This study tests the validity of opposing arguments regarding superpower state sponsorship of international crises by exploring the linkages between the monthly foreign policy crisis behavior of nation-states and the occurrence of international terrorism over a 228-month period from 1968 to 1986 using data drawn from ITERATE 2 and 3 and the International Crisis Behavior (ICB) data sets. Using time-series ARIMA modelling techniques, superpower involvement in international crises, attitudes toward superpower crisis intervention, and the victory and defeat patterns of democracies and nondemocracies are considered for their short-term and long-term influences on the amount and occurrence of international terrorism in the global system. The analysis lends support to the view that the Soviet Union and other authoritarian regimes are more likely than the U.S. and other democracies to resort to international terrorism as a foreign policy tool.
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