample amount of natural resources (Ragazzi 2016). Thus, the study intends to discuss, analyse and obtain outcome about the impact of terrorism on socio-economic development of a country. The following section of this chapter will provide a brief background related to the impact of terrorism based on which further objectives of the research can be derived. Moreover, this chapter will also include research questions that can help the study to obtain its desired outcomes.

According to economists and socialists, terrorism is a systematic process through which terrorists spread violence to generate threats. The chief focus of these terrorist groups is to obtain certain social or political objectives (Böckler et al. 2018). Terrorism does not have any standard definition, as different countries and agencies define terrorisms from different aspects. For instance, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, terrorism is an unlawful action, which is used to obtain certain social and political objectives (Combs 2017). However, many researchers have not followed such definitions and further they have provided a consensus meaning. Nigeria is also a developing country, where most of the attacks occur in northern as well as northeast part of the country (Obi and Ezeogu 2017). Since 2016, the country has experienced almost nine attacks.

Research aims:

The chief focus of this study is to analyse the impact of terrorism on the developing countries’ socio-economic development as a whole. However, the study does not consider any specific country in this context though give special emphasis on third world countries.

Terrorism ruins peaceful environment of a country while some countries spend their economic gain for fighting against this adverse social issue. Based on the report of World Economic Forum 2018, third world countries or developing and underdeveloped countries have experienced stagnation during long-term in the context of growth and development (Agusiobo 2018). Citizens in those countries cannot access their minimum requirement. Instead of huge resource endowment, many countries remain unable to achieve higher level of socio economic development over the years (Coccia 2018). Thus, it can be said that terrorism acts as a significant hindrance for paralysing a community’s social development and economic growth. Consequently, terrorism has become a serious issue for developing countries instead of developed ones.

To conduct the research work, the study has considered some research hypothesis, which are null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis. The null hypothesis (H0) states that terrorism does not adversely affect third world countries’ economic growth and development. On the contrary, alternative hypothesis (H1) states that terrorism adversely affects economic growth and development of third world country. Hence, the hypothesis of this study considers most of the third world countries along with their terrorism history.

Research methodology and objectives

The entire study divides into six chief chapters, which are, introduction, literature review, research methodology, results, discussion and conclusion along with recommendation. Introduction chapter provides brief discussion about the research topic through providing research aims and objectives. Based on these, the study has developed some research questions focusing on the impact of terrorism on socio-economic development of countries all over the world. In this context, the research set some hypothesis depending on this issue taking special emphasis on third world countries. In chapter two, literature review will focus on some related discussion provided by other researchers that states about various affects of terrorism in the economy of both developed and developing countries. After that, chapter three will consider research methodology considering research approach, research design, data collection method and sampling method. Moreover, this chapter will also discuss about limitations of the entire study. In the following chapter, the study will receive outcomes through descriptive study. In chapter five, the study will discuss about entire outcomes briefly. At last, in chapter six, the study will provide conclusion along with recommendations.

There is no doubt that terrorism is being considered as one of the most troubling and negatively impactful problem all over the world. The action of certain organisations or individuals which has a particular aim to achieve something (though it may be completely unfair and unethical) by the way of terror and violence is being considered as terrorism (Estrada et al. 2015). For every terrorist organisation, there are two kinds of views that can be observed among the people. Some call these activities utter terrorism, other calls is a movement towards freedom. There is no doubt that many freedom movement throughout the world has been adopted the way of terrorism, but nowadays, most of the terrorist organisations are being driven by wrong principles and this led towards nothing but massive destruction. As a result, civilians are worst sufferers along with the government of the country (Hyderet al. 2015). The main purpose of the terrorist organisations is to develop fear in the minds of the people so that these can pressurise the government to fulfil their demand. Thus, the terrorist activities has left a grieve impact over the global socio economic development.This section of the research will be concentrated to showcase the major impact of terrorism over the socio economic parameters. These factors are health service, education, economical growth, and the probable counter terrorism methods.

