Global irreparable population losses and economic damage reported by method, strategy, and target of terrorist attack

Relevance. To reduce the consolidated budget burden, public administration both in Russia and abroad is pursuing optimal solutions. In turn, identification of the most effective approaches to eliminating terrorist attack consequences is implemented by all concerned departments, agencies and services, with reimbursement of damages incurred by terrorist attacks among the goals. By analyzing retrospective data on the reported incurred damage of different scale, medical specialists and health care authorities can justify medical and economic feasibility of efforts to adapt preparedness to the elimination of the medical and sanitary consequences of terrorist attacks.

The objective is to identify in terms of incurred damage the most dangerous methods, strategies, and targets to perform terrorist attacks.

Methods. This study relies on a generalized database of terrorist attack consequences taken place from 1970 through 2020, and reported by various experts. The retrospective analysis included more than 220,000 cases of terrorist actions; the study key parameters were identified to include terrorist attack methods, strategies, and targets.

Results and analysis. The study results show that depending on the scale of damage over years, the share of terrorist attacks associated with fatal outcome is characterized by a general upward trend. Terrorist attacks by explosion remains the most significant in terms of frequency of cases and share among other methods. Individuals are top one target of terrorist attacks by the number of cases. Business community representatives bear the utmost share of major consequences.

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