Contemporary Terrorism Studies - Böcker

The primary objective of this book is to understand the nature of the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria. Boko Haram’s goal of an Islamic Caliphate, starting in the Borno State in the North East that will eventually cover the areas of the former Kanem-Borno Empire, is a rejection of the modern state system forced on it by the West. The central theme of this volume examines the relationship between the failure of the state-building project in Nigeria and the outbreak and nature of insurgency. At the heart of the Boko Haram phenomenon is a country racked with cleavages, making it hard for Nigeria to cohere as a modern state. Part I introduces this theme and places the Boko Haram insurgency in a historical context. There are, however, multiple cleavages in Nigeria ̶ ethnic, regional, cultural, and religious ̶ and Part II examines the different state-society dynamics fuelling the conflict. Political grievances are common to every society; however, what gives Boko Haram the space to express such grievances through violence? Importantly, this volume demonstrates that the insurgency is, in fact, a reflection of the hollowness within Nigeria’s overall security. Part III looks at the responses to Boko Haram by Nigeria, neighbouring states, and external actors. For Western actors, Boko Haram is seen as part of the "global war on terror" and the fact that it has pledged allegiance to ISIS encourages this framing. However, as the chapters here discuss, this is an over-simplification of Boko Haram and the West needs to address the multiple dimension of Boko Haram.This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, insurgencies, African politics, war and conflict studies, and IR in general.

This book seeks to understand the processes of reintegration of former Jihadist detainees, as well as the role that the police and other frontline professionals play in this process. Over the past few decades the number of people who have been detained under the suspicion of terrorist activities has grown significantly. This has resulted in an increased scholarly interest in the topic of prisons and terrorism. However, the main focus of academic research has been on the period of incarceration with researchers paying extensive attention to the conditions under which terrorists have been detained as well as to various processes of alienation and (violent) radicalisation that sometimes take root while in prison. Much less has been written about the period after their incarceration and the steps being taken to prepare them for that transition. This book seeks to fill this gap. It argues that sentencing or incarcerating terrorism suspects is not the end of the story, but just the beginning of the next phase: a process of reintegration, or the start of a new cycle of violence. This exploratory study outlines the factors during and after detention that contribute or hinder the reintegration of those who have been incarcerated for violent extremism and terrorism. The overriding aim of this work is to facilitate further research into the radicalisation and de-radicalisation of jihadist suspects.This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and counter-terrorism, Islamist radicalisation, criminology and security studies in general.

This book analyzes a series of decisions by leaders of three major terrorist organizations and identifies a unique "Decision DNA" for each of them.The authors use the Applied Decision Analysis methodology to examine organizational and operational decisions made by the leaders of three major groups: Hezbollah (Hassan Nasrallah), Hamas (Khaled Mashal), and al-Qaeda (Osama bin Laden). Decisions that were of critical importance to each organization are identified and anaylzed, to uncover the particular decision rule employed by the leader in question and to establish their "Decision DNA." A Decision DNA is unique to each leader and can be used to explain previous decisions or predict future choices. The authors demonstrate that the findings presented can be used to promote effective counterterrorism measures, and they provide a series of policy implications that arise from their examination of each leader.This book will be of much interest to students of terrorist studies, political violence, security studies, and Middle Eastern politics.

This book applies strategic culture concepts to violent non-state actors (VNSAs) in a comparative analysis. In recent years, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has become notorious for kidnapping Western hostages in north-western Africa and for its role in the short-lived Islamist takeover of Mali. The group, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, rebranded itself as an Al-Qaida franchise in 2007, leading to speculation of a change from its Algeria-centric agenda to an anti-Western one. This study compares and contrasts the ideas and behaviour of these two groups, using a strategic-cultural approach, and finds that, despite some commonalities, AQIM has a distinct strategic culture from Al-Qaida central, thereby debunking the notion of Al-Qaida as a monolithic movement. This is the first comparative analysis of violent non-state actors to employ a strategic-cultural approach and the first such study on AQIM. While strategic culture has traditionally been applied to states, this work adds to the emerging literature applying such approaches to non-state armed groups, and employs a novel conception of strategic culture consisting of narratives and practices.This book will be of much interest to students of strategic culture, political violence, Middle Eastern politics and Security Studies in general.

