Narrative research is considered rigorous because the focus is on the individual, particularly, the "story" or his/her experience of a specific phenomenon that the researcher is studying. Information generated is based on personal history and experience, and can therefore be as detailed as the researcher would want to (i.e., assuming appropriate methodologies and strategies are used to extract the information from the informant/interviewee). Case study, meanwhile, also displays the specificity that is evident in narrative research. While narrative research is purely exploratory and descriptive, case study can be useful in counterterrorism study in that it can provide also an analysis of a specific case, which could be an individual, group or entity described and later on analyzed for the reader's understanding of the specific phenomenon. In both cases, the reader of counterterrorism benefits from the details and wealth of information that both approaches provide.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are the grounded theory and ethnographic approaches. In grounded theory, the researcher attempts to create a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon under study through information that can eventually...

Ethnography uses the same approach, only, it differs from grounded theory in that ethnography attempts to provide a comprehensive understanding of a phenomenon as it occurs in a homogenous group -- that is, a group wherein individuals share the same characteristics, lifestyle, values and beliefs. If the reader of counterterrorism would want to have a comprehensive understanding of an event, phenomenon or group, then these approaches are better suited.
Phenomenology, since it is neither comprehensive and exhaustive nor specific and detailed in terms of the quality of information generated, it is then considered the least relevant approach for the reader of counterterrorism. This approach cannot provide the detailed information that one would probably need to understand a group or event at a 'microscopic level.' Similarly, if the reader of counterterrorism would like an overall or comprehensive picture of an event, phenomenon, or group, phenomenology would be insufficient since it only provides information culled out from a certain number of people -- it is not as exhaustive as grounded theory or ethnography.