As it is stated above, every terrorist activity left a negatively impactful effect upon the affected people and each philanthropist all over the world. The losses which are incurred by the terrorist activities are huge, by taking into consideration the loss of life and properties. In every case, government and the common people is the worst sufferer (Khan and Estrada 2016). Apart from that, the psychological effect left on the mind of the people is also immense and these cause a malfunctioning in the social attire for a long time. Apart from that the terrorist activities can leave a huge impact upon the economy of the country by limiting the financial activities and diverting the foreign investment as these activities required a level of security due to the engagement of a substantial amount of capital. It also affects the defence budget of the government for the counter terrorism preventions and the insurance and security expenditure for the common citizen also increased by this action (Brockhoffet al. 2015).

Literature review on the impact of terrorism on the economy

Though the economical damage can be compensated in a matter of time by the government, the psychological effects of such incidents leave a severe effect upon the mind of the civilians which takes a long time to regenerate and thus hamper the overall development. Terrorist activities bring trauma and fear and it can take a long time for the civilians to go back to normal lifestyle which certainly affects the social and economical activities. The terrorist attack can be considered as the most disturbing disasters as these attacks are being caused intentionally (Rose 2015). The impact of the terrorist activities and the longevity of this impact upon the mind of the people depend upon the scale and the incurred loss of both lives and property due to such incidents.

First of all, the most severe impact of terrorism over the social structure of a terrorism affected area is the hamper in studies of the children of the area. One of the main reasons for this is the trauma of the previous attack and the fear of the repetition of such disaster. The parents feel insecure to send their children to school to continue their study again and think it safe to keep them at home. Apart from this, another reason for this problem is completely economical (Drakos and Kallandranis 2015). Though the government in every region tries to compensate for the loss which is incurred by the people, the recovery of the exact loss amount cannot be provided by the government. Thus, even after announcing certain aids for the education of the children’s, the total numbers of drop outs from schools increases after every terrorist attacks. Either the child has to do something to help his or her family economically or the income of the parents decreases drastically so that they cannot bear the expenses anymore to afford good education for their children. Though there are certain aids which is being offered by the government, the uncertainty and fear of the unforeseen future holds the families back from providing a quality education to their children (Shahzadet al. 2016). This effect takes a really long time and depends on the scale of the incident. Apart from these, terrorism destroys the educational infrastructure. In case of the injury or death of the teachers or the destruction of the institutes, the overall educational environment is being destroyed and these leaves a grieve impact upon the socio educational environment of the country.

The second most important effect of terrorism can be observed upon the quality of health service of the sufferers of such attacks. The families who lost their near and dear ones cannot be compensated by any other means (Khan et al. 2016). But the family who has one or multiple members being injured by such attack and is being completely bedridden for a long duration, faces a serious problem. These members could be their primary income persons and after such misfortune, the source of income for the family completely stops. Though the government tries to pay the necessary expenses for the treatment of the survivors, the basic needs of the family cannot be fulfilled. Beside this, the elderly persons who witnessed the death of the younger members of the family often goes in complete state of trauma and that cannot be compensated by any means (Bandyopadhyayet al. 2018). Beside this, due to the subsidiary effects of the terrorist attack, the supply of the health equipments and other things which are needed for the treatment of the patient become inadequate, which leads to another problem. The patients suffer from the lack of medical services and this is another horrible thing which can be happen in the subsequent periods of a terrorist attack. Apart from this, the funds which were being saved for the treatment of the family members are being spent in the treatment of the survivors and this cause an endangered situation for any upcoming medical emergency in the family. In such scenario, the upcoming health benefit which was pre-planned by the family is being destroyed (Baker 2014).

