The best books on terrorism five books expert recommendations. The most common refrain now heard is that terrorism has no religion. Types of terrorism according to the national advisory committee on criminal justice standards and goals, there are six distinct types of terrorism. Peace is not so much a political mandate as it is a shared state of consciousness that remains elevated and intact only to the degree that those who value it volunteer their existence as living examples of the same. Terrorist united nations office on drugs and crime. Pdf an overview of the political theories of terrorism. Wars occur both between nations and within nations, when two or more factions engage in armed conflict. Political terrorists are not the self confined terrorists. Audrey kurth cronin, author of how terrorism ends, recommends the best.
Originally published in 1984, the first edition went through two printings and won a national award for the best book in political. Audrey kurth cronin, author of how terrorism ends, recommends the best books on terrorism. While there is no easy way to define terrorism, it may generally be viewed as a method of violence in which civilians are targeted with the objective of forcing a perceived enemy into submission by creating fear, demoralization, and political friction in the population under attack. Terrorist rebellions, in all their configurations, constitute first order national security threats facing the international community. The boundary between terrorism and other forms of political violence. War between nations is called international war war between nations. Terrorism is, in the broadest sense, the use of intentional violence for political or religious purposes. Department of defense terrorism constitutes the illegitimate use of force to achieve a political objective when innocent people are targeted.
This paper examines and juxtaposes discourses about terrorism, violence, and political leadership. Many in the muslim community are quick to distance islam from ideological variants that preach violence. Nwolise examines the terrorist phenomenon, providing a useful theoretical insight for understanding the concept in its various forms, including the politics. Political terrorism may be waged by extremist groups on either end of the political spectrum, more often. Instead, he uses a rich selection of examples from earlier history, including the. It downplays political justification and lists acts of violence as terrorism if they are. The new terrorism is characterized by the threat of mass casualty attacks from dissident terrorist organizations, new and creative organizational configurations, transnational religious solidarity, and redefined moral justifications for political violence. Essentials of terrorism is an ideal anchor textbook for investigating the many aspects of terrorism, political violence, and homeland security. The role of ideology adds further complexity to the alleged relationship between religion and terrorism. The last part of the book is a directory of terrorist. Definition, history, and types of terrorism online. Statesponsored terrorism, which consists of terrorist acts on a state or government by a state or government. The second part of the book is a bibliography of terrorism. Political satires, such as a confederacy of dunces by john kennedy toole, are quite popular works generally, they are written to make fun of something, but that does not mean that it has to be a hysterical type of humor.
Such theories may well be necessary before combating terrorism becomes practical. These categories serve to differentiate terrorist organizations according to specific criteria, which are usually related to the field or specialty of whoever is selecting the categories. Terrorism is the unlawful use of violence to achieve political gains, and its history is as old as humans willingness to use violence to achieve political power. Types differ according to what kind of attack agents an attacker uses biological, for example or by what they are trying to defend as in ecoterrorism. At one time a marginal field of study in the social sciences, terrorism is now very much in center stage. All of this is in an attempt to define a set of theories of terrorism. The best books on the psychology of terrorism, recommended by lord alderdice. Terrorism is usually understood as a type of violence.
Rethinking political violence roger mac ginty springer. The history of terrorism, most likely originated from the history of political violence yet the term terrorism is comparatively recent. Some types of terrorism fit into more than one of these categories. Social capital and the use of terrorism as a tool of resistance.
You will need to be familiar with the five types of terrorism. Satires, in the most basic definition, are works making fun of some sort of person or institution. Definition of terrorism social and political effects. Terrorist targets and tactics new books in politics. An historical case study of the italian red brigades. Terrorist typologies are descriptive classifications explaining the quality of political violence arising from distinct political and social environments. Books like the terror network by claire sterling propagated the notion to a. Typically, each ideology contains certain ideas on what it considers to be the best form of government e. Categories of terrorist groups there are many different categories of terrorism and terrorist groups that are currently in use. It remains a sad fact that terrorism in all its forms remains one of the major threats. While this book identifies a number of problems in. From here it begins to break down terrorism into categories such as single individual, politically based, state supported. With suicide attacks becoming a defining act of the terrorist type of political. Review this book represents an interesting effort to form an all pervading model to expand the current understanding of terrorism, posing history as a mirror.
However, certain issues in the definition of terrorism still remain unresolved, some are1. This new edition of the psychology of terrorism will be essential reading for students of terrorism and political violence, and counterterrorism studies, and recommended for. State terrorism can be directed externally against. Top 150 books on terrorism and counter terrorism jstor.
