The German and Italian terrorist organizations in the 1970s did not work on their own; they were strongly interconnected. Numerous terrorist groups in Italy created in the late 1970s a functioning network of cooperation and the Germans coordinated their plans as well. These networks had their centers in the Italy and Germany respectively, but they had also lot of transnational links, thus connecting the networks into one.

The Summer school raised several important questions that could contribute to my research. The one I concerned myself most was the issue of the role of the individual within the group and within the network. The transnational terrorist connections could be observed not only as horizontal “geographical” network but also as a vertical network. The organizations had a hierarchy and the cells that were usually operating in several cities at the same time, so we could define a single organization as a vertical network of cells and individuals.

Dealing with the vertical and horizontal network at the same time raises the question, who were the actors in such network. Was the contact conducted on “official” inter-organizational level, or was the input of the individuals more important? If the contact occurred between the individuals, to what extent did it reflect the “official” ideology of the organizations, expressed in the manifestos and communiqués? These issues could bring a new perspective to the transnational terrorist network by helping us to avoid a top-down understanding of the way these groups operated.