A groundbreaking history of the roots of modern terrorism, ranging from early modern Europe to the contemporary Middle East.

Why is it that terrorism has become such a central factor in our lives despite all the efforts to eradicate it? Ranging from early modern Europe to the contemporary Middle East, Martin Miller reveals the foundations of modern terrorism. He argues that the French Revolution was a watershed moment as it was then that ordinary citizens first claimed the right to govern. The traditional notion of state legitimacy was forever altered and terrorism became part of a violent contest over control of state power between officials in government and insurgents in society. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries terrorism evolved into a way of seeing the world and a way of life for both insurgents and state security forces with the two sides drawn ever closer in their behaviour and tactics. This is a groundbreaking history of terrorism which, for the first time, integrates the violence of governments and insurgencies.

A groundbreaking history of the roots of modern terrorism, ranging from early modern Europe to the contemporary Middle East.

Philip Bobbitt follows his magisterial Shield of Achilles with an equally provocative analysis of the West's struggle against terror. Boldly stating that the primary driver of terrorism is not Islam but the emergence of market states (like the U.S. and the E.U.), Bobbitt warns of an era where weapons of mass destruction will be commodified and the wealthiest societies even more vulnerable to destabilizing, demoralizing terror. Unflinching in his analysis, Bobbitt addresses the deepest themes of history, law and strategy.

This book argues that terrorism in the modern world has occurred in four "waves" of forty years each. It offers evidence-based explanations of terrorism, national identity, and political legitimacy by leading scholars from various disciplines with contrasting perspectives on political violence. Whether violence is local or global, it tends to be both patterned and innovative. It elicits chaos, but can be understood by the application of new models or theories, depending upon the methods and data experts employ. The contributors in this volume apply their experiences and studies of terrorists, mob violence, fashions in international and political violence, religion’s role in terrorism and violence, the relationship between technology and terror, a recurring paradigm of terrorist waves, nation-states struggling to establish democratic/elective governments, and factions competing for control within states - in order to make sense of both national and international acts of political violence and to ask and answer some of the most disturbing questions these phenomena present. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism, religion and violence, nationalism, sociology, war and conflict studies and IR in general.

While terrorism has been used throughout the ages as a weapon in political struggles, there is an essential difference between groups who use these tactics for more or less rational political goals and those seeking more apocalyptic ends. Cooper argues that today's terrorists have a spiritual perversity that causes them to place greater significance on killing than on exploiting political grievances. He supports his assertion with an analysis of two groups that share the characteristics of a pneumopathological consciousness - Anum Shinrikyo, the terrorist organization that poisoned thousands of Tokyo subway riders in 1995, and Al-Qaeda, the group behind the infamous 9/11 killings.

In this brilliant look at the rise of political Islam, the distinguished political scientist and anthropologist Mahmood Mamdani brings his expertise and insight to bear on a question many Americans have been asking since 9/11: how did this happen? Good Muslim, Bad Muslim is a provocative and important book that will profoundly change our understanding both of Islamist politics and the way America is perceived in the world today.