27/10/2015

50 best books on terrorism (War in the Modern World)

50 best books on terrorism

In its August issue, the journal Perspectives on Terrorismpublished this "50best" list by Joshua Sinai of The Analysis Corporation. If the book is available
at Amazon.com, I link to it there.

Textbooks on Terrorism
Leonard Weinberg: Global Terrorism: A Beginner's Guide(Oneworld, 2008)
"readers will greatly benefit from the accumulated wisdom that is sprinkled
throughout this wonderfully written book"
Gus Martin: Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and
Issues (Sage, 2006) "one of the finest stand-alone, comprehensive textbooks
for university courses"
Bruce Hoffman: Inside Terrorism (Columbia UP, 2006) "one of the most
widely read books on terrorism" (Sinai objects to the notion that "a strategic
logic drives suicide terrorism (when, in fact, it is hugely self-destructive to
their group's cause)," but I'm not so sure)
James Forest, ed: Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century:
International Perspectives (Praeger, 2007) three volumes; bring your
mortgage broker or better yet your university credit card
Christopher Harmon: Terrorism Today (Routledge, 2007) "comprehensive in
scope"

Using the Social Sciences to Study Terrorism

Magnus Ranstorp, ed: Mapping Terrorism Research: State of the Art, Gaps
and Future Direction (Routledge, 2007) fourteen academics "take inventory
of the strengths and weaknesses in terrorism research in order to identify a
set of priorities for future research"
Tore Bjorgo, ed.: Root Causes of Terrorism: Myths, Reality and Ways
Forward (Routledge, 2005) papers from a 2003 experts workshop in Oslo
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John Horgan: The Psychology of Terrorism (Routledge, 2005) "one of the

best applications of a social science discipline" to explain what motivates
terrorists
Ely Karmon: Coalitions Between Terrorist Organizations: Revolutionaries,
Nationalists and Islamists (Martinus Nijhoff, 2005) "an important and
innovative study of how terrorist organizations form cooperative coalitions
and how they function within the changing international system"
Sundri Khalsa: Forecasting Terrorism: Indicators and Proven Analytical
Techniques (Scarecrow, 2004) "68 indicators of terrorist activity ... intended
to be used in a warning framework to anticipate terrorist activity"
Nadine Gurr & Benjamin Cole: The New Face of Terrorism: Threats from
Weapons of Mass Destruction (Tauris, 2002) "One of the best treatments of
this subject"
Michael Kenney: From Pablo to Osama: Trafficking and Terrorist Networks,
Government Bureaucracies, and Competitive Adaptation (Pennsylvania State
UP, 2007) the bad guys adapt to government countermeasures; governments
too can learn to adapt

Terrorism and the Internet

Gabriel Weimann: Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, the New
Challenges (US States Institute of Peace, 2006) "first comprehensive study of
this issue"
Boaz Ganor, Katharina Von Knop, & Carlos Duarte, eds:Hypermedia
Seduction for Terrorist Recruiting (IOS, 2007) a collection of academic
papers on terrorist use of the internet and practical ways to counter it

Militant Islam
"To understand the narrative that is central to Muslim belief ... first read
the Quran" before proceeding to these lay texts:
Olivier Roy: Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (Columbia UP,
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2004) "the driving forces behind the revival of militant Islam in Western
Europe"
Malise Ruthven: Fundamentalism: The Search for Meaning(Oxford UP,
2005) "a penetrating analysis of the nature of fundamentalism around the
world"
Bassam Tibi: Political Islam, World Politics and Europe: Democratic Peace
and Euro-Islam versus Global Jihad(Routledge, 2007) Europe "faces a
growing conflict between radical segments within its large Muslim minority
and the continent's democratic and pluralist institutions and values"
Neil Kressel: Bad Faith: The Danger of Religious Extremism (Prometheus,
2007) "incisively explains the nature of religious extremism" and
recommends that mainstream leaders "immediately identify and 'self-police'
outbreaks of extremism"
Michael Mazarr: Unmodern Men in the Modern World: Radical Islam,
Terrorism, and the War on Modernity(Cambridge UP) "one of the best
diagnoses of the resentment by Islamist forces toward modernity" which
often leads to "an upwelling of devotion"

Suicide Terrorism
Farhad Khosrokhavar: Suicide Bombers: Allah's New Martyrs (Pluto, 2005)
"discusses the concept of martyrdom in Islam, how it expresses itself in Iran,
Palestine ... and Lebanon, and al-Qaeda's use of martyrdom operations in its
worldwide operations"
Stewart Bell: The Martyr's Oath: The Apprenticeship of a Homegrown
Terrorist (Wiley, 2005) what motivated a middle-class lad, reared in Canada,
to become a terrorist operative in Singapore

9/11 and its Aftermath

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Evan Kohlmann: Al-Qaida's Jihad in Europe: The Afghan-Bosnian

