Flashpoints in the War on Terrorism

Jeffrey Stevenson Murer is an Assistant Professor at Swarthmore College where he teaches European Politics and Modern Political Theory. Derek S. Reveron is an Associate Professor at the Naval War College, where he specializes in democratization, strategy, and intelligence. His books include: Promoting Democracy in the Post-Soviet Region and America’s Viceroys: the Military and U.S. Foreign Policy.

"Flashpoints in the War on Terrorism is essential reading for anyone wishing to begin a detailed examination of terrorism. . . . Reveron and Murer enlist a diverse group of scholars, each of whom is an expert in one or more facets of terrorism. Each, in turn, brings considerable depth and experience to the project, offering the reader a much greater understanding of both the depths and complexities of current terrorist hotspots. In each chapter, the contributors offer well-written, . . . compelling overviews of the nature of the conflict, followed by their identification and discussion of current flashpoints, pivot points, and hotspots. . . . [T]he greatest strength of the work [is] offering in a concise and readable format a more balanced and in-depth assessment of the multitude of factors feeding militancy. . . . Murer and Reveron's concluding essay note[s] correctly that to understand terrorism we must examine in depth the variety and nuances of the myriad causal factors of conflict, that it is important to understand the specific cultural and environmental context in which it occurs, and that it is not a unitary "thing" that can be generalized and reduced to the least common denominator, as most government counterterrorism programs and policies seek—perhaps by design—to do."--Defense Intelligence Journal

• Section 1: The Near East 1. Israel-Palestine Stephen Van Evera 2. Iraq James S. Robbins 3. Kurdistan Kerrie Urosevich Section 2: Europe and the Post-Soviet Region 4. Kosovo Susan D. Fink-Yoshihara 5. Caucasus Jeffrey Stevenson Murer 6. The Fergana Valley of Central Asia Christopher J. Fettweis Section 3: Asia 7. Thailand Rohan Gunaratna and Arabinda Acharya 8. Indonesia Arabinda Acharya and Rohaiza Ahmad Asi 9. Kashmir Samina Raja 10. Philippines Toshi Yoshihara 11. Xinjiang Dru Gladney Section 4: Africa 12. Trans-Saharan Arc Stephen Emerson 13. Sudan Stephen Emerson 14. Nigeria Michael F. Morris and Charles Edel 15. Conclusion: Resolving Political Conflicts Jeffrey Stevenson Murer and Derek S. Reveron