Terrorism, state or independent

07 Jul 2023 20:51

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Links between the two. Funding. Apologetics. Historical origins and counterparts. Myths. Do people become terrorists because they are crazy, or out of conviction, or because they enjoy blowing things up? Why do they remain terrorists? When and how do they retire from terrorism (the ones who do), and what do they do afterwards? What do people who would otherwise become terrorists do when they lack opportunity? (Do they ever lack opportunity? What about eras before gunpowder and mass armies?)

What can we do about people who want us to die for their convictions?

See also: Revolution; Social Networks; War

Recommended:
• John Arquilla, David Ronfeldt, Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy [From RAND, the people who brought you the American strategy in Indochina. But nonetheless interesting.]
• Scott Atran, "Mishandling Suicide Terrorism", The Washington Quarterly 27:3 (Summer 2004): 67--90 [PDF]
• Samidh Chakrabarti and Aaron Strauss, "Carnival Booth: An Algorithm for Defeating the Computer-Assisted Passenger Screening System" [online]
• Aaron Clauset and Ryan Woodard, "Estimating the historical and future probabilities of large terrorist events", Annals of Applied Statistics 7 (2013): 1838--1865
• Aaron Clauset, Maxwell Young, and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, "Scale Invariance in the Severity of Terrorism", physics/0606007 [Surprising, but well-supported]
• Mary DeRosa, "Data Mining and Data Analysis for Counterterrorism", CSIS Report, March 2004 [Sound look at what data mining can and can't do for counterterrorism, and suggestions on how it should and should not be used. I agree with the recommendation that decisions about what actions to take should not be made on the basis of automatic data analysis. The only thing which gives me pause there is the literature on clinical vs. actuarial judgment, which shows that it's very hard to identify situations in which human experts are more reliable than automated decision-rules. Document page, including link for PDF download and option to buy hardcopy.]
• Gilles Keppel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam [Argues that spectacular terrorism was actually linked to the decline of Islamism in the 1990s]
• James Joll, The Anarchists [People often seem to think that non-state terrorism is an innovation of the last few decades, but that's really not so: this book has a chapter or two on the relevant bomber-throwers who, while be no means typical of all anarchists, certainly managed to blow up a respectable number of heads of state, cabinet ministers, and innocent bystanders.]
• Gordon H. McCormick, "Terrorist Decision Making", Annual Review of Political Science 6 (2003): 473--507
• John Mueller, Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them
• Marc Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks [Really limited to the networks of the global Salafi jihad up to 2004, but, subject to that disclaimer, very good. JSTOR]
• Bruce Schneier, Beyond Fear
• Austin T. Turk, "Sociology of Terrorism", Annual Review of Sociology 30 (2004): 271--286 [Ignore the blather about social construction at the beginning; the rest is worthwhile.]

To read:
• Mariam Abou Zahab and Olivier Roy, Islamist Networks: The Afghan-Pakistan Connection
• Sean Anderson and Stephen Sloan, Historical Dictionary of Terrorism
• Scott Atran, Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the Unmaking of Terrorists
• Jason Burke, Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam
• Matthew Carr, The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism [Review by Ken MacLeod]
• Gérard Chaliand and Arnaud Blin (eds.), The History of Terrorism: From Antiquity to ISIS
• David Cole, Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism
• Audrey Kurth Cronin, [How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns
• Laura K. Donohue, The Cost of Counterterrorism: Power, Politics, and Liberty
• David B. Edwards, Caravan of Martyrs: Sacrifice and Suicide Bombing in Afghanistan
• Sean F. Everton, Disrupting Dark Networks
• Michael Faia, " `Three Can Keep a Secret, if Two of Them Are Dead': Weak Ties as Infiltration Routes," Quantity and Quality 34 (May 2000): 193--216 [Online as HTML, PDF]
• Virginia Page Fortna, "Choosing Terror: Rebels' Use of Terrorism in Internal Armed Conflicts 1970--2010", ssrn/2300127
• Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog, Engineers of Jihad: The Curious Connection between Violent Extremism and Education [Summary by my friend and co-author Henry Farrell; PDF working paper from 2007, also via Henry.]
• Karen J. Greenberg (ed.), Al Qaeda Now
• Philip B. Heymann
  • Terrorism, Freedom and Security: Winning without War
  • Terrorism and America
• Michael Kenney, From Pablo to Osama: Trafficking and Terrorist Networks, Government Bureaucracies, and Competitive Adaptation
• Sundri K. Khalsa, Forecasting Terrorism: Indicators and Proven Analytic Techniques [Color me extremely skeptical]
• Alexander T. J. Lennon (ed.), The Battle for Hearts and Minds: Using Soft Power to Undermine Terrorist Networks
• Eileen MacDonald, Shoot the Women First
• Jaime Malamud-Goti, Game without End: State Terror and the Politics of Justice
• Robert A. Pape, "The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism", American Political Science Review 97 (2003): 343--361
• Darius Rejali, Torture and Democracy
• Christoph Reuter, My Life Is a Weapon: A Modern History of Suicide Bombing
• Marc Sageman, Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century
• Jake Shapiro and David Siegel, "Underfunding in Terrorist Organizations", Journal of Conflict Resolution submitted [PDF preprint]
• Jessica Stern, The Ultimate Terrorists
• Leon Trotsky, In Defense of Terrorism
• David Tucker, Revolution and Resistance Moral Revolution, Military Might, and the End of Empire
• U.S. Department of Defense, "Anticipating Rare Events: Can Acts of Terror, Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction or Other High Profile Acts Be Anticipated? A Scientific Perspective on Problems, Pitfalls and Prospective Solutions" [PDF. November 2008; I wonder of much of a period piece this now appears.] "This white paper covers topics related to the field of anticipating/forecasting s
• Michel Wieviorka, The Making of Terrorism