Duke University public policy professor David Schanzer highlighted how symbolic target selection plays a crucial role in terrorist attacks, as seen in recent incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas.
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Navin Bapat, a professor of political science and chair of the curriculum of peace, war and defense at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that a “military background suggests they have some experience engaging in operations.” “It does fit with an empirical pattern we’re seeing since the late 2010s that we’re seeing increasing military participation in some of these groups,” Bapat said. “Again, it’s not huge, not an enormous amount … but we are seeing more of it.”