Product Description

Coinciding with this is the alarming increased availability of weapons of mass destruction, cheap and easily accessible chemical and biological weapons and cyberterrorism. Walter Laqueur, a world renowned expert on terrorism and international strategic affairs and author of Fascism:A Reader and Weimar (Phoenix Press), recounts the history of terrorism and examines the future of terrorism worldwide.It is only a matter of time, Laqueur argues, before the attainability of weapons of mass destruction creates a terrifying and unstable scenario. 'a discomfiting augury fore the future. Laqueur's excellent work is probably the best single volume I've seen on the phenomenon of terrorism and political violence'. Vincent Cannistraro, former Chief of CIA Counterterrorism Operations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #771604 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The use of violence to achieve political goals stretches all the way back to biblical times, and Walter Laqueur outlines its long practice in The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction. Yet his main concern is with the 21st-century threat of "megaterrorism": "What we know about past ages of barbarism is frightening enough," he writes. "The consequences of aggressive madness in the age of high technology and the era of weapons of mass-destruction may well be beyond our imagination." Along the way, he offers a fascinating sociology of terrorism; its practitioners, for instance, tend to come from the educated middle classes (although this is far from a hard-and-fast rule). Also, terrorists rarely believe their actions will allow them to seize political power. Instead, they aim to provoke specific responses from their targets, such as lighting an international conflict. Although it is hardly a how-to book, The New Terrorism describes what it takes for terrorism to succeed--Laqueur's list of essentials includes careful planning, an ability to improvise, small units of operation, the anonymity of large urban areas, and ready sources of money. The book is full of rich observations, and there probably isn't a more knowledgeable source on the subject than Laqueur, who has written several books on European and Middle Eastern history and military analysis. His mild pessimism is troubling, but perhaps warranted. Terrorism is about to become even more terrible. --John J Miller

About the Author
Walter Laqueur was for twenty-five years the director of the Institute of Contemporary History and the Wiener Library in London, one of the world's leading institutes for the study of fascism. He is co-editor of the Journal of Contemporary History and serves as chairman of the International Research Council at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. His works have been translated into many languages.

Customer Reviews

A thoroughly informative and useful text
Overall, I found this text thoroughly inciteful and informative. Laquer has a fluent and non- exclusive use of language that is both refreshing and welcoming in modern day academia. He successfully and conclusively attempts to deliver distinctions and definitions on a subject area that has proved to be almost elusive to others. Laquer provides an extensive account of terrorism, its roots and its methods throught the ages whilst also delivering attention to the threat of global terrorism in the future, its basis of fanatacism and the method of its actions. This is a compulsory text for students both new and old to the subject area and I would have no hesitation in reccommending it!

Fascinating read about a very topical subject
I wasn't too sure what to expect when I started reading this book - Initially I found it a little heavy going but soon found the book actually flowed very well and as an academic book it didn't try to belittle the reader at all which was quite refreshing.

Published before 9/11, Laqueur provides an insight into the world of terrorism and the dangers faced to the human race from the various forms of terror, focussing in particular on nuclear and biological/chemical weaponry. He describes in great detail the history of terrorism explaining how in various forms, terrorism has blighted populations for hundreds of year. I found his observations about the move from state-sponsored terrorism to fanaticism a fascinating read.

I would definitely recommend this book for either students or this topic, or in fact anyone who like myself was interesting to get past the message sent out from political parties and read an academic view on the subject.

stunning
this book really shows the truth behind the sceens of terrorism and also gives lots of interesting informanion about terorism a great read