First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Undertaken as part of the National Science Foundation's call for research associated with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, this volume contains research that addresses the immediate role and utility of geographical information and technologies in emergency management. It also initiates an on-going process to help develop a focused national research agenda on the geographical dimensions of terrorism. Areas covered include: geospatial data and technologies infrastructure research, root causes of terrorism, and vulnerability science and hazard research.

While geography is not the only factor to shape human behavior, its influence on terrorists motivations, behaviors, options, and activities is a primary consideration in understanding terrorism. Taking a different approach than many other books on terrorism, The Geography of International Terrorism: An Introduction to Spaces and Places of Violent

The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism systematically integrates the substantial body of scholarship on terrorism and counterterrorism before and after 9/11. In doing so, it introduces scholars and practitioners to state of the art approaches, methods, and issues in studying and teaching these vital phenomena. This Handbook goes further than most existing collections by giving structure and direction to the fast-growing but somewhat disjointed field of terrorism studies. The volume locates terrorism within the wider spectrum of political violence instead of engaging in the widespread tendency towards treating terrorism as an exceptional act. Moreover, the volume makes a case for studying terrorism within its socio-historical context. Finally, the volume addresses the critique that the study of terrorism suffers from lack of theory by reviewing and extending the theoretical insights contributed by several fields - including political science, political economy, history, sociology, anthropology, criminology, law, geography, and psychology. In doing so, the volume showcases the analytical advancements and reflects on the challenges that remain since the emergence of the field in the early 1970s.

The events and aftermath of September 11, 2001, profoundly changed the course of history of the nation. They also brought the phenomenon known as terrorism to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. As it became thus focused, the limits of scientific understanding of terrorism and the capacity to develop policies to deal with it became even more evident. The objective of this report is to bring behavioral and social science perspectives to bear on the nature, determinants, and domestic responses to contemporary terrorism as a way of making theoretical and practical knowledge more adequate to the task. It also identifies areas of research priorities for the behavioral and social sciences.

Terrorism has become the greatest evil in our worlds today. It is perpetrated by fanatics who are utterly indifferent to the sanctity of human life. Although the international community remains divided a universal definition of what is meant by terrorism, yet it remains committed to confront it through a variety of means. Terrorism draws its motivation from a clear and organized intention. Terrorists believe they are acting out a moral imperative on behalf of a well-established organization. Terrorists are not maniacs, and terrorism is not an accident. Terrorism is carefully planned yet invisible until it strikes. This is one of terrorism’s most powerful aspects. Neither the time nor place is predictable. And the moment public fear subsides, terror may erupt again. Geopolitics is defined as a branch of geography that promises to explain the relationships between geographical realities and international affairs. The idea that such relationships exist was noted as early as the ancient Greeks. Although noted at this early time it was only with the discovery of the conceptual and methodological tools of modern geography that scholars became convinced they could examine the connections in something approaching scientific precision. Ideology acts as a veneer to cover real geopolitical interests and has been more than explicit in the American drive to camouflage its interests in Afghanistan and Central Asia under the cover of the “War on Terror.” While the American policy has been to sponsor ‘liberal democracy’ in Afghanistan and keep the war-ravaged country weak without allowing the state to consolidate power, it did not bother to strengthen the hands of the authoritarian rulers of Central Asia in the name of creating a common front against terrorism. The present book is a document of that issues that is giving a new global philosophy of terrorism to the entire world and showing the path for the return to normal life.