Perspectives on Terrorism, Culture, and Globalization: A Comprehensive Review of the Contemporary Scholarship

There have been continuous debates on the influence of globalization and cultural interactions on the origins and spread of terrorism, Hence, there are numerous attempts to analyze the underlying causal mechanism between these concepts. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the already established body of knowledge, the paper provides a detailed review of the contemporary scholarship on such diverse concepts as “globalization,” “culture,” and “terrorism.” The goal is to systemize the existing approaches used by researchers to analyze the interconnectedness of globalization, culture, and terrorism and present a holistic picture of the current state-of-the-art (which could be used to identify potentials for future research). Relying on the data available from the Scopus abstract and citation database, the paper covers the period from 1998 to 2019. First of all, the paper analyzed a number of quantitative indicators, such as an overall number of papers published, their document types, the leading countries in terms of the scholarly output, and the biggest subject areas. Second, the authors select a total of 40 research papers from the database and conduct a detailed review, the purpose of which is to present a holistic view on the key perspectives developed to analyze such concepts as “globalization,” “culture,” and “terrorism.” The review clearly demonstrates that one could identify the total of five distinct perspectives in the contemporary scholarship: (1) “Postcolonialism,” (2) “Religion and Identity Studies,” (3) “Social Science Approaches,” (4) “Education and Culture,” and (5) “Popular Culture and Mass Media.” The paper provides a summary of each approach, with a detailed account of the relevant papers. Thus, the review presents unique insights into how the current body of knowledge on the concepts “globalization,” “culture,” and “terrorism” is organized, highlighting the critical and well-established research avenues (at least how they are reflected in one of the leading abstract and citation database).


Introduction
The growing interest in globalization, culture, and terrorism has resulted in numerous scholarly publications on the causal mechanisms existing between these research concepts. Many researchers note that one of the distinct features of contemporary terrorism is that it operates on a global scale (Gobozov, 2015;Makogon, 2012). Some researchers argue that terrorism not only highly benefits from the ongoing globalization (global development of information systems, liberalization of the border regime, simplification of the cross-border movement of funds), but it also is caused by global inequalities and violent policies of major powers pursuing their political, economic, and military interests in various regions of the world (Rozanov, 2012;Batanina & Ogneva, 2012). In turn, other scholars mainly focus on the cultural origins of terrorism, emphasizing the inevitable Huntington's "clash" of civilizations (Popov, 2009;Kryaklina, 2017). Therefore, given the interdisciplinary nature of the published research, it would be a great benefit to the scholarly community to systemize the already accumulated body of research in order to understand the current state of knowledge, identify gaps in the literature, and propose new research questions. Unfortunately, there is no single paper that would address such an important research task.
Thus, this paper aims to take a survey of the contemporary scholarship to present a holistic view of the key perspectives developed to analyze globalization, culture, and terrorism. It total, we focus on a total of 40 papers collected via searching the Scopus database. First, we present a quantitative "snapshot" of the existing scholarship, relying on the metrics available in the database. Second, we describe the five key perspectives developed in the analyzed literature: (a) "Postcolonialism," (b) "Religion and Identity Studies," (c) "Social Science Approaches," (d) "Education and Culture," and (e) "Popular Culture and Mass Media." Third, each perspective is reviewed and discussed by us.
Consequently, the paper provides a holistic view of the contemporary scholarship. We limit the research presented in this paper to the review of the existing approaches. We will discuss the gaps in the literature and provide a future research agenda in the next paper.

Materials and Methods
We searched the literature of our interest in the Scopus database, using the following combination of keywords: TITLE-ABS-KEY ("terrorism" AND "culture" AND "globalization"). A total of 79 documents from the database have been reviewed by us. Since our interest lays in the research literature, we limit our analysis to those documents identified as a group of "research articles" by the database. Therefore, such documents as books, book chapters, conference papers, reviews, and editorials are not considered. Then, we reviewed each research article and identified the aforementioned five key approaches developed in the literature. All the data are available in the Appendix after the section with references.