The outcomes of the descriptive study

Due to the terrorist attacks, it is true that many well-wisher of the affected family extend their helping hands both mentally and financially along with the government. But as the tragedy starts to fade out from the mind of the people, this help also starts to decrease. In such scenario, it is possible that the family will not be as financially stable as it was before the occurrence of the misfortune. Thus, the family will not get enough time to recover themselves from such grieve situation. The decline of the socio economic status is undoubtedly one of the major impacts of terrorist attacks over the social development.

One of the major effects which are observed in the areas where terrorist attacks were taken place is the decline of the number of total employed person. Due to the death and the injury of the people, the number of total employed person is being drastically decreased. These persons can even be the only earning member of the family. In such scenario, the financial and economical condition of the family is being decreased (Bilgel and Karahasan 2017). Apart from that, the terrorist attacks in the industrial areas can collapse several industries which can also cause significant changes in the employment ratio of the locality.

Apart from this, the impact of the terrorist activities can also be seen upon the GDP of the country. A survey which took place in 2004 has shown that the overall GDP of 177 terrorism affected countries has dropped by 0.48% in last ten years due to the impact of terrorist attacks (Enders et al. 2016). This impact is more severe upon the developing countries particularly the countries situated in Asia as these countries are the most affected by terrorism.

Apart from this, the impact of terrorist activities can also be seen upon the foreign direct investment of the country. As it is established that the FDI represents the 5% of the GDP growth of the country, it left a huge impact over the economy of the country (Baker 2014). In the survey took place in 2004 reveals that the domestic terrorism can decrease the total FDI amount by $323 million to $512 million, where as the transnational terrorism activity decrease the FDI amount by $296 million to $736 million (Garmendiaet al. 2016). Apart from that, the received foreign aid to the country for the terrorist attack also decreases the amount of FDI in the concurrent period.

Hike in the prices of the daily commodities is another concern for the development of the economy of the country. The government needs to implement certain policies to fight against the terrorist activities which caused a significant hike in the prices of the goods. For this, the people suffer from severe problems due to the declining economy (Dash 2017). There can also be a problem generated from the supply of the goods and due to the increased demand; the prices of the goods are being increased automatically.

Along with this, the effect of terrorist attacks can also be seen upon the international trade. Due to the rises in the cost and prices of the raw materials necessary for the business, the international trade is being hampered and this caused a severe impact over the economy of the country. Apart from that, due to the transnational terrorism, the relationship between two nations is being affected which led to a disagreement regarding the international trade. From the international statistics, two most terror-affected nations (i.e. India and Pakistan) are the developing countries (Fair et al. 2016). Due to the disturbed political condition between these two countries, the international trade between them is affected seriously. Apart from that, the lack of security in the terror prone countries also led to the lack of International trade due to the potential risks involved in it. It is evident from the survey that the increased terrorist attacks in these developing countries have decreased the international trade by 4% in the last decade (Costalliet al. 2017). The production pattern of these countries has also being disrupted by the terrorist attacks and this causes a significant change in the international trading.

Discussion of results

From the above statistics, it can be seen that the top 5 most affected countries by terrorism are the developing countries and these countries holds half of the number of terrorism incidents. In this list, countries like Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Gaza is not included as the problem which is occurring is those countries are less terrorist activities and more war like situations (Enders et al. 2016). There are controversies regarding the activities of these organisations regarding their principle of work. But in any cases, it is the civilians who are the most sufferers in this scenario.

From the discussed subject matter, it can be seen that the negative impact of terrorism over the countries leaves a severe destruction over the socio-economic structure of the country. Apart from this, as the developing countries are most affected by such problems, the economy and social structure of these countries cannot be developed as they were meant to be. In order to fix this issue, the government needs to implement more effective counter terrorism policies in order to fix such issues which can be burdened in the way of development of the countries. The budget for the security and defence of the government will be increased by this decision, but for the greater good of the country, the respective government must imply those policies in order to make a terrorism free world.

