This edited book addresses the appropriateness of US and other counter-terrorist (CT) strategies in Europe and Eurasia, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region and in Latin America, with a view to improving their effectiveness. The book has three main objectives: to re-examine terrorists' strategic goals and sources of legitimacy and the nature of their ideological support to analyze current US and regional CT strategies and assess their success in de-legitimizing terrorists and undermining their support to provide a strategic synthesis and policy recommendations in light of the research findings. This book will be of interest to students of political violence and terrorism, security studies and international relations in general.

The author examines the factors which influence terrorists' target selection. In particular he looks at the influence of the ideologies, strategies and tactics of terrorist groups, and describes how these are restricted by the terrorists' resources, by protective and anti-terrorist measures, by the society within which the terrorists operate, and by the nature of the terrorists and their supporters. He concludes that terrorists' target selection is often both explicable and logical.

A penetrating look into the inner logic of al-Qa'ida and like-minded extremist groups by which they justify September 11 and other terrorist attacks includes specific ideologies of jihadism, a new movement that allows members to call for the destruction of democracy and to murder innocent men, women, and children.

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.

This volume combines qualitative research with the analysis of available data on trends in modern terrorism and the use of primary sources and writings. It puts forwad an original typology of terrorism based on the overall level of a militant group's goals and the extent to which its terrorist activities are linked to a broader armed conflict.

On the psychological aspects of terrorism and suicide bombing.

This book argues that, in the years since the 9/11 attacks, socially constructed understandings of the identity of the United States and its friends and enemies have played a critical role in determining the course of U.S. foreign policy, in particular the Bush administration's choices with regard to the war on Iraq.