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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism > Terrorism, freedom fighters, armed struggle > General
This book examines the threat of a terrorist organisation constructing and detonating a nuclear bomb. It explores the role and impact of the organisational design of a terrorist organisation in implementing a nuclear terrorism plot. In order to do so, the work builds on the organisational analogy between an assumed nuclear terrorism scenario and four case studies as follows: the construction of the first atomic bombs at Los Alamos; South Africa's Peaceful Nuclear Explosives (PNE) program; Aum Shinrikyo's chemical-biological armament activities; and Al Qaeda's implementation of the 9/11 attacks. Extrapolating insights from these case studies, this book introduces the idea of an effectiveness-efficiency trade-off. On the one hand, it will be argued that a more organic organisational design is likely to benefit the effective implementation of a nuclear terrorism project. On the other hand, this type of organic organisational design is also likely to simultaneously constitute an inefficient way for a terrorist organisation to guarantee its operational and organisational security. It follows, then, that the implementation of a nuclear terrorism plot via an organic organisational design is also likely to be an inefficient strategy for a terrorist organisation to achieve its strategic and political goals. This idea of an effectiveness-efficiency trade-off provides us with a tool to strengthen the comprehensive nature of future nuclear terrorism threat assessments and sheds new light on the ongoing debates within the nuclear terrorism literature. This book will be of particular interest to students of nuclear proliferation, terrorism studies, international organisations, and security studies in general.
This book examines the national and international law, human rights and civil liberties issues involved in governments calling out the armed forces to deal with civil unrest or terrorism. The introduction of domestic military powers has become an international trend. Troops already have been seen on the streets in major Western democracies. These developments raise major political, constitutional and related problems. Examining the changes underway in eight comparable countries-the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Australia-this book provides a review and analysis of this trend, including its implications for legal and political rights. The book will be of interest to the general public, as well as students, academics and policy-makers in the areas of human rights and civil liberties, constitutional law, criminal justice and security studies.
This book maps and analyses the official British construction of the threat of cyberterrorism. By using interpretive discourse analysis, this book identifies 'strands' from a corpus of policy documents, statements, and speeches from UK Ministers, MPs, and Peers between 12 May 2010 and 24 June 2016. The book examines how the threat of cyberterrorism was constructed in the UK, and what this securitisation has made possible. The author makes novel contributions to the Copenhagen School's 'securitisation theory' framework by outlining a 'tiered' rather than monolithic audience system; refining the 'temporal' and 'spatial' conditioning of a securitisation with reference to the distinctive characteristics of cyberterrorism; and, lastly, by detailing the way in which popular fiction can be ascribed agency to 'fill in' an absence of 'cyberterrorism' case studies. He also argues that the UK government's classification of cyberterrorism as a 'Tier One' threat created a central strand upon which a discursive securitisation was established. This book will be of interest to students of Critical Security Studies, terrorism studies, UK politics, and international relations.
The contributors to this book analyse the different approaches and modes of terrorist rehabilitation that have been attempted by Malaysia, and other countries in Southeast Asia. With an emphasis on the particular contexts within which they operate, this book examines the factors that determine the relative successes and failure of a wide range of community initiatives in integrating terrorists back into society. These initiatives include using methods based on social psychology, religion, and entrepreneurship to develop a comprehensive approach to rehabilitating and deradicalizing terrorists in Malaysia as well as Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. As such it makes an important contribution to the global policy debate, coloured by the unique characteristics of the South East Asia region. A valuable resource for researchers and policymakers seeking constructive ways to counter violent extremism.
