In trying to make sense of what seems to many is just a senseless act of extreme violence, we have to look deeper at the Islamic State. What is this group and what do they want?
Professor Erik Cleven has been studying political violence around the world for five years. He's been teaching international relations at St. Anselm's College for three years.
He says while terror attacks like the one in Paris seem random, irrational, and chaotic, there is a very clear strategy behind it.
"Terrorists, Islamic State particularly, are brutal in competition for supporters, so they are getting media attention and showing themsleves to be most capable group in the region as far as controlling what's going on," Cleven said.
He says ISIS, also referred to as ISIL, or the Islamic State, started about ten years ago as an offshoot of Al Qaida in Iraq and has now far surpassed Al Qaida's level of brutality and sophistication.
"Genocidal attacks on certain groups is something Al Qaida is not doing," Cleven said. "ISIS is attacking Muslims and non Muslims and those are some key differences."
Cleven says ISIS interprets the Koran literally and is trying to create an Islamist state in the Middle East. So why the attacks overseas? And why this time in Paris?
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Cleven says this is a strategy for recruitment and ISIS leaders knew Paris would capture the headlines.
"They're basically out there advertising they're the real deal, that they are the ones who can fight the west and support this Islamist ideology the best," Cleven said.
He says the group may also be provoking revenge attacks to further its quest for support.
"That can then feed into their narrative that the west is trying to attack and colonize western countries," Cleven said.
While it's hard to believe, especially right now, Cleven says the world is not getting more dangerous. He says data shows just the opposite.
"Violence and crime are actually decreasing, so this gives us a distorted perception about reality," Cleven said.
Cleven says he does not intend to belittle what happened in Paris, but during this time of anger and fear, wants people to remember that there is a much higher chance of being killed in a car crash than in a transnational terror attack.
