The events of September 11, 2001 confronted the United States and the rest of the World with the reality of a new dimension of international terrorism. This new dimension did not start nor end with the attacks against the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, but began in the 1990s. This study examines the new dimension of international terrorism, contrasting it with the classical terrorism, the predominantly left-wing terrorist movements of the 1960s - 1980s in Europe, which were a subset of the bipolar geo-political arena. The author establishes the relationship of radical Islamist movements to the terrorist groups of the new dimension (principally focusing on Al-Qaeda) in providing the motivation for committing catastrophic terrorist acts, looks at the shadowy world of terrorist financing and makes suggestions regarding international counter-terrorist strategies.

Includes annex: The Huelva Declaration for an Alliance of Civilizations against Terrorism.

Terrorism, by its very nature, is a dynamic and rapidly changing phenomenon. This is particularly true of Palestinian terrorism: it is pluralistic in composition, flourishes in a highly volatile region, and is affected by numerous external actors and elements. Hence any attempt to produce research on Palestinian terrorism of a completely up-to-date nature is doomed to failure. Most of the work on this study was completed by the fall of 1985, and the statistics presented generally cover the period 1968-1984.

Dimensions of Terrorism sets out to establish some of the contours of modern terrorism. The articles do not provide all of the answers to what is and is not terrorism. They are not necessarily of a unified vision of what constitutes terrorism, but taken as a group, the difficulties of determining its limits and nature are given significant illumination. The authors address several major themes within terrorism: its definition, whether it is a distinct species of political violence or an extension of other forms of activity such as low-intensity warfare, differing manifestations of terrorism, the question of whether it is a new form of the phenomena that has emerged since the end of the Cold War, to whom the use of the technique is most likely to appeal and the character of persons who implement terror.

The events and aftermath of September 11, 2001, profoundly changed the course of history of the nation. They also brought the phenomenon known as terrorism to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. As it became thus focused, the limits of scientific understanding of terrorism and the capacity to develop policies to deal with it became even more evident. The objective of this report is to bring behavioral and social science perspectives to bear on the nature, determinants, and domestic responses to contemporary terrorism as a way of making theoretical and practical knowledge more adequate to the task. It also identifies areas of research priorities for the behavioral and social sciences.

This book derives from a conference entitled 'The impact of terrorism and skyjacking on the operations of the criminal justice system' held in February 1976 in Rochester, Michigan.