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     Volume 4 Issue 11 | September 3, 2004 |


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Books

Understanding Terrorism

Sanyat Sattar

It is a disturbing fact that terrorism has became a reality for every citizen of the world. But why do individuals or groups resort to terrorism? Here are a few books that may help to answer this question.

Terrorism: An Introduction
Jonathan R. White
Wadsworth Publishing; August 2002

Recognised as the most objective, best-selling text on terrorism this book strives to discuss the most sophisticated theories by the best terrorist analysts in the world, while still focusing on the domestic and international threat of terrorism and the basic security issues surrounding terrorism today. The student-oriented writing style is complemented by rich pedagogy, and there is an adequate amount of research and theoretical discussion to make this an ideal text for everybody.


Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
Gilles Kepel
Belknap Press; April 2002

Gilles Kepel's Jihad is an intense, detailed examination of the militant version of Islam over the last quarter-century. Kepel divides his book into two parts--"Expansion" and "Decline"--and posits that the September 11, 2001, attacks, rather than demonstrating "strength and irrepressible might," highlighted the "isolation" and "fragmentation" of a "faltering" and probably doomed extremist ideology. Kepel follows the movement from its theoretical underpinnings in the late 1960s and its rapid expansion into Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, and Central, South, and Southeast Asia, through the Taliban's ascendancy in Afghanistan and beyond. He explains the attractions of fundamentalism, and outlines its severe shortcomings. With consummate skill, he illuminates the bewilderingly intricate effects global events (oil prices, the fall of Communism) have had on internal politics of individual countries, and vice versa. Kepel, wisely, refuses to prognosticate. Instead, his achievement is in providing--for the determined reader--a deeply authoritative context for the seemingly inexplicable events of the recent past.



Annual Editions: Violence and Terrorism
Thomas J. Badey
McGraw-Hill/Dushkin; June 2003

This edition of Annual Editions: Violence and Terrorism provides convenient, inexpensive access to a wide range of current, carefully selected articles from some of the most respected magazines, newspapers, and journals published today. Within the pages of this volume are interesting, well-illustrated articles by sociologists, political scientists, researchers, and writers providing an effective and useful perspective on today's important topics in the study of violence and terrorism.

 

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