Spectrum of Terror

Spectrum of Terror PDF Author: R. Hrair Dekmejian
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN: 1483389219
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Since 9/11, images of fanatical jihadists have become the international symbol of terrorism. In the wake of the attacks, journalists and academics alike have taken up the task of trying to make sense of these seemingly alien terrorist organizations. Many of these sources have perpetuated the idea that terrorists are unknowable or irrational. What is often missed is the degree to which terrorists have motivations that can be grasped and understood. In his new text, Dekmejian places terrorism within a spectrum of political violence, creating a typology of terror based on scale and intent as well as by type of actor—from isolated attacks by individual bombers, to large scale attacks against state targets by organized networks, to state-sponsored genocide and politicide—thus facilitating comparisons across multiple cases. As well, the book’s model of conflict is informed by game theory, enriched with understandings of psychological, cultural, and historical contexts, helping students focus on the strategies and desired outcomes of different parties to conflict. This analytic approach enables students to trace the changes in mutual perceptions and preferences between terrorists and their targets and leads to a fuller understanding of the causes and dynamics of political violence. The book’s uniquely comprehensive coverage of terrorism includes extended cases on the IRA, the Tamil Tigers, Chechen rebels, Al Qaeda, Aum Shinrikyo, Hizbullah, and Hamas. Each case looks at the historical origins, political factors, leadership, and organization of the group to give context. Discussions of typical tactics, patterns of violence, the role of external actors, and outcomes help readers to explore possible solutions that might stop the cycle of violence and promote peaceful coexistence among the antagonists. Appendix materials include glossaries of terrorist groups and technical terms.

Spectrum of Terror

Spectrum of Terror PDF Author: R. Hrair Dekmejian
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN: 1483389219
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 436

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since 9/11, images of fanatical jihadists have become the international symbol of terrorism. In the wake of the attacks, journalists and academics alike have taken up the task of trying to make sense of these seemingly alien terrorist organizations. Many of these sources have perpetuated the idea that terrorists are unknowable or irrational. What is often missed is the degree to which terrorists have motivations that can be grasped and understood. In his new text, Dekmejian places terrorism within a spectrum of political violence, creating a typology of terror based on scale and intent as well as by type of actor—from isolated attacks by individual bombers, to large scale attacks against state targets by organized networks, to state-sponsored genocide and politicide—thus facilitating comparisons across multiple cases. As well, the book’s model of conflict is informed by game theory, enriched with understandings of psychological, cultural, and historical contexts, helping students focus on the strategies and desired outcomes of different parties to conflict. This analytic approach enables students to trace the changes in mutual perceptions and preferences between terrorists and their targets and leads to a fuller understanding of the causes and dynamics of political violence. The book’s uniquely comprehensive coverage of terrorism includes extended cases on the IRA, the Tamil Tigers, Chechen rebels, Al Qaeda, Aum Shinrikyo, Hizbullah, and Hamas. Each case looks at the historical origins, political factors, leadership, and organization of the group to give context. Discussions of typical tactics, patterns of violence, the role of external actors, and outcomes help readers to explore possible solutions that might stop the cycle of violence and promote peaceful coexistence among the antagonists. Appendix materials include glossaries of terrorist groups and technical terms.

Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism

Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309167922
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
The Oklahoma City bombing, intentional crashing of airliners on September 11, 2001, and anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001 have made Americans acutely aware of the impacts of terrorism. These events and continued threats of terrorism have raised questions about the impact on the psychological health of the nation and how well the public health infrastructure is able to meet the psychological needs that will likely result. Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism highlights some of the critical issues in responding to the psychological needs that result from terrorism and provides possible options for intervention. The committee offers an example for a public health strategy that may serve as a base from which plans to prevent and respond to the psychological consequences of a variety of terrorism events can be formulated. The report includes recommendations for the training and education of service providers, ensuring appropriate guidelines for the protection of service providers, and developing public health surveillance for preevent, event, and postevent factors related to psychological consequences.

