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A Lone Wolf or Lone-wolf terrorist is someone who commits violent acts in support of some group, movement, or ideology, but does so alone, outside of any command structure.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the term "lone wolf" was popularized by white supremacists Alex Curtis and Tom Metzger in the late 1990s:

[On Curtis:] Curtis encouraged fellow racists to act alone in committing violent crimes so that they would not incriminate others. He called for the elimination of nonwhites by "whatever means necessary" and promoted assassination, illegal drug sales and biological warfare as useful strategies. He popularized the so-called "5 words" - "I have nothing to say"- which he urged extremists to use whenever questioned by police as a highly effective means of obstructing prosecution. ^[1]

[On Metzger:] One of the most influential aspects of Metzger's right-wing activism has been his advocacy of the "lone wolf " or "leaderless resistance" model of extremism, which favors individual or small-cell underground activity, as opposed to above-ground membership organizations. ^[2]

The term "lone wolf" was subsequently adopted by US law enforcement agencies and by media to refer to individuals following this strategy. The FBI and the San Diego Police operation to investigate Curtis' activities was named Operation Lone Wolf, "largely due to Curtis' encouragement of other white supremacists to follow what Curtis refers to as 'lone wolf' activism" ^[3] Currently, the term lone-wolf terrorism now refers to any acts that take place outside a command structure, regardless of ideology.

Usually, the "lone-wolf" terrorist shares an ideological or philosophical identification with an extremist group, but does not communicate with the group he or she identifies with. While the "lone wolf's" actions are motivated to advance the group's goal, the tactics and methods are completely conceived and directed by the "lone wolf" without any outside command or direction. In many cases, as in the tactic as envisioned by Curtis, the "lone wolf" never even has any personal contact with a larger group. Because of this, lone-wolf terrorism poses a particular problem for counter-terrorism officials, as it is considerably more difficult to gather intelligence on compared to conventional terrorism.

In the United States, "lone wolves" may present a greater threat than organized groups. According to the Christian Science Monitor, "With the exception of the attacks on the World Trade Center ... the major terrorists attacks in the United States have been perpetrated by deranged individuals who were sympathetic to a larger cause - from Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh to the Washington area sniper John Allen Muhammad"^[4]

• Timothy McVeigh is often given as a classic example of the "lone wolf" (although, in fact, he conspired with Terry Nichols). He was convicted and executed for the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people and injured hundreds with a bomb-laden truck.
• Between 1978 and 1995, Theodore Kaczynski, known as the "Unabomber," engaged in a campaign of sending mail bombs to various people, killing three and wounding 29. He threatened to continue the bombings unless his anti-technology manifesto was published by the New York Times, which acquiesced.
• Between 1996 and 1998, Eric Robert Rudolph, a Christian Identity adherent, engaged in a series of attacks against civilians in the American south, resulting in the deaths of three people and injuries to at least 150 others. His targets included abortion clinics, gay nightclubs, and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
• On August 10, 1999, Buford O. Furrow, Jr., a member of the white-supremacist group Aryan Nations, attacked a Jewish daycare in Los Angeles, injuring five, and subsequently shot dead a Filipino American US Postal Service carrier.
• On March 3rd, 2006, Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar drove a Jeep Cherokee into a crowd of students at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill injuring nine people. Press accounts have said that he "match[es] the modern profile of the unaffiliated, lone-wolf terrorist"[5]
• On July 28, 2006, Naveed Afzal Haq, saying "I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel," opened fire in the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, killing one woman and wounding four others.

• Between 1993 and 1997, Franz Fuchs, a xenophobic Austrian, engaged in a campaign against foreigners, and organizations and individuals he believed to be friendly to foreigners. He killed four people and injured 15, some of them seriously, using three improvised explosive devices and five waves of 25 mailbombs in total.
• In April 1999, the neo-Nazi David Copeland became known as the "London nailbomber" after a 12-day bombing campaign aimed at London's black, Asian, and gay communities, killing three and injuring 129.

• On February 24, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a former member of the Jewish Defence League and follower of the extremist Kahanist movement^[6], opened fire inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, killing 29 people and injuring at least 100. ^[7]
• On November 4, 1995, Yigal Amir, a follower of Meir Kahane, assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and injured a security guard at a rally held in support of the Oslo Accords in Tel Aviv, and was sentenced to life plus 14 years in prison. Amir was a law student at Bar-Ilan University and a right-wing activist who had strenuously opposed Rabin's signing of the Accords.
• On August 4, 2005, Eden Natan-Zada, a 19-year-old Israeli soldier, another alleged Kahanist who had deserted his unit after he refused to remove settlers from the Gaza Strip, killed four Israeli Arabs on a bus and wounded 12. An Arab crowd then lynched him.[8] Less than two weeks later, on August 17, 2005, Asher Weisgan, a 40-year old Israeli bus-driver, shot and killed four Palestinians and injured two others in the West Bank settlement of Shiloh.

• 'Lone Wolf' Attackers a New York Security Concern
• The Problem of the Lone-Wolf Terrorist
• Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004: "Lone Wolf" Amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act