This book investigates everyday practices of intelligence cooperation in anti-terrorism matters, with a specific focus on the relationship between Europe and Britain. The volume examines the effective involvement of British anti-terrorism efforts in European cooperation arrangements, which until now have been overshadowed by the UK-US 'special relationship' and by political debates that overstate the divide between Britain and continental Europe. In arguing that British intelligence has always had a European dimension, it provides a distinct perspective to the study of intelligence cooperation and the role of British intelligence therein. Mobilizing a 'field theory' approach, the book provides an original contribution to the understanding of intelligence cooperation by investigating everyday bureaucratic practices of 'ground-level' security professionals and police forces, embedded in a European 'field' structured around the exchange of anti-terror intelligence. It also accounts for the drivers behind cooperation by using 'field analysis,' which explains the trajectory and positioning of actors according to their 'capitals' rather than necessities dictated by threats or state decisions. This book will be of much interest to students of Security Studies, International Political Sociology, Intelligence Studies, and International Relations in general.
The War on Terror has established a new global order of political structures, legislation, and technologies designed to spy on the world's Muslims. This book explains the origins and trajectories of this political system. The contributors argue that a constellation of Western ideas about Muslims have evolved over time to produce an insatiable desire for all-pervasive, ever-expanding surveillance in our contemporary moment. The book posits that the surveillance order is not, however, only the result of conceptions of Muslims. It is, rather, the outcome of centuries of European thought regarding religion, governance, and revolution. Islamophobia and Surveillance traverses the existential desire for wakeful vigilance, the religious wars of early modern Europe, colonial India, the Balkan frontier of the EU, and the walls of the United States-Mexico border. The consequences of the new surveillance order transcend the West's Muslim Question and threaten the very existence of the liberal democratic state. This book will, therefore, be of interest to those studying a range of subjects related to international co-operation, modern political systems, and security studies, as well as Islamophobia. Islamophobia and Surveillance was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.
In the wake of the publication of the Chilcot report, this book reinterprets the relationship between British public opinion and the Blair government's decision-making in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It highlights how the government won the parliamentary vote and got its war, but never won the argument that it was the right thing to do. Understanding how, why and with what consequences Britain wound up in this position means understanding better both this specific case and the wider issue of how democratic publics influence foreign policy processes. Taking an innovative constructivist approach to understanding how public actors potentially influence foreign policy, Strong frames the debate about Iraq as a contest over legitimacy among active public actors, breaking it down into four constituent elements covering the necessity, legality and morality of war, and the government's authority. The book presents a detailed empirical account of the British public debate before the invasion of Iraq based on the rigorous interrogation of thousands of primary sources, employing both quantitative and qualitative content analysis methods to interpret the shape of debate between January 2002 and March 2003. Also contributing to the wider foreign policy analysis literature, the book investigates the domestic politics of foreign policy decision-making, and particularly the influence public opinion exerts; considers the domestic structural determinants of foreign policy decision-making; and studies the ethics of foreign policy decision-making, and the legitimate use of force. It will be of great use to students and scholars of foreign policy analysis, as well as those interested in legitimacy in international conflict, British foreign policy, the Iraq War and the role of public opinion in conflict situations.
A frequent assumption of the American-led 'war on terror' and its accompanying discourse originated largely with the George W. Bush Administration, and that there was a counterterrorism policy revolution in the U.S. political arena. Challenging these assumptions, through a genealogical analysis of U.S. terrorism and counterterrorism discourses, this book demonstrates a distinct continuity (and lack of change) of U.S. counterterrorism policy, from Ronald Reagan, to Bill Clinton, and through to George W. Bush. The book focuses on President Clinton's discursive construction of 'new terrorism', or 'catastrophic terrorism', and the counterterrorism practices implemented by the Clinton Administration, while simultaneously comparing it with President Reagan's and President George W. Bush's approaches to counterterrorism. It shows how the war on terror can be traced to earlier periods, and that the so-called Bush revolution was largely built upon the existing framework established by President Reagan and President Clinton. Prior to the 2001 terrorist attacks, Clinton had expanded Reagan's first 'war on terrorism' discourse and constructed the 'new terrorism' discourse, characterised by the notions of borderless threats, 'home-grown' terrorism, WMD-terrorism, cyberterrorism, and rogue states. Clinton's 'new terrorism' discourse provided a useful framework for George W. Bush to discursively respond to the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. Aiming to uncover the myth of President George W. Bush's foreign policy revolution and contribute to a deeper historical understanding of the U.S.-led war on terror, it will be of great use to postgraduates and scholars of US foreign policy, security studies and terrorism studies.
Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are engaged not in a 'clash of civilizations' but in a sectarian conflict among branches of a single civilization traditionally steeped in apocalyptic imagery and beliefs. Apocalypticism is a religious luxury that modern civilizations can no longer afford. Many would agree that the propagandists of the Christian Right have raised apocalyptic tensions to a dangerous level since 9/11, but in this book Richard Fenn takes on the mainline church leaders for their role in promoting an apocalyptic view of history. Those who keep apocalyptic beliefs in a respectable place in religious faith and practice must bear their share of responsibility for global terror. It is not only tragic but ironic that the churches have given apocalyptic literature such a respectable place in their sacred texts, because the apocalyptic imagination itself has its sources in non-Biblical literature: the Hellenistic prophesies that gave comfort and courage to the victims of war in the near and middle east from the time of Alexander the Great and Darius. Fenn goes on to hold apocalyptic enthusiasts in the mainline churches, as well as on the Right, responsible for keeping old grievances alive in their demands for a day of final reckoning, and he demonstrates that totalitarian and imperial regimes have made effective use of apocalyptic literature to justify their own violence and to terrify their subjects and enemies.
There have been significant changes in public attitudes towards surveillance in the last few years as a consequence of the Snowden disclosures and the Cambridge Analytica scandal. This book re-evaluates competing arguments between national security and personal privacy. The increased assimilation between the investigatory powers of the intelligence services and the police and revelations of unauthorised surveillance have resulted in increased demands for transparency in information gathering and for greater control of personal data. Recent legal reforms have attempted to limit the risks to freedom of association and expression associated with electronic surveillance. This book looks at the background to recent reforms and explains how courts and the legislature are attempting to effect a balance between security and personal liberty within a social contract. It asks what drives public concern when other aspects seem to be less contentious. In view of our apparent willingness to post on social media and engage in online commerce, it considers if we are truly consenting to a loss of privacy and how this reconciles with concerns about state surveillance.
This story explores the history, ideas, and strategies of insurrectionary anarchism. This book asks the reader to consider the theories of bomb-throwing, window-smashing, graffiti-scrawling arsonists, and through an examination of movement communiques, embrace the critique offered by the clandestine, urban guerrillas fighting for total liberation against the omnipresent forces of violence and coercion. -- .
Boko Haram analyzes the activities and atrocities of Nigeria's Jihadi terrorist group, Boko Haram, in the context of global religious fundamentalism and extremism. The book traces the early beginnings of the religious sect, the conversion of its leader to radical Islam in 2002, and the group's campaign of violence beginning in 2009 and continuing to the present. The group's attacks against a variety of targets are examined in detail as are their general tactics and strategies. The Nigerian government response is also examined in order to provide critical lessons to counterterrorism planners, policy and government officials, and scholars. The initial military response was hampered by capability and legislative constraints including a lack of arms and ammunition, a lack of modern counterterrorism equipment, training gaps, leadership issues, intelligence gaps, politicization of the conflict, and limited support to the Nigerian military by the international community. Boko Haram looks at the work that has been done thus far, and what work needs to continue, to make gains to combat, marginalize, and ultimately defeat Boko Haram and resolve the conflict facing Nigeria. Key features: Outlines the history of Boko Haram and its emergence in Nigeria Provides the latest developments on fundamentalism in Nigeria, the growth of Boko Haram and the government response Focuses on the attacks, attack methodology and targeting of Boko Haram, addressing best-practice countermeasures Examines Boko Haram's ties to other Islamist groups including ISIL/ISIS and others Details the importance for international cooperation in responding to Boko Haram's activities and threats. About the Author: Dr. Ona Ekhomu, CFE, CPP, CSP, PCI, CPOI was born in Irrua, Nigeria. He holds the PhD from University of Pittsburgh. A policy analyst and security expert, Ekhomu is Chairman Trans-World Security Systems Ltd. and Chairman School of Management and Security (Lagos, Nigeria). President of Trans-World Security Systems Inc. of Chicago, Illinois, USA, Ekhomu is also a lecturer in the Sociology Department of the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He is President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria; Africa Representative of the International Foundation for Protection Officers; and former Regional Vice-President (West and Central Africa) of ASIS International. Ekhomu is author of Kidnap: Face to Face with Death (2014) and Effective Personal & Corporate Security (2009).
