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The future of terrorism : ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the alt-right

Author

Laqueur, Walter, 1921-2018 author.

Title

The future of terrorism : ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the alt-right / Walter Laqueur and Christopher Wall.

Format

Book

Edition

First edition.

Published

New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2018. ©2018

Description

vii, 261 pages ; 25 cm

Other contributors

Wall, Christopher, 1989- author.

Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• Introduction: Terrorism and its future. The changes wrought by the fourth wave
• Part 1. History and the invention of terrorism
• 1. The history and emergence of modern terrorism
• 2. Writings on tyranny and the origins of the philosophy of the bomb. Russia's terrorism as a doctrine
• 3. Turkey, India, and the Russian example. Terrorism by Indian nationalists and former pacifists
• 4. Propaganda by the deed. Arms and the class struggle: Spain and the United States ; Terrorism and nationalism
• 5. The philosophy of the bomb and the Far Right. The Right Wing elsewhere ; The history of terrorism
• 6. Final remarks on the history of terrorism
• Part 2. Contemporary terrorism
• 7. The new face of terrorism. Why was IS successful?
• 8. A truncated history of IS. The Iraq War and the emergence of Al-Qaeda in Iraq ; How Iraqi politics created Islamic State ; The Arab Spring, Al-Qaeda, and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ; The Jabhat Al-Nusra threat, the Khorasan Group, and the co-optation of Islamic State's credibility ; Stymied Iraqi reforms, Islamic State's decline since 2014, and the future of terrorism
• 9. Beyond Islamic State. Religion and a globalized decentralized ideology ; Al-Qaeda and Islamic State: battle of egos in the process of final victory ; The (not) forever war: what is beyond Islamic State?
• 10. The battlefields of the future. Yemen: a regional cold war fought through proxies ; Libya: a mosaic civil war ; Afghanistan: a legacy of failed state reconstruction ; Where to next?
• 11. Terrorism in Europe and in the United States. The lone-wolf phenomenon ; The foreign fighter flow ; The Islamic State threat to Europe ; The terrorism threat in the United States ; Terrorism going forward?
• Part 3. Reflections on terrorism
• 12. The culture of modern terrorism. IS and the nature of evil ; Jihad cool
• 13. Terrorism misinterpreted. Terrorism and the psychiatrists
• 14. Economic explanations of terrorism. Terrorist organizations as industrial activity ; Why is terrorism effective?: the club goods theory ; Terrorism as theater and the macro/micro divide within conflicts ; The economics of terrorism
• 15. Religious violence and terrorism. Suicide terrorism ; Refugees
• 16. Terrorism: the future. Lessons from the current wave of terrorism ; When terrorism prevails? ; So what about this current wave of terrorism?
• Epilogue: Terrorism under President Trump.

Summary

An expert on terrorism and an expert on counterterrorism answer the two questions everyone is asking about the rise of terrorism today: why is this happening, and when will it end? "Since the death of bin Laden in 2011, ISIS has risen, al-Qaeda has expanded its reach, and right-wing extremists have surged in the United States for the same simple reason: terrorism works. It's not caused by psychosis or irrationality, as the media often suggests. Instead, it is terrifyingly logical. Violent acts produce political results. This has been an uncomfortable truth throughout human history, from the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, through the terror campaigns by Irish and Indian nationalists, and on to the Nazis and Italian Fascists. Battling terrorism today requires confronting the truth. Walter Laqueur and Christopher Wall do so in this crucial, timely book. To explain why terror is on the rise again, the authors show how the American invasion of Iraq created the conditions for the emergence of al-Qaeda there, part of which metastasized into ISIS, while Russia's increasing intervention in Syria allowed both of those organizations to evolve. And within the United States, the violence of the alt-right has emboldened its supporters. The Future of Terrorism brings reason to a topic usually ruled by fear. Laqueur and Wall show the structural features behind contemporary terrorism: how bad governance abets terror; the link between poverty and terrorism; why religious terrorism is more dangerous than secular; and the nature of supposed "lone wolf" terrorists. Fear alone provides no tools to combat the future of terrorism. This book does"--Dust jacket flap.

Subject headings

Terrorism.

ISBN

9781250142511 (hardcover) 1250142512 (hardcover) 9781250142528 (ebook) 1250142512 1250142520