Terrorism can be seen as strategic actions in which violence or threat of violence is used to create fear, gain attention for a cause, or coerce another party to give in to certain demands. 

The aim is to achieve effects on others beside the direct victims or targets of the violence. At NUPI, research on terrorism has concentrated especially on the European rim from North Africa to the Caucasus region, and our main instrument for this research is the research programme the Consortium for Research on Terrorism and International Crime.