With the carnage in Brussels and San Bernardino still fresh, the threat of terrorism is palpable. UC Santa Barbara hosted the inaugural conference of a long-term, multidisciplinary project to study global terrorism in December 2015. This remarkable gathering of some of the country’s leading experts on terrorism approach the subject from diverse perspectives but they were generally in agreement that that government leaders and the public should be wary of overreacting to terrorist acts in ways that strengthen terrorism.

The conference was organized by the UCSB-based Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies and TRENDS Research & Advisory, a think tank based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The eight programs debate and discuss how terrorism and acts of terrorism are understood and explained. By investigating how understandings of terrorism are constructed the conference organizers hope to contribute to the development of more effective strategies for countering the extremist ideas that lead to the acts labeled as terrorism.

Get a thoughtful and in-depth look at terrorism and how we understand and explain it.

Watch Constructions of Terrorism presented by the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies.