Terrorism of Lone Wolves

• Main Author: Elżbieta Posłuszna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centrum Rzeczoznawstwa Budowlanego 2020-06-01
• Series: Safety & Defense
• Subjects: leaderless resistance; lone wolves terrorism; ressentiment; safety
• Online Access: https://sd-magazine.eu/index.php/sd/article/view/69

The aim of the paper is to characterize, mainly from the socio-psychological perspective, the phenomenon that is usually described as the activity of lone wolves. This characteristic supports the expressed in the article thesis that the strength of a lone wolf's motivation, who is defined as a violence-using and ideology stimulated individual, is based not on external (exogenous) impulses, i.e., objective depreciating situations that become a conscious foundation of the declared ideology, but on internal (endogenous) drives – personal complexes and deficiencies, not linked to the declared ideological goals. The papers consists of four sections. In the first one, the notion of lone wolves is explained, which is followed by a brief history of lone wolves activities. Sections two and three present sociological and psychological aspect of the phenomenon respectively. The paper is concluded with a summary where the actual and potential danger of lone wolves is analyzed.