Dynamics of Political Violence examines how violence emerges and develops from episodes of contentious politics. By considering a wide range of empirical cases, such as anarchist movements, ethno-nationalist and left-wing militancy in Europe, contemporary Islamist violence, and insurgencies in South Africa and Latin America, this pathbreaking volume of research identifies the forces that shape radicalization and violent escalation. It also contributes to the process-and-mechanism-based models of contentious politics that have been developing over the past decade in both sociology and political science. Chapters of original research emphasize how the processes of radicalization and violence are open-ended, interactive, and context dependent. They offer detailed empirical accounts as well as comprehensive and systematic analyses of the dynamics leading to violent episodes. Specifically, the chapters converge around four dynamic processes that are shown to be especially germane to radicalization and violence: dynamics of movement-state interaction; dynamics of intra-movement competition; dynamics of meaning formation and transformation; and dynamics of diffusion.

While there is no easy way to define terrorism, it may generally be viewed as a method of violence in which civilians are targeted with the objective of forcing a perceived enemy into submission by creating fear, demoralization, and political friction in the population under attack. At one time a marginal field of study in the social sciences, terrorism is now very much in center stage. The 1970s terrorist attacks by the PLO, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Japanese Red Army, the Unabomber, Aum Shinrikyo, Timothy McVeigh, the World Trade Center attacks, the assault on a school in Russia, and suicide bombers have all made the term "terrorism" an all-too-common part of our vocabulary. This edition of Political Terrorism was originally published in the 1980s, well before some of the horrific events noted above. This monumental collection of definitions, conceptual frameworks, paradigmatic formulations, and bibliographic sources is being reissued in paperback now as a resource for the expanding community of researchers on the subject of terrorism. This is a carefully constructed guide to one of the most urgent issues of the world today. When the first edition was originally published, Choice noted, "This extremely useful reference tool should be part of any serious social science collection." Chronicles of Culture called it "a tremendously comprehensive book about a subject that any who have anything to lose--from property to liberty, life to limbs--should be forewarned against." Alex P. Schmid received his Ph.D. from the University of Zrich, Switzerland, and is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Leiden University. He is the coauthor, with Albert J. Jongman, of Soviet Military Interventions since 1945, available from Transaction. Albert J. Jongman is principal researcher for PIOOM, the Interdisciplinary Research Programme on Causes of Human Rights Violations, and has been a research assistant at the SIPRI in Sweden. He is the author of Monitoring Human Rights Violations (State Violence, State Terrorism, and Human Rights).Irving Louis Horowitz is Hannah Arendt Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Political Science at Rutgers University, and the chairman and editorial director of Transaction Publishers.

Assesses the major trends and developments in terrorism since the Cold War; Evaluates the options open to democratic governments in combating terrorism; Exposes prevalent myths and half-truths surrounding terrorists and 'freedom fighters'; Good reviews expected; Paul Wilkinson is Britains' leading author on terrorism, appearing often on Channel 4 News; In this major new book the author examines both the new terrorist networks and those that have been around for decades. He also provides US with some much needed criteria for distinguishing between terrorists and freedom fighters, and an explanation of the uses of terrorism as a political, social, criminal and religious weapon. Wilkinson also links the use of terrorism to a wider repertoire of struggle, as it is often used as an adjunct to guerrilla warfare or even full-scale conventional military conflict such as in the Russo-Chechen wars. We are warned against the complacent view that worldwide terrorism is in decline. Over 90% of terrorist attacks are purely internal, thus the annual statistics on international terrorism are dangerously misleading. We are not provided with a magic formula for governments to use, each conflict call

Terrorism, mass uprisings, and political extremism are in the news every day. It is no coincidence that these phenomena come together at the beginning of a new era. Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Terrorists provides a comprehensive survey of the intersection of radical social movements and political violence. The book considers eight essential questions for understanding radicalism, including its origins, dynamics, and outcomes. Ranging across the globe from the 1500s to the present, the book examines cases as diverse as nineteenth-century anarchists, the Nazis, Che Guevara, the Weather Underground, Chechen insurgents, the Earth Liberation Front, Al-Qaeda, and the Arab Spring. Throughout, Colin J. Beck connects these cases to key social movements literature to demonstrate how using multiple areas of research results in better explanations. Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Terrorists is an essential companion for understanding the challenges facing governments and societies today. Its engaging style and original approach make it indispensable for students and scholars across the social sciences who are interested in social movements.

This volume compares four types of clandestine political violence: left-wing, right-wing, ethnonationalist and religious fundamentalist.

In War, States, and Contention, Sidney Tarrow shows how movements from strikes and street protests to riots and civil disobedience to revolution sometimes trigger, animate, and guide the course of war and how they sometimes rise during war and in war's wake to change regimes or even overthrow states.