What is terrorism? Academics search in vain for the unholy grail: the definition of terrorism that will exonerate or condemn American officials. There are many vying definitions and no tribunal to resolve the contest. In this unique essay, Ron Hirschbein analyzes conflicts in which officials themselves called their actions "terrorist." He reveals that terrorism didn't always get bad press. In fact, terror bombing was indispensable to winning World War II. Not only did the Allied Forces bombed German cities, but they also used the nuclear bomb in Japan, killing many noncombatant civilians. During the Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation became the strategy to deter war between the superpowers. Many ironies are brought to light in revisiting these conflicts, such as the fact that it was accepted that safety depended upon the willingness to detonate weapons of mass destruction. Not even American citizens enjoyed noncombatant immunity during the Cold War as they were held hostage to mutually assured destruction and marked for sacrifice in various strategic scenarios. Indeed, their lives were risked in confronting crises in Berlin and Cuba. Subsequent conflicts in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, as well as the War on Terror itself, are also examined. Like World War II, all involved killing noncombatants by accident or design. Casting these conflicts in an ironic light reveals incongruities in language and situations in which triumphant dreams become self-defeating realities (as with the second Iraq war). The War on Terror, now rebranded as an "Overseas Contingency Plan" seems to be the answer to a Jihadist's prayer. Further, U.S.-led covert attacks and assassinations by drones raise many discussions of legalities. And today the curse of terrorism is fodder for captivating primetime entertainment, enjoyed even by the president of the United States.
Presenting an analysis of modern-day extremism, this book explores how any group or movement--political, ideological, racial, ethnonational, religious, or issue-driven--can adopt an extremist mindset if they believe their existence or interests are threatened. Looking beyond "fringe" resistance groups already labeled as terrorists or subversives, the author examines conventional organizations--political parties, religious groups, corporations, interest groups, nation-states, police and the military--that deploy extremist strategies to further their agendas. A dynamic of mutual causation between conventional and resistance groups is argued: extremist resistance surfaces in response to oppressive measures by conventional powers to maintain their supremacy through systemic injustices, including slavery, caste systems, patriarchy, colonialism, autocracy, exploitive capitalism, and discrimination against minorities.
Terrorism has returned to the streets of Northern Ireland. In the years after the 1998 Real IRA bombing of Omagh, which killed 29 people, violent dissident Republican groups have re-emerged as a major security threat to a region that has been denied peace, stability, and prosperity for too long. Those responsible have many names. They are breakaways, splinter factions, spoilers, and "residual" terrorists. The Real IRA, Continuity IRA, and Oglaigh na hEireann are only some of the groups now responsible for a growing wave of bombings, shootings, threats, and intimidation across Northern Ireland. Commonly known as "the dissidents," these are the rejectionists for whom there seems to be no negotiated settlement, no peace deal, no consensus solution that will convince them to accept the will of the majority of the people on the island of Ireland. Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland's Dissident Terrorists presents the results of meticulous research conducted by the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at the Pennsylvania State University. Since 2007, John Horgan, Director of the center, has led a research project to monitor the activities of Ireland's new terrorists. Drawing on one of the largest open-source militant databases ever assembled, Divided We Stand describes the activities, histories, motivations, psychology, and strategy of the small, dynamic, and rapidly evolving splinter groups that continue to erode peace, stability, and normalization in Northern Ireland.