Results and Discussion
First of all, we would like to provide a general "snapshot" of the contemporary scholarship indexed in the Scopus database since 1998. In total, there are 79 documents in this database, with the growing number of scholarly output in 2004 (Fig. 1). The maximum number of papers published is observed in 2009 (9) and 2010 (8), with an average number of 4.2 papers indexed each year in Scopus in 2011-2019.
As we demonstrate in Fig. 2, the countries produced the maximum number of documents (according to authors' affiliations) are the United States (27), the United Kingdom (7), Australia (6), Canada (4), India (4), and Japan (3). With respect to document type, there are research articles (50.6%), books (17.7%), book chapters (17.7%), conference papers (7.6%), reviews (5.1%), and editorials (1.3%) (Fig. 3). Not surprisingly, the vast majority of papers fall within such subject areas as "Social Sciences" (52.7%) and "Arts and Humanities" (20%) (Fig. 4).    Our review of the 40 research articles allows to attribute each paper to one of five perspectives: (a) "Postcolonialism," (b) "Religion and Identity Studies," (c) "Social Science Approaches," (d) "Education and Culture," and (e) "Popular Culture and Mass Media." Table 1 provides a concise description of all perspectives (with references to the papers under consideration). Then, we provide a detailed review of each perspective, which eventually allows understanding the current state of the scholarship on globalization, culture, and terrorism.  (Dalby, 2008) (El Habbouch, 2018) (Stadtler, 2009) The approach seeks to explore structural foundations between colonialism and globalization. Culture and religion are viewed as post-colonial critical categories.
The focus is on how to consider "terrorism" as a "knowledge formation" within a broader context of globalization. Terrorism is viewed via "discursive practices" of the contemporary global narratives of conflict. Also, terrorism movements are considered as a reaction to political, economic, and cultural practices imposed by the postcolonial state. In turn, the impact of terrorism on politics and cultures is also analyzed through the paradigms of domination and resistance. Within the framework of critical geopolitics, such concepts as "imperialism," "domination," and "culture" are analyzed (with respect to the global war of terror and the U.S. invasion of Iraq).  (Streeten, 1998) is on sociopolitical injustices triggered by globalization. The papers provide critical insights into migration and national security. The researchers argue that globalization has caused large migration flows, posing a threat to national security. Some researchers emphasize that there is a link between migration-embeded cultures and economic and social prosperity. Illegal migration is considered a source for organized crime, terrorism, and the spread of radical ideas.
More than that, socio-economic and political sources of terrorism are identified, including those caused and/or accelerated by the ongoing processes of globalization. Long-term solutions to combat terrorism are proposed, which are based on social and economic theories and methodological frameworks. Another focus is the management of cultural diversity in the era of super-diversity and globalization. Some papers also evaluate long-terms social, economic, and cultural effects of globalization among the developing and least developed countries. The enormous influences of globalization on education are reviewed, including with respect to the rise of extremist and terrorist sentiments. The researchers argue that globalization has facilitated the penetration of educational modes into other societies, provoking the rise of fear among highly conservative communities (and eventually resulting in a culture of fear). Lack of education and presence of fundamental religion contribute to the rise of extremist sentiments. Educational exchanges could facilitate globalization and align the relationship between the Western and Arab countries in the aftermath of 9/11. The popular culture has been both affected by globalization and the spread of terrorism and extremism. At the same time, these papers analyze how world politics are affected by discourses and narratives developed by popular culture. There are both world and local perspectives presented on these issues, with numerous cases (including Bollywood/Hollywood and sports events).

Postcolonialism
The first group of research is devoted to colonial and postcolonial studies, which all together form a unique perspective on globalization, culture, and terrorism. This literature drives on an interdisciplinary line of research consisting of an analysis of the cultural heritage of colonialism. In particular, the authors explore the link between postcolonial studies, globalization, world-literature, and terrorism.
According to El Habbouch (2018), social, political, cultural, and economic outcomes of globalization have had a great influence on the whole field of postcolonial studies, forcing researchers to rethink those dynamics shaping the future of human history. The author considers the concept of "terrorism" through the lenses of cultural and political decolonization of the West. He explains globalization as a process within a broader shift from the colonial to postcolonial order. The author relies on such critical categories as "history, geography, culture, nation, identity, race, gender, class, and religion" (El Habbouch, 2018, p. 3).
This perspective also emphasizes the necessity to trace those ideological practices and cultural assumptions that continue to form directions of neo-colonial globalization. El Habbouch (2018) explores "the structural link between colonialism and globalization" (p. 3). The author argues that the Global War on Terror after the acts of terror on September 11 provoked such discursive practices, according to which terrorism "constitutes the main episteme of contemporary global narratives of conflict" (El Habbouch, 2018, p. 19).
Another prominent researcher critically analyzes the "globalization-culture-terrorism" nexus in postcolonial writing. Employing discourse analysis, Stadtler (2009) reviews the novel "Shalimar the Clown" as an example of how terrorism, neo-imperialism, and post-war foreign policies actually are debated in the contemporary postcolonial literature through the paradigms of domination and resistance.
More than that, there is also attention to the study of "hegemony" and "dominance" existing in the field of critical geopolitics, according to (Dalby, 2008). Insights from the theories of postcolonialism are also used by Dalby (2008) to explain foreign policies of great powers with respect to peripheral territories where there are threats to the stability of political arrangements. And one of such major threats is considered to be terrorism, the war against which has reached a global scale.

