Lone wolf terrorism is one of the growing threats of terrorism in the United States that has been troublesome for policymakers and intelligence agencies. Their isolated and withdrawn nature makes it challenging to gather information about lone wolves that would prevent their malicious intentions. In 2016, the world experienced some of the most high-profile lone wolf terrorist attacks in rapid succession, including assaults in Orlando Florida, Nice France as well as another attack in Germany ( Phillips, 2017). There was a total of 13 lone wolf attacks committed in this year where the perpetrators lacked attack methods and drew motivation from the terrorist organizations. The wave of lone wolf terrorism was happening everywhere as the dynamics of terrorism seemed to be changing. This paper unpacks and examines the lone wolf terrorist attack and the motivations behind these attacks. Understanding the dynamics of lone wolf terrorism can be crucial in designing policies to respond to the threat.
Terrorism has been changing in recent years after increased measures of combating terrorism such a strict security measures, anti-terror campaigns and technological advancements which impedes large-scale terrorist attacks. After the 9/11 attack, the US government directed a vast amount of resources targeting jihadist terrorists as anti-terrorism measures. The enactment of the Patriot Act in 2011 was one of the reforms to combat terrorism by expanding powers to law enforcement agencies while strengthening the ability of border patrol ( Phillips, 2017) . This reduced numbers of large-group terrorist attacks with defined chains of command, which are becoming rare due to increased border patrol.
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However, the success of America’s military answer to the September 11th attacks created a new environment for lone terrorists to carry out their attacks from inside the country. While the government put in place several measures to combat terrorism after the September 11, 2001 attacks, they still have problems dealing with lone wolf terrorists due to its complexity. The country has evolved from September 11 terror mechanisms to terror attacks perpetrated by a self-radicalized individual. The changing landscape has created the ground for a rise in the threat of lone wolf attacks in the United States and around the world, described as a strategy of terrorizing the west asymmetrically through individual attackers or lone-actor violent offenders such as school attackers ( Phillips, 2017) . The phenomenon has enabled terrorist organizations to use disgruntled individuals to stage attacks in the united states
Lone wolf terrorism has emerged as the new face of terrorism in the world with many cases of the mass shooting reported in the United States. For example, the recent spike in the mass shooting including the 2017 Las Vegas massacre created attention on lone wolf violence and terrorism in the United States while showing how it is difficult to prevent it ( Beydoun, 2017) . The number of attacks by individuals has increased functioning with a motive such as settling political scars or fulfilling a religious purpose. Studies have shown that more people in the United States have died from non-Islamic domestic terrorism as compared to jihadist groups. In 1998, the FBI started considering lone wolves as the most severe and lethal domestic terrorists in the United States. Today, numerous security officials consider lone wolf terrorists the most dangerous threat on the security of Americans due to their nature. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies have difficulties detecting lone wolf terrorists since their nature of the attack is often a secret ( Phillips, 2017) .
A lone wolf terrorist is described as an individual who is not part of a group and whose actions are not directed by an outside organization ( Beydoun, 2017) . This definition means the attack operates alone, which begs the question of what motivates them to engage in terrorist attacks. The roots of lone wolf attacks can be categorized as political, ideological or religious. Terrorists who act without outside influence pose a great treat to counterterrorism measures as they call for a different policy response as opposed to extremist groups. This phenomenon refers to mass violence inflicted by an individual, usually those with discretely held views or cogent ideology. The term lone wolf emerged in the late 1990s when white supremacists Alex Curtis and Tom Metzger used it to encourage fellow racists to act alone for tactical security reasons ( Beydoun, 2017) . This means the concept of the lone wolf is an old one, though it has emerged as an effective method of raising voice among individuals unsatisfied with the government.
Motivations behind lone wolf terrorists
Despite coming from different backgrounds or motivational patterns, lone wolf attackers can be described by several characteristics such as suffering from a mental disturbance and social ineptitude. As such, a majority of lone wolves isolate themselves from society and may lead a secret life until they find their target. Among the adult lone wolves, a majority have military experience and may know to stage and executing an attack over a mass of people ( Hamm & Spaaij, 2015) . At the same time, the internet can also be attributed to an increase in lone-wolf terrorism in the United States as terrorist groups use social media to recruit new followers and send them on a lone mission. Terrorist groups such as ISIS have been using innovative approaches to spread their messages against the US government by getting to the minds of young individuals and using them to stage attacks. There have been terror attacks in music concerts, worship centers and schools conducted by local Americans who have an attachment with ISIS.
