How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns

by Audrey Kurth Cronin

Aum Shinrikyo, currently also known as “Aleph,” is essentially a religious cult founded in 1987 by Shoko Asahara, a half-blind Japanese mystic. Asahara (whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto) claimed that the world was approaching apocalypse. He used an eclectic blend of Tibetan Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, and Christian thought to attract a following, primarily in Japan but also in Australia, Germany, Russia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and the United States. Asahara’s argument was that the United States would soon initiate Armageddon by starting World War III against Japan, necessitating extraordinary measures to prepare for the attack. By precipitating the apocalypse, Asahara argued, the group could take over Japan and the world, and hasten the emergence of a new order out of the chaos.