Aberdeen Terrorism Research Unit

The Terrorism Research Unit was established by Paul Wilkinson in 1980s within the department of Politics and International Relations at the Aberdeen University. The 'unit' consisted of Wilkinson and a team of students who began developing a computer database of terrorist incidents, profiles of terrorist groups and laws and anti-terrorist measures taken by governments. This project - described as being 'unique in size in Western Europe' - was coordinated with the RAND Corporation and the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies (where Ariel Merari was working on a similar project). It almost certainly led to the RAND-St Andrews database developed by Wilkinson and Bruce Hoffman in the 1990s at the University of St. Andrews.