Lone wolf attackers have different motivations for engaging in an attack, which also makes it difficult to detect and prevent it. One lone wolf attacker will have an attack methodology that is entirely different from another based on their motivations, and therefore security agencies barely detect their plans for violence. Analysts have speculated several categories of lone wolf terrorists based on their motives, including criminal, religious, secular, single issue and idiosyncratic terrorists ( Spaaij, 2011) . Criminal lone wolf terrorists are motivated by money and personal gain as opposed to those who are motivated by political, social, religious or ethnic reasons. Example of criminal lone wolf terrorists includes those who are struggling with social achievement due to lack of employment or racism and may stage a terrorist attack as a form of frustration.
Secular lone wolf terrorists can be described as individuals who commit attacks for political, racial or ethnic reasons. This can include prejudice violence where an individual attack a group due to having different political ideologies, sex orientation or any other governmental action that they consider undesirable. There was a case in the United States where an individual attacked the Alfred Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people in 1995 ( Spaaij, 2011) . This was an example of lone secular terrorism that was motivated by revenge against the US government action to raid on the Branch Davidian compound. At the same time, there have been attacks that are fueled by Islamophobia in the country. Islamophobia in the United States has been attributed to reports of lone wolfs for individuals who do not trust law enforcement. Police officers targeting Muslims can drive a person to express his frustration with the government through a terrorist attack.
There are also cases of idiosyncratic lone wolf terrorists who commit an irrational attack driven by severe personality and psychological problems, as seen with the mass shooting in schools. A good example is the case of Seung Hui Cho who attacked an institution under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance ( Spaaij, 2011) . Social scientists have come up with insights to understand factors motivating lone wolf terrorists engaging in attacks including criminology theories driving individuals into a mass shooting. Furthermore, lone wolf terrorists can be motivated by a single issue such as those bombing abortion clinics that were motivated by issues of abortion. Islamic groups, right-wing white supremacists and separatists have all used lone wolf phenomenon to express their opinions on a topic.
Many lone wolf attackers commit terrorist acts for their ideas without affiliating to any terrorist organization. Lone wolf motivations start by a person having an interest in ideas and putting their hearts in it until it boils over. In most cases, a terrorist act is directed against specific targets and not picked randomly nor products of irrational imagination ( Spaaij, 2011) . A person spends a substantial amount of time planning for the attack, which entails purchasing of weapons, surveying the area and preparing for the perfect date to make a point. There are other cases where loan wolfs commit terrorist attacks after hearing, seeing or reading information regarding an issue. Some radical extremists may plant dangerous ideas into the mind of an individual, poisoning their reasoning and sending them to commit a crime. Politicians are the most obvious suspects who may plan radical views in individuals that may grow and boil over a target group of people ( Hamm & Spaaij, 2015) . Although lone wolves tend to kill few people before they are overpowered, they have an outsized political impact such as empowering populist demagogues or fueling Islamophobia.
Case Examples
There have been several cases of lone wolf terrorist attacks in the United States who have staged attacks for several aspects. A good example is the Virginia Tech shooter Seung Hui Cho who was a lone wolf terrorist that shot and killed 32 people in 2007 due to an emotional disturbance. Cho had a mental condition that affected his empathy or ability to think about the consequences of his actions. His actions fit the description of a psychopath that is caused by a combination of sociological and psychological disorders, affecting his ability to manage or express emotions ( Leenaars & Reed, 2016) . Therefore, mentally disturbed lone wolf terrorists present the biggest challenge to law enforcement that is twofold, first since mentally disturbed terrorists are obsessed with their targets, and it is difficult to divert their goal, and secondly because they have no regard for any consequence that may arise from the attack. In most cases, lone wolf terrorists end up ending their lives after committing a massacre. Details around Cho and who he was were limited in the weeks following the shooting which made it difficult to prevent.