Understanding Terror Networks

Understanding Terror Networks PDF Author: Marc Sageman
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812206797
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
For decades, a new type of terrorism has been quietly gathering ranks in the world. America's ability to remain oblivious to these new movements ended on September 11, 2001. The Islamist fanatics in the global Salafi jihad (the violent, revivalist social movement of which al Qaeda is a part) target the West, but their operations mercilessly slaughter thousands of people of all races and religions throughout the world. Marc Sageman challenges conventional wisdom about terrorism, observing that the key to mounting an effective defense against future attacks is a thorough understanding of the networks that allow these new terrorists to proliferate. Based on intensive study of biographical data on 172 participants in the jihad, Understanding Terror Networks gives us the first social explanation of the global wave of activity. Sageman traces its roots in Egypt, gestation in Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan war, exile in the Sudan, and growth of branches worldwide, including detailed accounts of life within the Hamburg and Montreal cells that planned attacks on the United States. U.S. government strategies to combat the jihad are based on the traditional reasons an individual was thought to turn to terrorism: poverty, trauma, madness, and ignorance. Sageman refutes all these notions, showing that, for the vast majority of the mujahedin, social bonds predated ideological commitment, and it was these social networks that inspired alienated young Muslims to join the jihad. These men, isolated from the rest of society, were transformed into fanatics yearning for martyrdom and eager to kill. The tight bonds of family and friendship, paradoxically enhanced by the tenuous links between the cell groups (making it difficult for authorities to trace connections), contributed to the jihad movement's flexibility and longevity. And although Sageman's systematic analysis highlights the crucial role the networks played in the terrorists' success, he states unequivocally that the level of commitment and choice to embrace violence were entirely their own. Understanding Terror Networks combines Sageman's scrutiny of sources, personal acquaintance with Islamic fundamentalists, deep appreciation of history, and effective application of network theory, modeling, and forensic psychology. Sageman's unique research allows him to go beyond available academic studies, which are light on facts, and journalistic narratives, which are devoid of theory. The result is a profound contribution to our understanding of the perpetrators of 9/11 that has practical implications for the war on terror.

Terror and Performance

Terror and Performance PDF Author: Rustom Bharucha
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317744640
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
‘This work goes where other books fear to tread. It reaches the parts other scholars might imagine in their dreams but would neither have the international reach nor the critical acumen and forensic flourish to deliver.’ Alan Read, King's College London ‘This book is not only timely. It is overdue – and it is a masterpiece unrivalled by any book I know of.’ Erika Fischer-Lichte, Freie Universität Berlin ‘The first and only book that focuses on the intersections of performance, terror and terrorism as played out beyond a Euro-American context post-9/11. It is an important work, both substantively and methodologically.’ Jenny Hughes, University of Manchester ‘A profound and tightly bound sequence of reflections ... a rigorously provocative book.’ Stephen Barber, Kingston University London In this exceptional investigation Rustom Bharucha considers the realities of Islamophobia, the legacies of Truth and Reconciliation, the deadly certitudes of State-controlled security systems and the legitimacy of counter-terror terrorism, drawing on a vast spectrum of human cruelties across the global South. The outcome is a brilliantly argued case for seeing terror as a volatile and mutant phenomenon that is deeply lived, experienced, and performed within the cultures of everyday life.

Terror and Liberalism

Terror and Liberalism PDF Author: Paul Berman
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393325553
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
He calls for a "new radicalism" and a "liberal American interventionism" to promote democratic values throughout the world - a vigorous new politics of American liberalism."--BOOK JACKET.

Full Spectrum Dominance

Full Spectrum Dominance PDF Author: Maria Ryan
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503610667
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
America's war on terror is widely defined by the Afghanistan and Iraq fronts. Yet, as this book demonstrates, both the international campaign and the new ways of fighting that grew out of it played out across multiple fronts beyond the Middle East. Maria Ryan explores how secondary fronts in the Philippines, sub-Saharan Africa, Georgia, and the Caspian Sea Basin became key test sites for developing what the Department of Defense called "full spectrum dominance": mastery across the entire range of possible conflict, from conventional through irregular warfare. Full Spectrum Dominance is the first sustained historical examination of the secondary fronts in the war on terror. It explores whether irregular warfare has been effective in creating global stability or if new terrorist groups have emerged in response to the intervention. As the U.S. military, Department of Defense, White House, and State Department have increasingly turned to irregular capabilities and objectives, understanding the underlying causes as well as the effects of the quest for full spectrum dominance become ever more important. The development of irregular strategies has left a deeply ambiguous and concerning global legacy.

