Devising a Theory of Suicide Terror Mia Bloom Center for Global Security and Democracy, Rutgers University and Department of Political Science, McGill University From Dying to Kill: The Global Phenomenon of Suicide Terror. Columbia University Press, 2004 chapter 4. February 2004 Cite only with author's permission This article explains why suicide bombing has been effective in some conflicts while in others it has been rejected or abandoned. What motivates organizations to employ violence, and how does suicide terrorism inflame or respond to public opinion? By understanding the dynamics of suicide bombing, we are better able to devise strategies to combat it. We can define suicide bombing as violent, politically motivated attacks, carried out in a deliberate state of awareness by a person who blows up himself or herself together with a chosen target. The pre-meditated certain death of the perpetrator is the precondition for the success of the attack, 1 however, suicide bombing in not a uniform phenomenon. 2 Suicide bombing as a practice encompasses attacks of military targets that are immune via ordinary insurgent tactics, the assassination of prominent leaders (who would ordinarily not be accessible by other means), and the attack of large numbers of civilians – mimicking indiscrimination to create generalized fear. It is important to classify which groups employ suicide terror. These may include states or non-state actors 1