Religion and Identity Studies
Another set of perspectives on globalization, culture, and terrorism has been developed within the scholarly research falling within a broad field of Religion and Identity Studies. The first group of papers focuses on those people (and even countries!) who have been left behind and could not benefit from uneven globalization. Globalization is viewed as a "fractured" process, taking place in only some parts of the world and accelerating economic and social wealth highly selectively. And those not benefiting from globalization are also largely influenced by their customs, beliefs, values, traditions, and cultural traits, which all together contribute to the rise of social resistance movements and religious fundamentalism. Reuter (2009) explores the rise of local and religious identities leading to numerous conflicts worldwide and locally. The main focus of the paper is on social movements for political and economic autonomy, looking into shifting the nation's identities in a more globalized world. Focusing on Indonesia, the author also analyzes key religious movements in the country and reviews a set of factors contributing to their growth, such as political liberalization, decentralization, local relativism, increasing dependence on the global economy, the persisting threat of terrorism, and the influx of Muslim migrants. The author argues that revitalization movements, blaming the "globalists" for the perceived declining morality, collapsing community structures, and hard economic transformations, have been flourishing in Indonesia.
Calling on the need to rethink the current approaches to cultural diversity, Moghaddam (2009) reflects on the rising Christian, Jewish, and Muslim fundamentalism (particularly expressed in extremism and terrorism) from the perceptive of "fractured globalization." The common features of religious fundamentalism are the following: closed-mindedness, intolerance of ambiguity, and dogmatic rejection of alternative world views. The author identifies the following characteristics of "fractured globalization": identity threats; local identities, global economies; rising expectations; macro-micro change disparities; global radical networks; virtual collective movements; widening wealth gap. Moghaddam (2009) states, "Fractured globalization is associated with new tensions, contradictions, and identity threats that go well beyond national boundaries" (p. 341). Consequently, religious fundamentalism is in part a response to these global trends and particularly perceived threats to collective identity against the onslaught of western secularism.
Other researchers explore the causes of the problem of terrorism as a global phenomenon, focusing on social conceptions of reality revealed through peoples' beliefs, traditions, and cultural traits. For instance, Offor (2008) argues that globalization, resulting in the universalization of Western cultural values, is "a major source of all the conflicts currently plugging our world" (p. 159). The author advocates for cultural pluralism and proposes to make a greater emphasis on understanding, appreciating, and respective traditions and values of distinct societies in global affairs in order to avoid acts of terror.
From the perspectives of human psychology and psychological needs, Salzman (2008) explores the relationship between globalization and religious fundamentalism. The author argues that globalization threatens "traditional sources of meaning and value" (p. 362) and creates injustice, inequality, and corruption on a global scale. Thus, it becomes a source of human frustration and anxiety. Fundamentalism is viewed as an "anxiety-driven response" to significant disbalances in human and intergroup relations. According to Salzman (2008), "Religious fundamentalism, as an alternative ideology, may be seen as an anxiety-driven response to find meaning and a sense of selfvalue in a worldview that offers people clear and accessible standards of value that if achieved provide an anxiety-buffer against the terror inherent in human existence" (p. 362).
There are attempts made by some researchers to explore globalization and terrorism from positions of well-developed theories in the domain of Political Science and Cultural Studies. The paper on cultural coexistence and "religion wars" written by Lindgren Alves (2010) is a great example. Reflecting on the global "war on terror," the author analyzes whether contemporary religion wars actually confirm the well-known Huntington's theory "the clash of civilizations." In his perspective, there are no significant signs of civilizational "clashes," but we rather see clashes between separate religious groups. The author speaks in favor of "multiculturalism," including its conceptual foundations in the U.S. foreign policy.
Lastly, there are numerous papers discussing policies and research-based interventions made as a result of psychological, cultural, and identity-based analysis. For instance, Suciati & Erzad (2018) reviews ways of preventing radicalism by maintaining local cultures. Baker (2007) focuses on cultural safety of Muslim communities in Canada after 9/11, who experienced a transition to the zone of cultural risk. And Moghaddam (2012) proposes to rely on psychological science for reorganization of human societies. In addition, the focus on international relations is made and wider implications are discussed by Rees & Aldrich (2005), Von Busekist (2004), and Rothacher (2008).