What are the human consequences of conflict and what are the appropriate service responses? This book seeks to provide an answer to these important questions, drawing on over twenty-five years of work by the author in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. Focusing on the work undertaken following the Omagh bombing, the book describes how needs were assessed and understood, how evidence-based services were put in place, and the training and education programmes that were developed to assist first those communities affected by the bombing and later the wider population affected by the years of conflict. The author places the mental-health needs of affected communities at the heart of the political and peace processes that follow. This is a practical book and will be of particular interest to those planning for and responding to conflict-related disasters, policy makers, service commissioners and providers, politicians, civil servants and peace makers. -- .
This open access book brings together a set of original studies that use cutting-edge computational methods to investigate conflict at various geographic scales and degrees of intensity and violence. Methodologically, this book covers a variety of computational approaches from text mining and machine learning to agent-based modelling and social network analysis. Empirical cases range from migration policy framing in North America and street protests in Iran to violence against civilians in Congo and food riots world-wide. Supplementary materials in the book include a comprehensive list of the datasets on conflict and dissent, as well as resources to online repositories where the annotated code and data of individual chapters can be found and where (agent-based) models can be re-produced and altered. These materials are a valuable resource for those wishing to retrace and learn from the analyses described in this volume and adapt and apply them to their own research interests. By bringing together novel research through an international team of scholars from a range of disciplines, Computational Conflict Research pioneers and maps this emerging field. The book will appeal to students, scholars, and anyone interested in the prospects of using computational social sciences to advance our understanding of conflict dynamics.
This book explores the ways in which transnational fiction in the post-9/11 era can intervene in discourse surrounding the "war on terror" to advocate for marginalised perspectives. Trauma and Fictions of the "War on Terror" conceptualises global political discourse about the "war on terror" as incongruous, with transnational memory frames instituted in Western nations centralising 9/11 as uniquely traumatic, excluding the historical and present-day experiences of Afghans under Western-specifically American-hegemonic violence. Recent developments in trauma studies explain how dominant Western trauma theory participates in this exclusion, failing to account for the ongoing suffering common to non-Western, colonial, and postcolonial contexts. O'Brien explores how Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner), Nadeem Aslam (The Wasted Vigil, The Blind Man's Garden), and Kamila Shamsie (Burnt Shadows) represent marginalised perspectives in the context of the "war on terror".
Origins of Terrorism: The Rise of the World's Most Formidable Terrorist Groups examines the roots of Islamic terrorism, it's history, and some of the foundational figures in prominent terrorist organizations. Throughout, the book also addresses the use of terrorism, the "hows" and "whys" of terrorists' goals, and their modus operandi. Historically, insurgency operations have formed the basis of a number of terrorist groups-resistance to western powers, particularly the United States, and what is viewed as their unwanted interference in regional affairs. Sections are devoted to individual terror organizations, including some of the most well-known and resilient global movements-Al Qaeda, ISIS, the Taliban, and Boko Haram, among others. Coverage details where and how they originated, who the principal organizers were, how these individuals worked-or didn't work-together. In this, the authors look at the circumstances that allowed for these leaders, and their groups', development and success. In this, the authors expose interesting, little-known stories and facts about the specific upbringing, family life, and personal narrative around these organizations' founders, as well as ties to other terrorist founders and organizations. For example, the relationship between individuals such as Osama bin Laden and Musab al Zarkawi (aka Ahmad al-Khalayleh)-the founder of 'Al Qaeda in Iraq' (AQI), which became ISIS-is examined in detail, providing readers with some of the "stories behind the stories" to understand the prominent figures and underpinnings of major terrorist organizations' philosophies, formation, and elements that have led to their staying power. Origins of Terrorism will be a valuable resource for security and intelligence professionals, terrorism researchers, and students, providing a unique perspective to understand terrorism and terror movements in considering counterterror efforts.
