BOSTON, March 29 (UPI) -- Although many believe terrorism is linked to poverty, political freedom and geographic factors contribute significantly to terrorism, U.S. researchers say.
Alberto Abadie of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government said there is no significant relationship between a country's wealth and level of terrorism once other factors, like the country's level of political freedom, are taken into account.
The researchers reviewed the World Market Research Centre's Global Terrorism Index and found no clear correlation between terrorism and poverty.
Abadie found more than 1,700 terrorist acts occurring in 2003, as reported by the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, were domestic incidents -- in which both the terrorists and their victims lived in the same country. The study found 240 international terrorist acts that same year.
"Nations with very high or very low levels of political freedom tend to experience little terrorism," Abadie said in a statement.
North Korea is an authoritarian country with a low level of terrorism and the repressive tactics used to eliminate political dissent may help keep terrorism at bay, Abadie speculates.