Social Science Approaches
There are various approaches developed within the broader domain of Social Sciences to analyze globalization and terrorism as social phenomena. Broadly speaking, the papers belonging to this approach (a) analyze social foundations of the ongoing globalization, (b) critically review numerous security aspects of globalization and terrorism (including those connected to illegal migration), and (c) discuss various global policy interventions to combat terrorism and extremism. Analyzing threats and opportunities of globalization, Streeten (1998) argues that globalization is not the same as international integration. The social phenomenon becomes globalized, they are not simply attributed to one or a small group of national states. Therefore, global governance issues are of particular importance, since global society is simply ungoverned. This approach also implies that it is highly difficult to deal with terrorism and extremism for the global community since both of them become more global in their nature as well.
Other prominent researchers devote their attention to socio-economic sources of terrorism in the context of globalization. Akylbayeva et al. (2014) identify the following sources: territorial resources, demographic and migration processes, the marginalization of the population and social tensions, a crisis of ideology and spiritual values. Kohara (2005) argues that the age of globalization and information revolution has created the phenomenon of "information power." The influence of non-state actors, including international terrorist groups, is enhanced by the use of information power. The worldwide terrorist groups connected by global networks and ideologies are considered as negative aspects of globalization are.
A distinctive and worth attention perspective is discussed by Shiva (2004). The researcher opposes globalization and directly links it to the direct sources of xenophobia and terrorism. The author states that "globalization" and "terrorism" are interconnected at multiple levels, because they have an impact on each other and create vicious cycles. Shiva (2004) states that globalization is actually a form of terrorism, because globalization implies applying coercive mechanisms and threats of violence with respect to the poor and the least developed countries in order to "coerce them to give up what little they have and transform it into the property and markets of global corporations" (p. 5). Consequently, globalization is the source of social, economic, and cultural insecurity and exclusion, giving rise to terrorism.
Building on the argument that globalization creates further economic and cultural interdependence, Mharapara, Bangidza, and Gwekwerere (2014) study asymmetric warfare with respect to terrorist groups, who do not access to high technology. More than that, these authors argue that "religion and culture are no longer only important ingredients of civilization, but potential causes of division and isolation" (Mharapara, Bangidza, & Gwekwerere, 2014, p. 97).
Many researchers argue that illegal migration is a threat to national security. Gryshova, Kofman, and Petrenko (2019) state that migration culture is closely linked to the ongoing processes of globalization. The authors discuss that migration can cause such security threats as organized crime, terrorism, and the spread of radical ideas. Therefore, it is highly necessary to consider migration threats as inevitable parts of national security policy. The key focus, according to the authors, is to understand social and cultural drivers of terrorism (mainly in the context of the globalized world) and provide a coherent understanding of how to address the challenge of terrorism in different societies, both locally and on a global scale. Taking into account the unprecedented level of integration between different countries of the world, some papers focus on policies and practices to tackle organized crime and terrorism. For instance, Kowalick, Connery, and Sarre (2018) address the issue of intelligence-sharing in the globalized world. Long-term solutions to combat terrorism are analyzed by Sirgy, Estes, and Rahtz (2018). They develop a quality-of-life model identify the drivers for Jihadist terrorism, identifying such factors as economic (income disparities, poverty, unemployment, low technological innovation), political (authoritarian ruling, exclusionary regimes), religious (increased religiosity, lack of secularism), and cultural (perceived decadence of Western culture, Western prejudice, and discrimination). Harris (2010) focuses on the factors constituting good social cohesion and how to apply this concept to build more inclusive societies as a means of preventing civil unrest, violence, and terrorism in the youth. This is considered in the context of super-diversity, globalization, and individualization.