This volume examines how both victims and perpetrators of terrorism are relevant to our understanding of political violence.While the perpetrators of political violence have been the subject of significant academic research, victims of terrorism and political violence have rarely featured in this landscape. In an effort to capture the vast complexity of terrorism, and to widen the scope of the agenda that informs terrorism research, this book presents a series of analyses that examines the role of the perpetrators, the experience of the victims, the public and media perceptions of both, and given the inherent intricacy of the phenomenon, how we might think about engaging with perpetrators in an effort to prevent further violence. By considering the role of the many actors who are central to our understanding and framing of terrorism and political violence, this book highlights the need to focus on how the interactivity of individuals and contexts have implications for the emergence, maintenance and termination of campaigns of political violence. The volume aims to understand not only how former perpetrators and victims can work in preventing violence in a number of contexts but, more broadly, the narratives that support and oppose violence, the construction of victimisation, the politicisation of victimhood, the justifications for violence and the potential for preventing and encouraging desistance from violence.This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, victimology, criminology, security studies and IR in general.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of female terrorism in America, both past and present. The volume takes a fresh look at women’s actions of left-wing political violence, right-wing political violence, and religious extremist violence (among others). It also examines the multitude of roles that women have played over the past few decades in such organizations (including leadership positions and more passive roles)—not to mention the diverse methods of recruitment, radicalization, and propaganda. The objective of this book is to examine—using a wide range of case studies, facts, statistics, and theoretical methodologies—how collective or personal factors have influenced or reinforced the actions that these women take. Government agencies continue to underestimate the ability of women to support and perpetrate terrorism. As such, the United States is facing a wholly inaccurate and incomplete picture of the complexities of domestic terrorism, and this is contributing to a serious neglect of the issue at the national level. This volume ultimately aims to offer policy-relevant solutions to decrease the threat of domestic female political violence in the United States.Female Terrorism in America will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, American politics, gender studies, and sociology.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of female terrorism in America, both past and present. The volume takes a fresh look at women’s actions of left-wing political violence, right-wing political violence, and religious extremist violence (among others). It also examines the multitude of roles that women have played over the past few decades in such organizations (including leadership positions and more passive roles)—not to mention the diverse methods of recruitment, radicalization, and propaganda. The objective of this book is to examine—using a wide range of case studies, facts, statistics, and theoretical methodologies—how collective or personal factors have influenced or reinforced the actions that these women take. Government agencies continue to underestimate the ability of women to support and perpetrate terrorism. As such, the United States is facing a wholly inaccurate and incomplete picture of the complexities of domestic terrorism, and this is contributing to a serious neglect of the issue at the national level. This volume ultimately aims to offer policy-relevant solutions to decrease the threat of domestic female political violence in the United States.Female Terrorism in America will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, American politics, gender studies, and sociology.

This book applies strategic culture concepts to violent non-state actors (VNSAs) in a comparative analysis. In recent years, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has become notorious for kidnapping Western hostages in north-western Africa and for its role in the short-lived Islamist takeover of Mali. The group, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, rebranded itself as an Al-Qaida franchise in 2007, leading to speculation of a change from its Algeria-centric agenda to an anti-Western one. This study compares and contrasts the ideas and behaviour of these two groups, using a strategic-cultural approach, and finds that, despite some commonalities, AQIM has a distinct strategic culture from Al-Qaida central, thereby debunking the notion of Al-Qaida as a monolithic movement. This is the first comparative analysis of violent non-state actors to employ a strategic-cultural approach and the first such study on AQIM. While strategic culture has traditionally been applied to states, this work adds to the emerging literature applying such approaches to non-state armed groups, and employs a novel conception of strategic culture consisting of narratives and practices.This book will be of much interest to students of strategic culture, political violence, Middle Eastern politics and Security Studies in general.

