Urban Terrorism in the Arab World: Introducing a Dataset of Jihadist Attack Plots in Jordan

Abstract

Few regions have been more plagued by terrorism than the Arab world. However, knowledge of the phenomenon’s nature is limited by a lack of attack plot data for most Arab countries. This article contributes to addressing this gap by presenting a dataset of jihadist incidents in Jordan from 1994 until the end of 2018. Based on recent progress in measuring terrorism, the dataset does not only include launched attacks but also foiled and failed attack plots to give a more accurate and comprehensive overview of the threat. It provides answers to fundamental descriptive questions such as how many plots there have been, which jihadist actors have been responsible, and what type of attacks they have attempted to carry out. This work matters because it reveals the main characteristics of the jihadist terrorist threat to the Kingdom. This enables future studies to provide more empirically based explanations of what causes jihadist terrorism in Jordan than previously possible.