Economy
The Uneven Geography of Terrorism
Despite fear and anxiety in the advanced cities of the West, terrorism remains highly concentrated in a small number of conflict-ridden nations.
The terrorist attacks in Paris this month sent shock waves through the advanced world. Anxieties rose not just in New York and London but also in cities like Brussels and Stockholm, where security alerts rose to their highest levels.
Amidst all this understandable worry, it’s important to remember that the reality of violent terrorist acts is that they are overwhelmingly concentrated in a handful of poor, troubled nations. Terrorism is just far less common in cosmopolitan Western cities.