Jihadism, Foreign Fighters and Radicalization in the EU addresses the organizational and strategic changes in terrorism in Europe as a result of urban jihadism and the influx of foreign fighters of European nationality or residence.Examining the different types of responses to the treatment of radicalization and its consequences in the recruitment of young urban fighters and jihadists, this book offers a framework for understanding the process of violent radicalization. It critically analyses political and legal responses that have taken place within the European framework, whilst also examining a series of functional responses from social and behavioural psychology. This book then goes on to develop an explanatory model from an economic standpoint, exploring the need to adapt the fight against the financing of terrorism to the changes in the sources of financing jihadist cells and foreign fighters. Furthermore, the volume draws on experience from the prison sector to assess the process of radicalization and the possibilities of intervention.Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book will be of great interest to students of terrorism and counter-terrorism, radicalization, European politics, radical Islam and security studies.

This book examines the question of how to deter a non-state terrorist actor.Can terrorism be deterred? This book argues that current research is unable to find strong cases of deterrence success, because it uses a flawed research design which does not capture the longitudinal dynamics of the process. So far, the focus of inquiry has been on the tactical elements of a state’s counterterrorism strategy, instead of the non-state actor’s grand strategies. By studying the campaigns of Hezbollah, the Palestinians, the Irish Republican Army, Chechens, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, and Al-Qaeda/Taliban and ISIS over time, we can see that deterrence strategies that target the cost-benefit calculus of terrorist organizations lead to wars of attrition – which is the non-state organization’s strategy for victory. To escape the attrition trap, the state must undermine the attrition strategy of terrorist organizations by using offensive campaigns that become critical educational moments. The case studies presented here uncover an evolutionary process of learning, leading to strategic deterrence successes. Some terrorist organizations abandoned the use of force altogether, while others abandoned their aspirational goals or resorted to lower levels of violence. These findings should enable policymakers to transition from the failed policy that sought to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the unending war in Afghanistan to a policy that successfully applies deterrence. This book will be of much interest to students of deterrence theory, terrorism studies, war and conflict studies, and security studies.

By drawing on social movement theories, this book explains how terrorist movements decline, using the case of Irish Republicanism. The continuity of terrorism and political violence from generation to generation demonstrates the need to go beyond a focus on groups or individuals in order to explain how terrorism ends. The concept of de-radicalisation has been critiqued for its lack of explanatory value in accounting for disengagement from terrorism or how the risk of terrorism re-emerging is reduced. However, building on the morphogenetic approach, this book distinguishes between structure/culture and agency over time in order to analyse the causal influence between the two. Two processes are analysed: disengagement framing processes explain how actors change attitudes to violence and the book identifies which factors ensure frames resonate with audiences; and social movement de-radicalisation accounts for the outcomes of disengagement in initiating structural change which transforms the landscape the next generation finds itself in. The fundamental aim of the book is to provide theoretical and conceptual insights into how terrorism can not only come to an end, but can be prevented from emerging to be a significant threat again within a society. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, social movement theory, British and Irish Politics, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR in general.

This book describes and analyzes the convergence of transnational organized crime and jihadist terrorism that has taken place within Russian-speaking social networks in Western Europe.Studies have shown that while under certain circumstances links between criminal organizations and terrorist groups appear, these are usually opportunistic and temporary in nature. Only rarely do they develop into something deeper and transformative, a convergence between crime and terrorism. This book reveals that Russian-speaking transnational organized crime and jihadist terrorism pose a serious threat to security and constitute a major challenge for law enforcement. Through their links with transnational organized crime, Russian-speaking jihadist networks from the Caucasus and Central Asia have easier access to weaponry, commercial explosives, and forged IDs than many other jihadist networks. Being in effect an integral component of transnational organized crime, the Russian-speaking jihadists can be assessed as potentially more capable than many other jihadists. The book assesses the effects of terrorism and organized crime on Russian-speaking diasporas in Western Europe and examines the implications for counterterrorism as well as policing on how to counteract the illegal activities of these networks. Drawing on Swedish court cases the work shows that an additional, and sometimes more effective way, to fight terrorism is by focusing on the non-terrorist types of crime perpetrated by terrorists.This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and counter-terrorism, political violence, criminology, security studies and IR in general.

