One of Professor David Rapoport's contributions to academic inquiries into terrorism is his theory of waves of international terrorism. Rapoport argues that there have been four waves in the history of modern terrorism, where an idea has spurred violence across the world. Although his idea has become mainstream there is no research on how ideas actually spread. This article attempts to bridge this important gap by combining recent advances in the fields of business, advertisement and mass communication with research on terrorism. It is argued that understanding the process by which these ideas spread across the world can provide us with the tool to manage future waves of international terrorism.
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