To obtain any productive outcome, proper research work is essential. For doing this, proper research methodology is required with relevant framework. The entire methodology will discuss about research philosophy along with research approach, research design and data collection in the following section. Moreover, this chapter will also consider sampling method and ethical consideration that can help this study to proceed further.

Research philosophy discusses about the process through which the entire research work will be conducted. In this study, the concept of interpretivism philosophy has been applied. Interpretivism is an approach related with social science (Packard 2017). A qualitative methodology depends on both human subject and trained researchers for measuring some phenomena through proper observations and interviews. The chief purpose of adopting interpretivism philosophy is to understand the impact of terrorism on countries with the help of proper evidences.

Research approach implies proper plan and procedure consisting with some assumptions that considers the method of data collection, analysis as well as interpretation. For collecting data, the researcher can consider any one of all methods of research, which are interview, observation and document analysis. For this study, document analysis will be considered as the main research method from both print media and electronic data.

Research design is represents a set of methods along with procedures for collecting and analysing variables for the specific research process. Hence, the research design is formed to obtain answers of all research questions. The study collects qualitative research methodology for descriptive design to find proper data related to impact of terrorism. This qualitative data considers five approaches, which are narrative, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography and case study. However, this research work is going to consider case study of previous articles and journals for collecting secondary data on terrorism.

Conclusion and recommendations

The study is based on secondary data collecting from economic research journals, report of national development statistics, publications and newspaper articles. All data will focus on impact of terrorism on third world countries.

To collect data, research study selects some established trading blocs across the world as sample to represent their member countries. Moreover, a non-random sampling technique is used for selecting specific countries as sample from each trading bloc for receiving research data in a complete format (Carlisle and Loadsman 2017). In this context, the data analysis will consider the synthesis of qualitative data in the form of descriptive report for disclosing important information related to the research topic.

Ethical considerations in research are a crucial part. Ethics set some norms or standards based on which the study can distinguish between right and wrong related to any issue of the entire research work. Hence, ethics in business considers between acceptable and unacceptable behaviours. This study also considers some ethical norms related with research. The entire data related with terrorism on some countries of trading blocs are collected from authentic and reliable sources. Moreover, outcomes collected from descriptive analysis will be unbiased and will focus on the true purpose of the entire research.

The entire research study has some substantial limitation that can further restrict the researcher to draw successful conclusion for the entire work. The first limitation describes about the insufficient data related with vital information, as adequate qualitative data may be missing. This limitation can be reduced through using various data from different sources. The other limitation considers the time constraint for collecting and gathering information form secondary data sources. The limitation can be overcome through grouping and classifying the sources into different identical categories.

After the entire discussion, a summary can be drawn on this chapter. The study considers interpretivism philosophy. After that, research approach selects document analysis for collecting information from both printing and digital resources. Research design is based on case study. In the next section, the study mentions that about the process of data collection through adopting non-random sampling technique. Furthermore, some ethical issues related to data collection and output have been considered as well.

This chapter is the most vital part of the entire study, as it will conduct descriptive study related to impact of terrorism. For doing so, the report will consider some specific countries related to different trading blocs. After that, the study will focus on journals, newspaper articles and other research papers for collecting relevant data.

In modern world, terrorism becomes an important issue for both developed and developing countries. However, the study has chiefly focused on some selected third world countries on which this phenomenon has affected significantly. Thus, the study selects Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan as the sample countries. Kenya is a member of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) (Eiselen 2018). In addition to this, Nigeria is the member of World Trade organisation (WTO). Pakistan has free trade agreement with other countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) (Ahmed, Rehman and Ozturk 2017).

Kenya:

The following diagram has represented terrorism index in Kenya since 2008. This index measures the impact of both direct as well as negative impact of terrorism for which the economy experiences lives injuries, lost, psychological after-effects and property damages. Since 2009, this index has started to increase since 2009 until 2014 (Data.worldbank.org 2018). In 2015, it is decreased to 6.58 while in the next year it is decreased further.

Figure 1: Terrorism Index in Kenya