This volume is a collection of articles that critically examine the efficacy, ethics, and impact of the War on Terror as it has evolved since 9/11. During the decade and a half of the Global War on Terror (GWOT), numerous books have considered the political, psychosocial, and economic impacts of terrorism. However, there has been little systematic effort to examine the effectiveness of the GWOT in achieving its goals. Furthermore, there is virtually nothing that presents a comparative analysis of the GWOT by the people most directly affected by it—citizens and scholars from conflict zones in the Middle East. There is, therefore, great need for a book that analyzes the strategies, tactics, and outcomes of the GWOT and that also presents facts and ideas that are missing or underrepresented in the dominant public narratives. The contributions in this volume were chosen to specifically address this need. In doing so, it uniquely provides not only Western perspectives of the GWOT, but also importantly includes perspectives from the Middle East and those most directly affected by it, including contributions from scholars and policy makers. Overall, the contributions demonstrate how views differ based on geographical location, and how views have changed during the course of the still-evolving War on Terror.The book will be of much interest to students and scholars of terrorism and counter-terrorism, foreign policy, Middle Eastern politics, security studies and IR, as well as policy makers.

This book explores the innovations and advances in terrorist tactics and technologies to help fill the gap in the contemporary terrorism literature by developing an empirical theory of terrorist innovation. The key question concerns the global historical trends in terrorist innovation, as well as the critical factors responsible for the differences in practices among terrorist organizations.The first part of the book provides an overview of the tactics and technology used by terrorists in the last century and identifies the key trends for the future. The second part compares four differing terrorist organizations with the aim of identifying key factors in producing innovative tactics and weaponry. The volume provides a historical explanation of the trends in terrorist innovation and also has policy relevance, as the ability to identify signature characteristics of innovation-prone terrorist organizations is a critical element in predictive threat assessment. Understanding Terrorist Innovation will be of great interest to students of terrorism studies, security studies and political science in general.

This is the first book to set out a comprehensive framework by which to understand terrorism as strategy. It contends that even terrorism of the supposedly nihilist variety can be viewed as a bona fide method for distributing means to fulfil the ends of policy, that is, as a strategy. The main purpose of the work is to describe the dynamics of terrorism and evaluate their effectiveness, as well as to theorize upon, and clarify the correlation between, political ends and terrorist means. The text explains the modus operandi of terrorism, and demonstrates how terrorism relies on manipulating the psychological impact of (usually) relatively small-scale attacks. Using a variety of case studies, The Strategy of Terrorism shows how many campaigns of terrorism end in failure when they lose their power to terrify. The authors spell out what a proper understanding of terrorism as a strategy implies for those who want to make terrorism ineffective, and offer a number of policy recommendations derived directly from their critique.This is the first contribution of strategic studies to the study of terrorism, and will be of much interest to students of terrorism, strategy and security studies, as well as military professionals and policy makers.

This book examines the relationship between women and terrorist activities in the post-World War II era. Utilizing comparative research into 26 terrorist organizations world-wide, the work identifies a dichotomy whereby women are significantly more active in domestic terrorist organizations than in international groups.Women and Terrorism argues that domestic terrorist organisations employ revolution, secession, or other means to change internal aspects of the state and the social and economic structure it maintains. This offers the possibility of change in women’s societal status; therefore, women are drawn to domestic terrorist organizations in much higher proportions and choose a much greater level of activity, entering the ranks of combat, leadership, and policymaking. By contrast, international terrorist groups oppose outside forces, such as imperialism, capitalism, Western culture, or other more nebulous concepts. Gonzalez-Perez argues that female lack of participation in these activities reflects the fact that women will be relegated to the status quo, regardless of the success or failure of the international terrorist movement.

This new volume explores terrorism and strategic terror, examining how the public responds to terrorist attacks, and what authorities can do in such situations.The book uses a unique interdisciplinary approach, which combines the behavioural sciences and international relations, in order to further the understanding of the 'terror' generated by strategic terror. The work examines five contemporary case studies of the psychological and behavioural effects of strategic terror, from either terrorist attacks or aerial bombardment. It also looks at how risk-communication and public-health strategies can amplify or reduce psychological and behavioural responses, and considers whether behavioural effects translate into political effects, and what governments can do to relieve this. Ultimately, the study argues that the public is not prone to panic, but can change their behaviours to reduce their perceived risk of being exposed to a terrorist attack.This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, homeland security, social psychology and politics in general.

