International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 2020 | Page 72

The Shining Path: An Important Resource for Terrorism Studies
that have laid the groundwork for a valuable reflection on the topic—one which,
unfortunately, has not yet led to the construction of a problematic giving rise to a
critical body of knowledge.
There are three main complementary approaches to the geography of terrorism:
a) the spatial distribution of terrorist acts; b) the spatial characteristics
of terrorist organizations, groups, and/or networks (or, more precisely, those that
employ terrorist actions); c) the geographical analysis (both physical and human)
of the territories used by various organizations to plan, prepare, and carry out terrorist
acts. In addition to these three main elements, we add the geopolitical study
of issues related to terrorism and debates around designating certain (localized)
organizations as “terrorist.”
The beginning of geographical research into the SP was marked by a remarkable
article by Kent (1993), who demonstrated the expansion of the organization’s
zones of action by mapping the gradual establishment of areas under a state
of emergency (i.e., those under military authority). Kent approached the spatial
expansion of the SP both in terms of its own strategy (encircling and strangling
cities by gaining control of the countryside) and the constraints imposed by Peru’s
varied geography. But his study has not (yet) been followed up by any research
into the distribution of terrorist acts differentiated according to their methods
(assassinations, bombings, sabotage, etc.) and their aims (selective assassination,
propaganda, provocation of enemies or competitors, intimidation, and so on).
Nonetheless, a number of works have contributed to geographical research on the
SP, including that of Koc-Menard (2007), which tries to understand regional variations
in SP control between 1980 and 1995 as a function of relative deprivation,
the presence of competing political organizations, the local availability of funding,
and the varying capabilities of counterinsurgency forces. Holmes (2015) uses a
similar methodological approach to examine the conditions in two areas (Upper
Huallaga Valley and the VRAEM) where surviving factions of the SP were active
between 2001 and 2010, interacting closely with various actors involved in drug
trafficking.
There are also a number of works squarely within the geography of terrorism
that examine the split between the SP’s rural and urban activities. While dated,
the study by McCormick (1992) remains an essential point of reference, offering
the foundations for a structured approach to the changing functions of the use of
terrorism relative to the sites and stages of a process of insurgency. This issue—also
the topic of an interesting work by Degregori (1991)—received further attention
in the first half of the 1990s, with monographs focusing in particular on Ayacucho
(Isbell 1994), Andahuaylas (Berg 1994), and the Upper Huallaga Valley (Gonzales
1994). The last of these regions closely resembles the Chapare, in Bolivia (Dory
and Roux 1998), another coca/cocaine-producing region. The Chapare was home
in the same period to political-syndicalist movements that had substantial poten-
63