Terrorexpertise:RAND Corporation

The RAND Corporation has been an influential institution in terrorism studies since the 1970s. It says it "remains dedicated to an investigation of the origins, development, and implications of terrorism for policy officials, the private sector, and first responders."

According to RAND's own account it "began exploring this problem in the wake of the murder of Olympic athletes in Munich", although Brian Houghton writes that RAND's terrorism research began two years earlier in 1970. RAND's terrorism work was first developed by its resident counter-insurgency expert Brian Jenkins, who developed theRAND Terrorism Chronology Database.

A 1998 RAND Press Release suggests that RAND's indepth research into terrorism did not start until the early 1980s. The press release boasts that:

Terrorism studies as a scholarly discipline date to the launching of RAND’s own research effort in the early 1980s. In addition to identifying trends in terrorist activity and counter-terrorist strategy, the program has made major contributions in analyzing such problems as hostage situations, possible terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction, constraints on intelligence gathering in a free society, and the threat of attacks on nuclear installations and other sensitive targets.

During the 1980s RAND maintained a Security and Subnational Conflict Group, which in addition to maintaining the terrorism datacase sponsored conferences and seminars, publishes articles and monographs dealing with terrorism and counterinsurgency, and provided experts to those in need. In 1989 Jenkins left RAND and Bruce Hoffman - who had been affiliated with RAND since the early 1980s - assumed directorship of the terrorism programme. Hoffman expanded the terrorism database to include domestic as well as international terrorism. In 1994 Hoffman left the RAND staff to set up the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews. At St. Andrews Hoffman continued to consult for RAND and predictably RAND developed close connections to the new Centre. They collaborated on the terrorism database and to this day share staff and board members.