Terrorism is an anxietyinspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by semi clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby in contrast to assassination the direct targets of violence are not the main targets. The following list is strictly alphabetical and attempts to divide the ideologies found in practical political life into a number of groups, with each group containing ideologies that are related to each other. This lists some 6,000 books and articles that have been published on one aspect or another of terrorism. Political terrorists sometimes harbor nationalistic aims, but these motivations are more clearly considered as separatist terrorism. Terrorism is thus violence or, equally important, the threat of violence used. Instead of earlier forms of terrorism based on political assassination, this campaign used modern, timed explosives with the express aim of. There are many examples of perversion of definition by authoritarian states. Because of the wide variety of program types and the cultural and social conditions where they are taking place, it is imperative that successful efforts design each program on a casebycase basis, adds terrorism researcher max taylor, phd, of the university of st. There are several studies that show that political ideology is heritable within families. In addition to the directory, there is a discussion of theories, concepts, and databases, as well as the largest existing bibliography on terrorism 5831 entries in many languages. They work under the guidance of some big politicians.
Do forms of political violence change across geographical areas, type of conflicts or historical periods. Irving louis horowitz is hannah arendt distinguished university professor emeritus of sociology and political science at rutgers university, and the chairman and. Suicide bombings in israel, for example, are ideological promoting a palestinian state and sometimes also promoting islamic fundamentalism, statesponsored a number of arab governments fund the bombers, and domestic many are carried out by arabs living in israel. As will be seen, this key characteristic of terrorism is absolutely paramount to understanding its aims, motivations and purposes and critical in distinguishing it from other types of violence. It is used in this regard primarily to refer to violence during peacetime or in the context of war against noncombatants mostly civilians and neutral military personnel.
These questions, which form the core puzzle of this section, are in our view fundamental for furthering the debate on political violence, which so far has largely been segmented into specific fields which focus on particular forms of. This violence is not blind or sadistic, but rather aims at intimidation and at some further political, social, or religious goal or, more broadly, at coercion. This series provides a new space in which to interrogate and challenge much of the conventional wisdom of political violence. Introduction to political terrorismpolitical terrorism relies on violent acts to influence public opinion on political issues or to vie for political power. International and multidisciplinary in scope, this series explores the causes, types and effects of contemporary violence connecting key debates on terrorism. Contemporary terrorists utilize many forms of violence, and indiscriminately.
Terrorism, in the most widely accepted contemporary usage of the term, is fundamentally and inherently political. This type of terrorism is a form of political violence that is. Search the worlds most comprehensive index of fulltext books. Walter laqueur terrorism is defined here as the recurrent use or threatened use of politically. It presents generalizations about terrorism a form of political violence by, for, and against the stateand politics and violence based on the theories of.
Two interesting genres of books are satire and anthology satire. Its hard to remember when in the midst of one, but terrorism campaigns do always end. Different types of terrorism have been defined by lawmakers, security professionals, and scholars. He is the author of monitoring human rights violations state violence, state terrorism, and human rights. This new edition of the psychology of terrorism will be essential reading for students of terrorism and political violence, and counterterrorism studies, and recommended for forensic psychology, criminology, international security and ir in general. From antiquity to isis exhibits an ambitious attempt to decipher the commonalities of different versions of terrorism, which is crystallised into a recommendable book for sociologists, anthropologists and. In their book political terrorism, schmidt and youngman cited 109 different definitions of terrorism. This action is used for coercion, however, there is no. Terrorism committed by governments against perceived enemies. All of them share the common traits of being violent acts that destroy property. More personal or individualbased reasons for terrorism are frustration, deprivation, negative identity, narcissistic rage, andor moral disengagement. Andrews, and coeditor with horgan of the future of terrorism routledge, 2000. That it is easily adapted to these subjects means that instructors will be able to design a variety of instructional packages around it.
The terms terrorist and terrorism originated during the french revolution of the late 18th century but gained. Formation and ideologies 19691972 the red brigade, more commonly referred to in italian as the brigate rosse br, was officially formed on october 20, 1970 by university of trento activist student renato curcio along with his. This innovative book investigates how and why terrorisms organizational structures, modus operandi, political agendas and types of warfare have changed over. Forms of political violence european consortium for. Types of terrorism government agents car rying out domestic terrorist campaigns are often members of state secur ity institutions such as the police and milit ary. That is how political terrorism is defined by per bauhn in the first philosophical book.