Network (Berg, 2004) the Hamburg cell that carried out the 9/11 attack was
part of a larger network
Peter Bergen: Holy War: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden (Free
Press, 2002) "One of the best of the first crop of books on this topic".
Also: The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's
Leader (Free Press, 2006) updates the earlier account
Terry McDermott: Perfect Soldiers: The Hijackers: Who They Were, Why
They Did It (HarperCollins, 2008) "excellent account of the personal histories
of al Qaida's 9/11 hijackers and the beliefs and motivations that drove them
to commit such horrendous acts"
Marc Sageman: Understanding Terror Networks(Pennsylvania, 2004) "one of
the most original and innovative social science studies conducted on how
individuals are driven to join terrorist organizations". Also:Leaderless Jihad:
Terror Networks in the Twenty First Century (Pennsylvania, 2008) how alQaeda morphed into a global social movement and how to "take the glory and
thrill out of terrorism"-"the gold standard in al-Qaeda studies"
Elena Mastors & Alyssa Deffenbaugh: The Lesser Jihad: Recruits and the AlQaida Network (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007) how individuals become
involved (fund-raising, logistics, training, leadership)
Brynjar Lia: Architect of Global Jihad: The Life of Al Qaeda Strategist Abu
Mus'ab al-Suri (Columbia, 2008) biography of the theoretician who "trained
a generation of young jihadists in the Afghan training camps and helped
establish the organization's European networks"
Matthew Levitt: Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of
Jihad (Yale, 2007) how Hamas blended "terrorism, political activism, and
social welfare services to become the dominant force in the Palestinian
territories"
Anne Marie Oliver and Paul Steinberg: The Road to Martyr's Square: A
Journey Into the World of the Suicide Bomber (Oxford, 2006) "beautifully
written yet disturbing book offers a unique perspective on the intifada and
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict"
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Anat Berko: The Path to Paradise: The Inner World of Suicide Bombers and
Their Dispatchers (Praeger, 2007) another exploration of how the cult of
death became ingrained among Palestinians and what can be done about it
Bernard Rougier: Everyday Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam among
Palestinians in Lebanon (Harvard, 2007) based on field work in one refugee
camp

Terrorism in the United States

Harvey Kushner & Bart Davis: Holy War on the Home Front: The Secret
Islamic Terror Network in the United States (Sentinel, 2006) "a secret
network of Islamic extremists belonging to al-Qaeda and Hamas has been
entrenching itself in American society"
Daniel Levitas: The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the
Radical Right (Thomas Dunne, 2002) "most definitive account ever written
on America's far-right militia movements"

U.S. Counterterrorism
Bill Gertz: Breakdown: How America's Intelligence Failures Led to September
11 (Regnery, 2002) "places the blame on the lack of political will by successive
administrations and Congress to vigorously counter al-Qaeda's growing
threat"
Paul Pillar: Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy (Brookings, 2003) "provides a
framework for understanding the history and current posture of U.S.
counterterrorism policy"
The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States(Norton, 2004) "most
comprehensive critique of the events and policies that led to 9/11"
Daniel Benjamin & Steven Simon: The Next Attack: The Failure of the War
on Terror and a Strategy for Getting it Right (Times Books, 2005) argues
"that America is losing the war on terrorism"

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Lawrence Wright: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the

Road to 9/11 (Knopf, 2006) My notes on this excellent book
are here
Ron Suskind: The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside
America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 (Simon &
Schuster, 2006) (the title refers to the likelihood of a nuclear
detonation)
Ron Kessler: The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the
Next Attack (Crown Forum, 2007) "insightful and revealing look at how U.S.
counterterrorism agencies ... conducted America's attacks on al-Qaeda and
its affiliates ... a riveting account"
Yonah Alexander & Michael B. Kraft, eds: Evolution of U.S. Counterterrorism
Policy (Praeger, 2007) three-volume "collection of key documents,
statements, and testimony on U.S. government counterterrorism policies,
laws and programs"
Michael Sheehan: Crush the Cell: How to Defeat Terrorism Without
Defeating Ourselves (Random House, 2008) using "offensive operational
intelligence" to identify and defeat terrorist cells

Counterterrorism - General
Boaz Ganor: The Counter-Terrorism Puzzle: A Guide for Decision
Makers (Transaction, 2005) "identifies terrorist threats and delineates ways
in which governments can most successfully counteract them"
Emanuel Gross: The Struggle of Democracy Against Terrorism: Lessons from
the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel (Virginia, 2006) "one of
the best studies on the legal challenges and moral dilemmas faced by
democracies in balancing security against civil liberties, human rights and
the rule of law in countering the threats posed by terrorists"
Committee on Science and Technology etc: Making the Nation Safer: The
Role of Science and Technology in Countering Terrorism (National
Academies, 2002) "Comprehensive in scope and authoritative in its technical
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expertise"
Mark Sauter & James Carafano: Homeland Security: A Complete Guide to
Understanding, Preventing, and Surviving Terrorism (McGraw-Hill, 2005)
"theoretical and practical treatment of terrorism, counter-terrorism and
homeland security ... an indispensable reference"
Peter Katona, Michael Intriligator, John Sullivan, eds:Countering Terrorism
and WMD: Creating a Global Counter-Terrorism Network (Routledge, 2006)
"experts from a range of disciplines ... discuss the components necessary for
comprehensive counter-terrorism"
Daniel Byman: The Five Front War: The Better Way to Fight Global
Jihad (Wiley, 2007) "proposes a comprehensive approach to countering
terrorism"

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