Another recent example of lone wolf attack was in Las Vegas strip during a country music festival. A lone attacker got into the entertainment concert and started spraying bullets killing 58 people and injuring 500 others. This was a case of a mentally disturbed person who had issues with the government and acted purely on individual capacity. More often than not, lone wolf attacks in the United States are based on race and religion. For example, some attacks were motivated by police brutality against African Americans forcing an individual and others targeting churches to express some form of political ideology through violence ( Leenaars & Reed, 2016) . Terrorist attacks against churches and mosques have been reported in the United States. Sometimes the religious affiliations act as a magnet for terrorist activities where an individual target a religious gathering and kills innocent lives for an inner motive.
There are many cases where terrorism comes from individual who follow fundamentalist religious thinking. Examples of lone wolf attackers who acted on radical religious ideology include Muhammed Bouyeri who was interested in political Islam and became a radical Muslim. His religious and political beliefs drove him into murdering by acting in the name of religion. Bouyeri did not show any remorse when killing numerous innocent people due to being believers including Theo Van Gogh because he belonged to a different religious identity. There is also a case of Baruch Goldstein who killed 29 Muslim worshippers and wounded many others due to religious fanaticism. Goldstein was a Jewish believer who died in the name of religion acting as a lone wolf.
Several criminology theories can be used to explain the dynamics of lone wolf terrorists including their motivations. For example, the social strain theory of crime explains deviance as based on the motivation of a person to achieve goals. This theory states that a person can turn to crime in pursuing widely accepted social values or when they look to show their frustration due to lack of opportunities ( Leenaars & Reed, 2016) . Another criminology theory to explain the dynamics of lone wolf attackers is the psychodynamic theory, which demonstrates that a person may decide to engage in mass shooting from unconscious forces operating within the mind, including the imbalance in the id, ego, and superego of the brain. These aspects develop a personality in a person and can drive a person to engage in crime such as mass shooting and terrorism.
How to counter lone-wolf terrorism
Lone wolf terrorists are hard to prevent and present particular challenges to law enforcement. The threat of lone wolf terrorist attacks is creating a real impact on security and intelligence agencies since the traditional intelligence methods used to target terrorist groups are ineffective on lone wolf terrorists due to different dynamics. For example, lone wolf terrorists rarely communicate with terrorist groups or any other person, making it difficult to track their plans and prevent the attacks ( Hamm & Spaaij, 2015) . In this regard, law enforcement and intelligence services are yet to find means of controlling lone wolf terrorists due to their ability to strike without financial support or training from terrorist groups. The intelligence service, in particular, are puzzled by the unpredictable form of lone terrorism that makes it a threat to the security of Americans.
However, governments can do several things to prevent lone wolf terrorists from planning and executing their attacks by considering the causal factors. For instance, Theoretical ties exist between radicalization and lone wolf terrorism, where counterterror approaches presume all Muslims are terrorists. Radicalization is also built on the tenet that all Muslims can be inspired to adopt terrorist ideology from catalysts, thus targeting and discriminating against such individuals. In this regard, creating good relations between law enforcement officers and the police can reduce cases of lone wolf attacks in the United States ( Bakker & de Graaf, 2011) . There will be fewer grievances for terrorists to exploit and would have avoided the source of trouble such as racism or radicalization. At the same time, the lone wolf attackers in the United States can be prevented by dealing with the issue of gun control. The attackers often purchase weapons weeks before committing the crime without any hindrance despite their mental condition being questionable. The federal law should enact gun ownership policy that restricts selling guns to individuals with questionable mental stability.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there has been a spike in reported cases of lone terrorist attacks due to unpreparedness on the part of the government. Lone wolf terrorist appears to be more dangerous than an established terrorist hierarchy since they can act upon a situation that plays out in their mind. This phenomenon continues to challenge law enforcement, counterterrorism, and intelligence organization since they work alone, making it difficult to detect and prevent. US intelligence agencies have difficulties gathering information on lone wolf terrorists since they operate within the borders and border patrol cannot work for such individuals. Therefore, terrorist threats are becoming more amorphous and unpredictable than before due to the changing nature of attacks and increased use of lone wolves. It explains how the responsibility of an individual’s violent extremism lies with the individual. The lone wolf paradigm can be helpful for policymakers and intelligence agencies looking to reduce any threat of a terrorist attack ( Hamm & Spaaij, 2015) . For example, since some lone wolf attackers are affiliated to terrorist groups, the government can work towards identifying a recruiting ground and intercepting any information that would drive a person to commit a terrorist crime.
References
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