Force of Words

Force of Words PDF Author: Joseph Brown
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231550456
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Terrorist groups attain notoriety through acts of violence, but threats of future violence are just as important in attaining their political goals. Force of Words is a groundbreaking examination of the role of threats in terrorist strategies. Joseph M. Brown shows how terrorists use threats, true and false, to achieve key outcomes such as social control, economic attrition, and policy concessions. Brown demonstrates that threats are integral to terrorism on a tactical level as well, distracting security forces, drawing police into traps, and warning civilians out of harm’s way when terrorists seek to limit casualties. Force of Words reorients the field of terrorism studies, prioritizing the symbolic, psychological dimension that makes this form of conflict distinctive. It expands the study of terrorist propaganda by detailing how militants tailor their threats to send the desired political message. Drawing on rich interview data, quantitative evidence, and case studies of the IRA, ETA, the Tamil Tigers, Shining Path, the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, Boko Haram, the Afghan Taliban, and ISIL, the book offers practical guidance for interpreting terrorists’ threats and assessing their credibility. Force of Words is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the logic of terrorism.

Full Spectrum Dominance

Full Spectrum Dominance PDF Author: F. William Engdahl
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781615776542
Category : Conspiracy theories
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
For the faction that controls the Pentagon, the military industry and the oil industry, the Cold War never ended. It went on 'below the radar' creating a global network of bases and conflicts to advance their long-term goal of Full Spectrum Dominance, the total control of the planet: land, sea, air, space, outer space and cyberspace. Their methods included control of propaganda, use of NGOs for regime change, Color Revolutions to advance NATO east, and a vast array of psychological and economic warfare techniques, a Revolution in Military Affairs as they termed it. The events of September 11, 2001 would allow an American President to declare a war on an enemy who was everywhere and nowhere, who justified a Patriot Act that destroyed that very freedom in the name of the new worldwide War on Terror. This book gives a disturbing look at that strategy of Full Spectrum Dominance.

The Sociology of Terrorism

The Sociology of Terrorism PDF Author: Stephen Vertigans
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135145784
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
This is the first terrorism textbook based on sociological research. It adopts an innovative framework that draws together historical and modern, local and global, and social processes for a range of individuals, groups and societies. Individual behaviour and dispositions are embedded within these broader relationships and activities, allowing a more holistic account of terrorism to emerge. In addition, the shifting forms of identification and interwoven attitudes to political violence are discussed in order to explain the emergence, continuation, and end of ‘terrorist’ careers. The book draws on examples from across the discursive spectrum, including religious, ‘red’ and ‘black’ racialist, nationalist, and trans-national. It also spans territories as diverse as Chechnya, Germany, Italy, Japan, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, South America, the UK, and the US.

Terrorism in Cyberspace

Terrorism in Cyberspace PDF Author: Gabriel Weimann
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 023180136X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
The war on terrorism has not been won, Gabriel Weimann argues in Terrorism in Cyberspace, the successor to his seminal Terror on the Internet. Even though al-Qaeda's leadership has been largely destroyed and its organization disrupted, terrorist attacks take 12,000 lives annually worldwide, and jihadist terrorist ideology continues to spread. How? Largely by going online and adopting a new method of organization. Terrorist structures, traditionally consisting of loose-net cells, divisions, and subgroups, are ideally suited for flourishing on the Internet through websites, e-mail, chat rooms, e-groups, forums, virtual message boards, YouTube, Google Earth, and other outlets. Terrorist websites, including social media platforms, now number close to 10,000. This book addresses three major questions: why and how terrorism went online; what recent trends can be discerned—such as engaging children and women, promoting lone wolf attacks, and using social media; and what future threats can be expected, along with how they can be reduced or countered. To answer these questions, Terrorism in Cyberspace analyzes content from more than 9,800 terrorist websites, and Weimann, who has been studying terrorism online since 1998, selects the most important kinds of web activity, describes their background and history, and surveys their content in terms of kind and intensity, the groups and prominent individuals involved, and effects. He highlights cyberterrorism against financial, governmental, and engineering infrastructure; efforts to monitor, manipulate, and disrupt terrorists' online efforts; and threats to civil liberties posed by ill-directed efforts to suppress terrorists' online activities as future, worrisome trends.