In discussing definitions of terrorism, the author notes that terrorism is more than crime and violent coercion. It is a multifaceted social phenomenon of intentionally causing large-scale harm to pursue political goals by using violence. It is based in powerful historical economic, cultural, and ideological conflicts. It is rooted in a passion to cause and escalate harm to perceived enemies. Terrorists continually attempt to expand the scope and devastation of their violent actions. Understanding terrorism as a source of risks and crises makes it amenable to being studied under crisis and risk-management frameworks. Crisis management theory suggests that terrorism-spawned crises have several key elements, including processes, causes, and consequences. Four phases of terrorism-spawned crises are identified as crisis preconditions, crisis triggers, crisis expansion, and crisis resolution/normalization. Understanding terrorism as a social, organizational, and technological process permits theorizing about it and studying its complex evolution. Features that should be studied are terrorism crisis causes, structural conditions, organizational influences, cultural religious influences, individual factors, and terrorism crisis consequences. A discussion of the implications of terrorism crises for risk research focuses on first-responder strategies, crisis communications, conflict resolution, social development responses, and corporate challenges. 15 references