Education and Culture
More than that, there is a perspective in the analyzed literature according to which globalization has promoted the penetration of educational modes into other countries and societies, becoming a tool for social change and cultural evolution. Thus, one of many consequences prescribed to the globalization of education has resulted in the spread of "Western" cultural values into conservative cultures and communities. And this trend, according to (Baytiyeh, 2018), has been perceived by highly conservative and extremist groups as a "Westernization scheme" used to threaten traditional values and corrupt "traditional" societies.
Globalization has had an enormous impact on the global scale, as Mataré (2009) argues, leading to overpopulation and increasing migration and causing clashes between cultures. More than that, in those societies, experience an increased level of extremism and terrorism where there are both the lack of education and the strong presence of religion. In the context of cultural globalization, another research by Denman & Hilal (2011) focuses on the existing disparities between the United States of America and a group of Arab countries, arguing that educational exchange programs could become bridges between the Western and Arab countries in the aftermath of 9/11.

Popular Culture and Mass Media
One more distinctive perspective focuses on the influence of popular culture and global mass media on the image of particular terrorists and terrorism as a cultural phenomenon in general. First of all, such papers provide theoretical insights into the causal mechanism between popular culture and terrorism in a broader context of globalization. For instance, Aistrope (2019) argues that our understanding of world politics is influenced by popular culture, which has an enormous power to produce and sustain discourses on geopolitics, terrorism, migration, and globalization. Thus, the paper provides a framework that binds together bodies, discourses, and social practices. Sports events are used as an example. Artz (2017) considers globalization as a result of neoliberal policies and the political economy of transitional capital, leading to inequality and causing social movement resistance in various nations. Also, the paper analyzes the "subsequent commercial media framing of resistance as terrorism as a means to promote consent for coercion against rebellious groups" (Artz, 2017, p. 106).
A set of papers provide insights into country-specific cases, reviewing the influence of the global cinema and television on the representation of certain religions, illegal immigrants, and terrorist organizations. Khatun (2019) focuses on the cinema as a very powerful tool for disseminating the ideas of "neo-nationalism." In particular, the author examines the representation of Muslims in Bollywood films, which are negatively depicted both in India and Hollywood as well. In particular, the author notes that "the manner in which Muslims are portrayed in Bollywood films may be divided into three broad segments: representation of terrorists, the portrayal of patriotic Muslims, and the foot soldiers carrying on love jihad" (Khatun, 2019, p. 2). In turn, the Hollywood imaginary of extremism, terrorism, and violence since the 60s of the 20th century is analyzed by Boggs and Pollard (2006).
A very interesting point of view is presented by Saunders (2012). The author argues that the obsession with zombie expressed in the Western mass culture is actually "a reflection of the dangers of invasive alterity associated with uncontrolled spaces in a globalized world" (p. 80). A "zombie turn" occurred after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as "as zombies have become phantasmal stand-ins for Islamist terrorists, illegal immigrants, carriers of foreign contagions, and other 'dangerous' border crossers" (p. 81).
The other two papers (a) discuss the emergence of the global television in the 80s of the 20th century (Dyreson, 2015) and (b) provide a very informative perspective from Malaysian scholars on the TV content and globalization (Idrus, Hashim, & Raihanah, 2016). Relying on qualitative research methods, the authors demonstrate that their TV viewer is concerned with the Westernimposed globalization but demonstrate "cultural hybridity." The influence of TV fiction is enormous, according to Idrus, Hashim, & Raihanah (2016), with respect to its influence on how these people create their understanding of violence, terrorism, war, and conflict.

Conclusion
The comprehensive review of the scholarly literature presented in this paper allows to identify the following five key perspectives on globalization, culture, and terrorism: "Postcolonialism," (b) "Religion and Identity Studies," (c) "Social Science Approaches," (d) "Education and Culture," and (e) "Popular Culture and Mass Media." Despite being highly interconnected because of analyzing the same phenomena, these perspectives are unique in the focus and research insights. The postcolonial perspective seeks to explore structural foundations between colonialism and globalization, considering terrorism via "discursive practices" of the contemporary global narratives of conflict.
Looking at globalization as an uneven and "fractured" process, the perspective developed within Religion and Identity Studies allows to analyze how those not benefiting from globalization are influenced by their customs, beliefs, values, traditions, and cultural traits, which all together contribute to the rise of social resistance movements and religious fundamentalism. In turn, Social Science perspectives are focused on sociopolitical injustices triggered by globalization and used as a justification by various extremist and terrorist groups.
A particular emphasis is given to the issued of migration and national security. Another perspective is formed by the research on how the impact of globalization on education, with respect to the rise of extremist and terrorist sentiments. Lastly, unique insights are provided by the research on popular culture and mass media, clearly demonstrating how popular culture has been affected by globalization and the spread of terrorism and extremism.