First published in 1988, Terrorism: The Cuban Connection examines Cuba's involvement in terrorism. With a focus on Havana, the book begins by looking at Cuba's history and the origins of terrorism. As it progresses, the book traces the development of terrorism and explores Cuba's connections with other parts of the world, including America, Russia, the Caribbean, South America, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Terrorism: The Cuban Connection is a detailed study, equipped with a wealth of key documents and photographs.
Boko Haram has been one of the most important sources of security challenges facing the Nigerian government since the group became radicalised in 2009 following a government clampdown and eventual death of their founder Mohamed Yusuf. The monograph critically interrogates the various explanatory theses for the emergence and radicalisation of the group and concludes that the sect is merely a symptom of the severe crisis that has engulfed the country's nation-building. This crisis, it argues, has triggered a massive de-Nigerianisation process, often with the state as the enemy: those entrusted with the nation's common patrimony steal it blind, law enforcement officers turn the other way if you offer them a little inducement, organised labour, including university lecturers go on prolonged strikes on a whim, students resort to cultism and exam malpractices and workers drag their feet, refuse to put in their best and engage in moonlighting. Most people and groups seem to have one form of grouse or the other against the Nigerian state and its institutions, meaning that unless the trend is urgently reversed, there is a risk of having Nigeria without Nigerians. Jideofor Adibe studied political science at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and holds a doctorate degree in International Development Studies from Roskilde University, Denmark. He also holds an LLM degree in Media Law from City University, London and equally studied the New Economic Powers at Oxford University, UK. He has been a Guest Research Fellow at several research institutes across the world including the Centre for Development Research, Copenhagen, Denmark, the Nordic Institute for African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden, the Centre for Developing Area Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada and the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, University of London, UK. Dr Adibe teaches political science at Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria and is also the founding editor of the quarterly, peer-reviewed journal, African Renaissance, which has been published continuously since June 2004. He is equally a columnist for the Daily Trust - one of the leading national newspapers in Nigeria and also a member of the paper's Editorial Board. Dr Adibe has published several books and articles and can be reached at: [email protected]
Abu al-Abbas was one of Yasser Arafat's top generals. His name is forever linked to an operation in 1985 that sparked an international crisis: the hijacking of an Italian cruise liner named the Achille Lauro and the death of Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly American tourist. This memoir by the wife of Abu al-Abbas recalls an era of Palestinian resistance, the hard realities of a cause that faced impossible odds, and the irony that the death of a single man should outweigh all arguments of right and wrong.
Behavioural Economics and Terrorism can be used as a guide to help us think about thinking and, in doing so, to appreciate the deep quirkiness of human behaviour. Each day, people draw on their understanding of human behaviour. This takes place subconsciously for the most part but as situations become more complex it becomes necessary to think more deliberately about how people make their decisions. This book can be used to better understand human action in such contexts. In the high-stakes world of counter-terrorism, every angle of advantage is critical. From terrorists' operational choices to the way that information flows through intelligence agencies, the book explains the patterns of behaviour that systematically shape human decision-making, for good and for bad. Decision-makers' use of reference points, their loss aversion, overconfidence, goals and aspirations all shape their choices under conditions of risk and uncertainty. This book helps to shed light on how to use these concepts (and more) to develop deeper insights into the way in which terrorists think about their attack methods and targets.
This book examines the issue of territorial control by violent jihadist groups, using a comparative perspective. The book argues that in many parts of the world the connection between a state and the control over territory is not as close as presented by conventional political maps, and therefore it is necessary to analyse the territoriality of non-state actors as well. Based on a variety of case studies, the work looks at different levels of connection between the violent Islamist groups and territory, dividing them into non-territorial, semi-territorial and territorial groups. While the majority of the cases are located in the Middle East (Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda at the Arabian Peninsula, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Hamas and Hezbollah), the book also draws cases from Africa (groups in the western Sahel, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram), South Asia (Taliban), and East Asia (Abu Sayyaf). By providing in-depth understanding of their respective approaches to territory, the book identifies the specifics of each group's territoriality, while also drawing more general conclusions. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, radical Islam, Middle Eastern studies, and International Relations in general. |
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