IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/4736.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Public Safety and the Moral Dilemma in the Defense Against Terror

Author

Listed:
  • Hillman, Arye L.
  • Krausz, Miriam
  • Franck, Raphaël

Abstract

The economic theory of defense has traditionally described public safety as achieved through investments that deter adversaries. Deterrence is however ineffective, and preemptive defense is required, when a population of intended victims confronts supreme-value suicide terror. A moral dilemma then arises, since preemption may impose collective punishment, while, in the absence of preemption, the population of intended victims is exposed to acts of terror. We consider how a population of intended terror victims confronts the moral dilemma, and compare the threatened population?s response with the public-safety recommendations of external judges who are not personally affected by the threat of terror.

Suggested Citation

  • Hillman, Arye L. & Krausz, Miriam & Franck, Raphaël, 2004. "Public Safety and the Moral Dilemma in the Defense Against Terror," CEPR Discussion Papers 4736, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:4736
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP4736
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arye L. Hillman, 2004. "Nietzschean Development Failures," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 119(3_4), pages 263-280, June.
    2. B. Peter Rosendorff & Todd Sandler, 2004. "Too Much of a Good Thing?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 48(5), pages 657-671, October.
    3. Steven Plaut, 2004. "Misplaced Applications of Economic Theory to the Middle East," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 118(1_2), pages 11-24, January.
    4. Ben-Yashar, Ruth & Nitzan, Shmuel, 2001. "Investment Criteria in Single and Multi-member Economic Organizations," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 109(1-2), pages 1-13, October.
    5. Durham, Yvonne & Hirshleifer, Jack & Smith, Vernon L., 2008. "The Paradox of Power," Handbook of Experimental Economics Results, in: Charles R. Plott & Vernon L. Smith (ed.), Handbook of Experimental Economics Results, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 16, pages 127-137, Elsevier.
    6. Tyler Cowen, 2004. "A Road Map to Middle Eastern peace? -- A Public Choice Perspective," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 118(1_2), pages 1-10, January.
    7. Bernholz, Peter, 2004. "Supreme values as the basis for terror," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 317-333, June.
    8. James Yetman, 2004. "Suicidal Terrorism And Discriminatory Screening: An Efficiency-Equity Trade-Off," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 221-230.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jan Schnellenbach, 2006. "Appeasing nihilists? Some economic thoughts on reducing terrorist activity," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 129(3), pages 301-313, December.
    2. Arye Hillman & Niklas Potrafke, 2015. "The UN Goldstone Report and retraction: an empirical investigation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 247-266, June.
    3. Arye L. Hillman, 2018. "Peter Bernholz: Totalitarianism, Terrorism and Supreme Values: History and Theory," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 567-571, September.
    4. Arye Hillman, 2007. "Economic and security consequences of supreme values," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 259-280, June.
    5. Hillman, Arye L., 2010. "Expressive behavior in economics and politics," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 403-418, December.
    6. Hillman, Arye L. & Long, Ngo V., 2018. "Policies and prizes," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 99-109.
    7. Economou Athina & Kollias Christos, 2015. "Terrorism and Political Self-Placement in European Union Countries," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(2), pages 217-238, April.
    8. Arye Hillman, 2011. "Expressive voting and identity: evidence from a case study of a group of U.S. voters," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 249-257, July.
    9. Bozzoli, Carlos & Müller, Cathérine, 2011. "Perceptions and attitudes following a terrorist shock: Evidence from the UK," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(S1), pages 89-106.
    10. Kollias, Christos & Messis, Petros & Mylonidis, Nikolaos & Paleologou, Suzanna-Maria, 2009. "Terrorism and the effectiveness of security spending in Greece: Policy implications of some empirical findings," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 788-802, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hillman, Arye L., 2010. "Expressive behavior in economics and politics," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 403-418, December.
    2. Hojman, David E. & Hiscock, Julia, 2010. "Interpreting suboptimal business outcomes in light of the Coase Theorem: Lessons from Sidmouth International Festival," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 240-249.
    3. Shortland, Anja & Vothknecht, Marc, 2011. "Combating “maritime terrorism” off the coast of Somalia," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(S1), pages 133-151.
    4. Jan Schnellenbach, 2006. "Appeasing nihilists? Some economic thoughts on reducing terrorist activity," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 129(3), pages 301-313, December.
    5. Arye Hillman, 2011. "Expressive voting and identity: evidence from a case study of a group of U.S. voters," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 249-257, July.
    6. Gries, Thomas & Haake, Claus-Jochen, 2016. "An Economic Theory of 'Destabilization War' '- Compromise for Peace versus Conventional, Guerilla, or Terrorist Warfare," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145617, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    7. Thomas Gries & Claus-Jochen Haake, 2016. "An Economic Theory of 'Destabilization War'," Working Papers CIE 95, Paderborn University, CIE Center for International Economics.
    8. Jennings, Colin, 2012. "Rationalising ‘Irrational’ Support for Political Violence," SIRE Discussion Papers 2012-87, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    9. Peter Nannestad, 2021. "Salem with and without witches, and also Geneva and Berlin," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 229-239, March.
    10. Colin Jennings, 2012. "Rationalising ‘'Irrational'' Support for Political Violence," Working Papers 1212, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics.
    11. Levan Elbakidze & Yanhong Jin, 2012. "Victim Countries of Transnational Terrorism: An Empirical Characteristics Analysis," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(12), pages 2152-2165, December.
    12. Arye Hillman, 2007. "Economic and security consequences of supreme values," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 259-280, June.
    13. Todd Sandler, 2005. "Collective versus unilateral responses to terrorism," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 75-93, July.
    14. Arye L. Hillman, 2021. "Harming a favored side: an anomaly with supreme values and good intentions," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 275-285, March.
    15. Charles Rowley & Jennis Taylor, 2006. "The Israel and Palestine land settlement problem, 1948–2005: An analytical history," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 77-90, July.
    16. Maxime Menuet & Petros G. Sekeris, 2021. "Overconfidence and conflict," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(4), pages 1483-1499, October.
    17. Sandler, Todd & Enders, Walter, 2004. "An economic perspective on transnational terrorism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 301-316, June.
    18. Niklas Potrafke, 2016. "Policies against human trafficking: the role of religion and political institutions," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 353-386, November.
    19. Iyigun, Murat, 2006. "Ottoman Conquests and European Ecclesiastical Pluralism," IZA Discussion Papers 1973, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. repec:elg:eechap:15325_21 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Khusrav Gaibulloev & Todd Sandler, 2013. "Determinants of the Demise of Terrorist Organizations," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 79(4), pages 774-792, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Defense economics; Defensive preemption; Counter-terrorism; Terror; International judges; Profiling;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:4736. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.