This edited volume provides a window on the many forces that structure and shape why women and girls participate in terrorism and militancy, as well as on how states have come to view, treat, and strategize against them. Females who carry out terrorist acts have historically been seen as mounting a challenge to the social order by violating conventional notions of gender and power, and their participation in such acts has tended to be viewed as being either as a passive victim or a feminist warrior. This volume seeks to move beyond these portrayals, to examine some of the structuring conditions that play a part in a girl or woman’s decision to commit violence. Amidst the contextual factors informing her involvement, the volume seeks also to explore the political agency of the female terrorist or militant. Several of the articles are based on research where authors had direct contact with female terrorists or militants who committed acts of political violence, or with witnesses to such acts.

This book examines how governments can weaken the regenerative capabilities of terrorist and insurgent groups.The exploration of this question takes the form of a two-tier examination of three insurgent actors whose capacity to regenerate weakened in the past: the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) of Canada, the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional - Tupamaros (MLN-T) of Uruguay and the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) of Northern Ireland during the mid-1970s.At the first level of its examination, the book investigates the extent to which the regenerative capacities of the FLQ, MLN-T, and PIRA weakened because of an increase in attrition and a decrease in recruitment. The primary objectives of this analysis are to uncover whether a declining intake of recruits played a lesser, equal, or greater role than a burgeoning loss of personnel in weakening the capacities to regenerate of the three insurgent actors; and, in turn, to shed greater light on the broader validity of the prevailing view in conflict studies that a decrease in recruitment is more important than an increase in attrition in effecting the corrosion of an insurgent actor's capacity to regenerate. At the second level of its exploration, the book assesses the effectiveness of five of the most prominent policy prescriptions in the literature and insurgent recruitment and attrition: ameliorating grievances, selective repression, discrediting insurgent ideology, improving intelligence collection, and restricting civil libertiesThis book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and counter-terrorism, conflict studies, strategic studies and security studies in general.Cameron Crouch is currently an Analyst at Allen Consulting Group, an Australian economics and public policy consulting firm. He has a PhD from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at The Australian National University.

This book is the first detailed study of the causes of de-radicalization in armed Islamist movements. It is based on frontline research that includes interviews with Jihadist leaders, mid-ranking commanders, and young sympathizers, as well as former security and intelligence officers and state officials. Additionally, it is also the first book to analyze the particular conditions under which successful de-radicalization can take place. The current literature on Islamist movements attempts to explain two principal issues: their support of violence (radicalization) and their changing attitudes towards democracy and democratization (moderation). However, the reasons behind renouncing (behavioural de-radicalization) and de-legitimizing (ideological de-radicalization) violence have not been evaluated to date. The author provides an in-depth analysis of the de-radicalization processes of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers (1951-73), former allies of al-Qa'ida, such as al-Gama'a al-Islammiyya (Islamic Group of Egypt, 1997-2002) and al-Jihad Organization (2007- present), as well as of Algerian Islamist groups (1997-2000). The book also analyzes cases of de-radicalization failure. The two questions that the book highlights and attempts to answer are Why? and How? For example, why do radical Islamist militants revise their ideologies, strategies and objectives and initiate a de-radicalization process; and what are the necessary conditions behind successful de-radicalization? De-radicalization of Jihadists shows how a combination of charismatic leadership, state repression, social interactions and selective inducements can ultimately lead jihadists to abandon 'jihad' and de-legitimize violence. This book will be of great interest to students of radical Islamist movements and Islamic Studies, terrorism and political violence, security studies, and Middle Eastern politics.Omar Ashour is a Lecturer in Politics in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. He has a PhD in International Relations from McGill University in Canada.

