RAND Terrorism Chronology Database

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The RAND Terrorism Chronology Database is a database of international terrorist incidents that occurred between 1968 and 1997.

The database was developed after the US Department of State and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) approached the RAND Corporation and asked its researchers to examine trends in international terrorism. [1] The database was developed by Brian Jenkins in 1972 originally on 3” x 5” cards. [2] Jenkins left the RAND Corporation to become a managing partner at Kroll Associates, and the datebase was taken over by Bruce Hoffman. Hoffman took over the database, assumed directorship of the program, and expanded it to include domestic as well as international terrorism.[3] For a brief time the Chronology was jointly held by RAND and the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, but this ended in 1997, and the database lay dormant until 2001. That year RAND recieved funding from the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism and developed the Terrorism Incident Database, which documented terrorism incidents from 1998 onwards. That new database in turn formed part of the now discontinued Terrorism Knowledge Base.[4]

Notes

  1. Laura Dugan, Gary LaFree, Kim Cragin, Anna Kasupski, 'Building and Analyzing a Comprehensive Open Source Data Base on Global Terrorist Events (PDF)' (National Institute of Justice/NCJRS, March 2008 p.11
  2. Brian K. Houghton, 'Terrorism Knowledge Base: A Eulogy (2004-2008)', Perspectives on Terrorism Volume II, Issue 7
  3. RAND Corporation News Release, 'BRUCE HOFFMAN TO HEAD RAND’S WASHINGTON OFFICE. LEADING TERRORISM EXPERT RETURNS AS THINK TANK BEEFS UP PROGRAM. ALSO BACK AT RAND: BRIAN JENKINS', 31 August 1998
  4. RAND Website, The RAND Worldwide Terrorism Incident Knowledge Database Project, (accessed 22 March 2008)