About Article

1Georgetown University Medical Center, and Professor of Psychology, Vesalius College, Free University of Brussels and psychological consultant for Advances in Health 2Khapta Akhmedova, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology, Chechen State University, Russia and Coordinator of the Psychosocial Rehabilitation Program of Medecins Du Monde The first act of Chechen suicide terrorism occurred on June 7, 2000 and was carried out by two young women. This inaugurated the migration of suicide terrorism from other conflict zones, into the Chechen conflict. How suicide terrorism as a tactic made its way into Chechnya is the topic of this paper, which provides an analysis of the events con cerning the importation of militant ideologies and radical terrorist movements taking place since the Chechen declaration of independence as well as an empirical and theo retical analysis of Chechen suicide terrorism based on psycho-social interviews that were collected in Chechnya over a two-year time period from March 2003 to March 2005. We report data about suicide terrorism and the radicalization process from thirty-two interviews with family members and close associates of thirty-four Chechen suicide terrorists, inquiring about the terrorists’ backgrounds, experiences, religious, and psychological reasons leading up to their suicidal acts.