This book examines the dynamics of terrorist financing, including a discussion about the importance of money from both the terrorist and the counter-terrorist perspective. Targeting Terrorist Financing argues that it is not the institutions that have failed the war on terrorist financing; rather it is the states that have failed the institutions. The measures contemplated by the world community to interdict terrorists and their financial infrastructures are sufficient to debilitate the terrorists both militarily and financially. However, what has been increasingly lacking is political will among the states, and this has overwhelmed the spirit of cooperation in this very critical front against terrorism.This volume assesses the need for international cooperation and the role of institutions and regimes in targeting terrorist financing. After the 9/11 attacks, there was an expression of global willingness to target terrorism generally, and terrorist financing in particular. The institutional mechanisms that grew out of this are explored in detail here, with a critical examination of the progress made by the international community. The impact of these measures is considered with respect to changes in the nature of the terrorist threat, money confiscated, adoption of international conventions, and global standards by states, and levels of compliance, among others.This book will be of great interest to students of terrorism, international organisations, international security, and IR in general. Arabinda Acharya is Research Fellow, Manager of Strategic Projects and Head of the Terrorist Financing Response Project at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

This book examines the doctrine of giving no concessions to terrorists, and uses empirical research to establish whether there is any link between negotiating with such groups and the spread of violence.The logic of the no-concessions doctrine is based on the argument that other terrorist groups multiply when they realize that terrorism succeeds in achieving political goals. Proponents of the no-concessions doctrine have argued that there is a pattern in terrorist contagion which results from giving in to their demands. Statistical evidence for terrorist contagion is not convincing enough, however, as depicting an increase in terrorist incidences as a consequence of concessions could merely imply a flawed causality. Without an explanation for such correlations we are left wondering whether other reasons could be decisive in the increase in terrorist actions.Based on field research in four countries and interviews with current and former members of several different terrorist groups, this book establishes a qualitative relationship between concessions to terrorists on the one hand and (non-)contagion of other terrorist groups on the other. The deterrence effect, intended by the imperative never to concede, is seriously challenged. In fact, it can be precisely through concessions that groups mentalities and actions are called into question. The book will be of great interest to students of terrorism and political violence, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR/politics.Carolin Goerzig is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies in Paris and has a PhD in Political Science from Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich.

This book explores the innovations and advances in terrorist tactics and technologies to help fill the gap in the contemporary terrorism literature by developing an empirical theory of terrorist innovation. The key question concerns the global historical trends in terrorist innovation, as well as the critical factors responsible for the differences in practices among terrorist organizations.The first part of the book provides an overview of the tactics and technology used by terrorists in the last century and identifies the key trends for the future. The second part compares four differing terrorist organizations with the aim of identifying key factors in producing innovative tactics and weaponry. The volume provides a historical explanation of the trends in terrorist innovation and also has policy relevance, as the ability to identify signature characteristics of innovation-prone terrorist organizations is a critical element in predictive threat assessment. Understanding Terrorist Innovation will be of great interest to students of terrorism studies, security studies and political science in general.

This is the first book to set out a comprehensive framework by which to understand terrorism as strategy. It contends that even terrorism of the supposedly nihilist variety can be viewed as a bona fide method for distributing means to fulfil the ends of policy, that is, as a strategy. The main purpose of the work is to describe the dynamics of terrorism and evaluate their effectiveness, as well as to theorize upon, and clarify the correlation between, political ends and terrorist means. The text explains the modus operandi of terrorism, and demonstrates how terrorism relies on manipulating the psychological impact of (usually) relatively small-scale attacks. Using a variety of case studies, The Strategy of Terrorism shows how many campaigns of terrorism end in failure when they lose their power to terrify. The authors spell out what a proper understanding of terrorism as a strategy implies for those who want to make terrorism ineffective, and offer a number of policy recommendations derived directly from their critique.This is the first contribution of strategic studies to the study of terrorism, and will be of much interest to students of terrorism, strategy and security studies, as well as military professionals and policy makers.

