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LeveragedBuyout ,
Poverty bears indirectly on terrorism by sparking conflict and eroding state capacity, both of which create conditions that can facilitate terrorist activity. Conflict zones not only cost lives, but
they can incubate virtually every type of transnational security threat by creating the optimal anarchic environment for external predators. While low per-capita income increases the likelihood of civil conflict, conflict zones in turn have been exploited by terrorists to lure foot soldiers and train new cadres-as in Bosnia, the Philippines and Central Asia.
In extreme cases, conflict results in state failure, as happened in Somalia and Afghanistan.
When states collapse, the climate for predatory transnational actors is improved exponentially. Economic privation is an important indicator of state failure. The CIA's State Failure Task Force found that states in which human suffering is rampant (as measured by high infant mortality) are 2.3 times more likely to fail than others.
State failure is also substantially correlated with uneven distribution of income within societies, as well as a lack of openness to trade. While poor economic conditions are not the only major risk factor for state weakness and failure, they are widely understood to be an important contributor, along with partial democratization, corrupt governance, regional instability and ethnic tension.
Reference: Rice, Susan. (2006). The Threat of Global Poverty. Retrieved from:
http://www.relooney.info/0_New_569.pdf