Abstract
This contribution summarizes the results of an analysis of terrorist attacks between 1997 and 2007, and points out developmental trends in this area. Terrorism is gaining more and more prominence vis-a-vis classical military conflicts.
The exponential growth of its threatening potential is of ever-rising interest, as the increasingly global nature of this hazard is confirmed by the fact that a considerable part of the world has been or is currently endangered by terrorism, mainly of a political or religious nature. Another important corollary of this reality is that the prevention of terrorism is becoming more and more challenging, because its effectivity is lessened by the continuous appearance of new forms of terrorism.