This book uses the theory of social movements and first-hand interviews to create a new analysis of religiously motivated political violence in the modern world. Examining the movement to restore Sharia law to a dominant place in the Egyptian government, the movement to make abortion illegal in the United States, and the religious effort to secure territory in Israel, the author contends that religion becomes violent not because of ideology or political context alone, but because of the constantly evolving relationship between them. The ebb and flow of opportunities for political access ensures that secularization and religion, although polar opposites, depend on each other to define themselves. As a result, while their respective degrees of influence will inevitably undulate over time, both will remain a part of the political process for some time. Thus, a full understanding of both is critical to a meaningful understanding of the political process. Much work has been done to understand secular social movements as part of the political process, and consequentially researchers now know a great deal about the motivations, resources and timing of secular social movements. Considerably less research has been done in the field of religious social movements and this book fills that gap in the literature.This book will be of great interest to students of political violence, religion, sociology, and Politics and International Relations in general.Jennifer Jefferis is Assistant Professor in the Department of Government, Regent University, USA, and has a PhD in Political Science from Boston University.

This edited volume brings together both western and non-western approaches to counter-terrorism in the post-9/11 era. This multi-cultural study of counter-terrorism strategies identifies common lessons from failed and successful attempts to counter the terrorist threat and provides guidelines for an effective counter-terrorism strategy. The book explores the changing dynamics of terrorism from a range of perspectives – from the global threat posed by home-grown terrorism in North Africa and the larger security dimensions in the Middle East, to the various strategies employed by western and non-western societies in their efforts to develop effective counter-terrorism strategies. Core themes in the book include the divergent dynamics of the phenomena categorised under the 'terrorism' label, and the domestic, national and regional variants of international terrorism. As such, the book offers in-depth analysis of the relationship between the local and the global, both in the root causes of, and responses to, terrorism since 9/11.This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, security studies and IR. Asaf Siniver is Lecturer in International Security in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham.

This book offers a theoretically informed analysis of how coherently the European Union fights terrorism in the post-9/11 era.Few studies have looked at how the European Union has transformed into a relevant international anti-terrorist actor. Yet, as a reaction to the terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid and London, the European Union has become increasingly active in the field of counter-terrorism. It has acted to coordinate member states’ policies, to harmonise national legislation, and even to support operational work conducted by national authorities. The EU’s reaction to the threat of transnational terrorism has been complex and multidimensional, ranging from the exchange of information between police and intelligence agencies to judicial cooperation, and from infrastructure protection to the fight against terrorist recruitment and financing. This book offers a comprehensive empirical account of the polity, policy and politics of EU counter-terrorism, based on an analysis of academic literature, official documents, and about fifty interviews with policy-makers, experts and practitioners carried out at EU institutions (i.e. Commission, Council, Eurojust, Europol), Permanent Representations of the EU Member States and national capitals.This book will be of much interest to students of counter-terrorism, EU politics, security studies and IR in general.

This book examines the relationship between women and terrorist activities in the post-World War II era. Utilizing comparative research into 26 terrorist organizations world-wide, the work identifies a dichotomy whereby women are significantly more active in domestic terrorist organizations than in international groups.Women and Terrorism argues that domestic terrorist organisations employ revolution, secession, or other means to change internal aspects of the state and the social and economic structure it maintains. This offers the possibility of change in women’s societal status; therefore, women are drawn to domestic terrorist organizations in much higher proportions and choose a much greater level of activity, entering the ranks of combat, leadership, and policymaking. By contrast, international terrorist groups oppose outside forces, such as imperialism, capitalism, Western culture, or other more nebulous concepts. Gonzalez-Perez argues that female lack of participation in these activities reflects the fact that women will be relegated to the status quo, regardless of the success or failure of the international terrorist movement.

This new volume explores terrorism and strategic terror, examining how the public responds to terrorist attacks, and what authorities can do in such situations.The book uses a unique interdisciplinary approach, which combines the behavioural sciences and international relations, in order to further the understanding of the 'terror' generated by strategic terror. The work examines five contemporary case studies of the psychological and behavioural effects of strategic terror, from either terrorist attacks or aerial bombardment. It also looks at how risk-communication and public-health strategies can amplify or reduce psychological and behavioural responses, and considers whether behavioural effects translate into political effects, and what governments can do to relieve this. Ultimately, the study argues that the public is not prone to panic, but can change their behaviours to reduce their perceived risk of being exposed to a terrorist attack.This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, homeland security, social psychology and politics in general.