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What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat

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Overview

"This is at the top of my list for best books on terrorism." -Jessica Stern, author ofTerror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill How can the most powerful country in the world feel so threatened by an enemy infinitely weaker than we are How can loving parents and otherwise responsible citizens join terrorist movements How can anyone possibly believe that the cause of Islam can be advanced by murdering passengers on a bus or an airplane In this important new book, groundbreaking scholar Louise Richardson answers these questions and more, providing an indispensable guide to the greatest challenge of our age. After defining-once and for all-what terrorism is, Richardson explores its origins, its goals, what's to come, and what is to be done about it. Having grown up in rural Ireland and watched her friends join the Irish Republican Army, Richardson knows from firsthand experience how terrorism can both unite and destroy a community. As a professor at Harvard, she has devoted her career to explaining terrorist movements throughout history and around the globe.

Editorial Reviews

Richardson, executive dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, set out to write a single-volume, nonpartisan explanation of "terrorism in all its complexity." Her reach, however, exceeds her grasp in an evaluation that leans more on theory than practice and is unrelenting in its attack on current policy. In fact, she's certain that the war on terrorism cannot be won and advises that we limit ourselves to "containing the threat." Richardson (When Allies Differ) follows two converging threads: Part I seeks to demystify terrorism; Part II outlines a proper response to the terrorist threat. There is much valuable information, but Richardson is too quick to dismiss or oversimplify issues: "there is no single cause of terrorism"; "efforts to produce a terrorist profile have invariably failed"; and trying to isolate economic causes is "complicated." The author insists that "terrorists are human beings who think like we do," but then dismisses Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh as "a deranged extremist." In Part II, Richardson dissects U.S. policy since 9/11 and judges it a disaster. The litany of failures is familiar if one-sided: the terrorist threat has been exaggerated, allies alienated, "liberal democratic values" abandoned. Still, Richardson's policy prescriptions, which mirror her criticisms of current policy, deserve a hearing. (Sept. 12) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Louise Richardson

Louise Richardson is executive dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, a senior lecturer in government at Harvard, and a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School. She lectures widely on terrorism and international security and has appeared on CNN, the BBC, PBS, NPR, and a host of other media outlets. Born in Ireland, she is now an American citizen and a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Random House

Filesize

1.33 MB

Number of Pages

336

eBook ISBN

9781588365545

Excerpt from: What Terrorists Want by Louise Richardson

ONE
WHAT IS TERRORISM

Terror is nothing else than justice, prompt, secure and inflexible.
' Robespierre, 1794

Today our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature.
' George W. Bush, September 11, 2001

The best that one can say of these people is that they are morally depraved. They champion falsehood, support the butcher against the victim, the oppressor against the innocent child.
' Osama bin Laden, October 7, 2001

LIKE PORNOGRAPHY, WE KNOW TERRORISM WHEN WE SEE it. Or do we We know we don't like it. In fact, the only universally accepted attribute of the term "terrorism" is that it is pejorative. Terrorism is something the bad guys do. The term itself has been bandied about so much that it has practically lost all meaning. A casual glance at newspapers reveals currency speculation being labeled "economic terrorism," domestic violence as "domestic terrorism"; crank telephone calls have even been labeled "telephone terrorism." If you can pin the label "terrorist" on your opponent, you have gone a long way toward winning the public relations aspect of any conflict.

Even terrorists don't like the label. An al-Qaeda statement put it this way: "When the victim tries to seek justice, he is described as a terrorist." Many prefer to redefine the term first. In Osama bin Laden's words, "If killing those who kill our sons is terrorism, then let history be witness that we are terrorists." On another occasion, when asked to respond to media claims that he was a terrorist, he replied, "There is an Arabic proverb that says, she accused me of having her malady and then snuck away." Other terrorist leaders have taken a similar perspective. Abimael Guzm ' n, the Peruvian academic turned leader of the Maoist Shining Path, declared, "They claim we're terrorists. I would like to give the following answer so that everyone can think about it: has it or has it not been Yankee imperialism and particularly Reagan who has branded all revolutionary movements as terrorists, yes or no This is how they attempt to discredit and isolate us in order to crush us." Shamil Basayev, the Chechen leader responsible for the Beslan school siege, among other exploits, declared, "Okay. So, I'm a terrorist. But what would you call them If they are keepers of constitutional order, if they are anti-terrorists, then I spit on all these agreements and nice words."

Terrorism simply means deliberately and violently targeting civilians for political purposes. It has seven crucial characteristics. First, a terrorist act is politically inspired. If not, then it is simply a crime. After the May 13, 2003, Riyadh bombings, Secretary of State Colin Powell declared, "We should not try to cloak their ' criminal activity, their murderous activity, in any trappings of political purpose. They are terrorists." In point of fact, it is precisely because they did have a political purpose that they were, indeed, terrorists.