Country susceptibility to rail infrastructure attacks

Factors that make a state more susceptible to attacks on rail infrastructure are heavily underexplored in the transportation security literature. This study is the first to examine state susceptibility to attacks on rail infrastructure by violent extremist organizations from a quantitative perspective. The most significant finding in this study was that countries that increase ethnic grievance in certain ways were significantly more likely to suffer such attacks. The implications of this finding are important because states that are more likely to ban parties along ethnic lines increase the risk of harm to their most vulnerable populations that often rely on rail for transportation and commerce.