The January 2015 shooting at the headquarters of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris and the subsequent attacks that took place in the Ile-de-France region were staggeringly violent events. They sparked an enormous discussion among citizens and intellectuals from around Europe and beyond. By analyzing the effects the attacks have had in various spheres of social life, including the political, ideology, collective imaginaries, the media, and education, this collection of essays aims to serve as a contribution as well as a critical response to that discussion. The volume observes that the events being attributed to Charlie Hebdo go beyond sensationalist reports of the mainstream media, transcend the spatial confines of nation states, and lend themselves to an ever-expanding number of mutating discursive formations.

This volume brings together interviews with leading scholars to discuss some of the most important issues associated with radicalization, violent extremism and terrorism. The overall aim of these interviews is to move beyond the 'conventional wisdom' over radicalization and violent extremism best represented by many of its well-known slogans, metaphors, aphorisms alongside various other thought-terminating cliches. A vast range of topics are tackled in these conversations, including issues as diverse as the genealogy of radicalization and violent extremism, the rhetoric of emergency politics ('the language of fear'), the ethics of securitization, mutual radicalization, the challenges arising out of the relationship between cognitive and behavioural radicalization, Islamism bias in research on radicalization, the ethics of espionage (as an integral element of the 'war on terror'), the epistemic dimension of radicalization, the application of the just war conceptual framework to terrorism, and the ethics of exceptional means when addressing security-related issues, to name a few. The unifying assumption of the interviews in the volume is the complex nature of radicalization, violent extremism and conflicting diversity, as well as their interwoven relationship. While radicalization has become one of the 'great buzzwords' of the intelligence and security 'industry', pleas for its very abandonment as a useful analytical category have also started to emerge. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, radicalisation, violent extremism, security studies and International Relations, in general.

Terrorist groups are no different from other organizations in their use of branding to promote their ideas and to distinguish themselves from groups that share similar aims. The branding they employ may contain complex systems of meaning and emotion; it conveys the group's beliefs and capabilities. Branding Terror is the first comprehensive survey of the visual identity of the world's major terrorist organizations, from al-Qaeda and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to the Tamil Tigers. Each of the 60-plus entries contains a concise description of the group's ideology, leadership and modus operandi, and a brief timeline of events. The group's branding - the symbolism, colours and typography of its logo and flag - is then analysed in detail. Branding Terror does not seek to make any political statements; rather, it offers insight into an understudied area of counter-intelligence, and provides an original and provocative source of inspiration for graphic designers.

Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, Second Edition, takes a holistic approach to biosecurity, with coverage of pathogens, prevention, and response methodology. It addresses these hazards in the context of vulnerability assessments and the planning strategies government and industry can use to prepare for and respond to such events. The book is organized into four thematic sections: Part I provides a conceptual understanding of biowarfare, bioterrorism and the laws we have to counteract this; Part II investigates known bioagents and the threat from emerging diseases; Part III focuses on agricultural terrorism and food security; and Part IV outlines international, US, and local initiatives for biodefense and biosecurity. Case studies illustrate biodefense against both intentional terrorism and natural outbreaks.

This book adopts an innovative historical approach to Terrorism, focusing on the weaknesses of terrorist states and organizations as reflected in the ideologies, methodologies and propaganda of Russian populist, National Socialist and Islamic Terrorism. Drawing upon multilingual primary sources, the book challenges the oft repeated claim that the Nazi regime and Islamic State produced propaganda of superior quality, instead arguing that the manipulation of information is the Achilles heel of terrorist organizations. It offers a critical examination of the fears of terrorists themselves, as opposed to the traditional focus on the fear instilled by terrorist organizations in governments and citizens. Taking a multidisciplinary approach and long-term history perspective, the book provides a method for exploring the minds of terrorists and the inner workings of their organizations and traces the evolution of terrorist thought and methodology across time and place. This is the ideal volume for researchers of Terrorism within the fields of History, Politics, Security Studies, Religious Studies and Legal Studies.

The Power Paradox: A Toolkit for Analyzing Conflict and Extremism reveals how mainstream views of power restrict the conceptual insights needed to resolve conflict. Anna Bennett insightfully explores Michel Foucault's work on power and discourse in order to advance conceptual and contextual tools for understanding power dynamics. Through an examination of a range of extremist, terrorist, and counter-terrorist rhetoric, as well as various theories of power, Bennett analyzes the widespread problems associated with assuming that power is only repressive and competitive. This limited view reinforces - often unwittingly - divisive dynamics and stubborn polemics, which serve to continue conflict. By offering a comprehensive and constructive view of power struggles, The Power Paradox argues that power is a relational dynamic. Bennett identifies fascinating contradictions within discourses of power and relational dynamics, acknowledging the enduring quandary of power struggles: we are all implicated within them.

This book explains how and why the transatlantic relationship has remained resilient despite persistent differences in the preferences, approaches, and policies of key member states. It covers topics ranging from the history of transatlantic relations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization and security issues, trade, human rights, and the cultural sinews of the relationship, to the impacts of COVID-19, climate change, think tanks, the rise of populism, public opinion, and the triangular relationship between the United States (US), Europe, and China. The book also conceptualizes resilience as a quality arising from myriad forms of interdependence. This interdependence helps shed light on the Atlantic partnership's capacity to withstand serious disagreements, such as those that occurred during the Reagan, George W. Bush, and Trump presidencies. With a principal focus on the US and Europe, the contributors to the volume also employ Canadian case studies to provide a unique and useful corrective. This book will interest all intermediate and senior undergraduate as well as graduate courses on relations between the US and Europe, American foreign policy, and European Union foreign policy. A specialist readership that includes academic and think tank researchers, policy practitioners, and opinion leaders will also benefit from this timely volume.

This book explains how and why the transatlantic relationship has remained resilient despite persistent differences in the preferences, approaches, and policies of key member states. It covers topics ranging from the history of transatlantic relations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization and security issues, trade, human rights, and the cultural sinews of the relationship, to the impacts of COVID-19, climate change, think tanks, the rise of populism, public opinion, and the triangular relationship between the United States (US), Europe, and China. The book also conceptualizes resilience as a quality arising from myriad forms of interdependence. This interdependence helps shed light on the Atlantic partnership's capacity to withstand serious disagreements, such as those that occurred during the Reagan, George W. Bush, and Trump presidencies. With a principal focus on the US and Europe, the contributors to the volume also employ Canadian case studies to provide a unique and useful corrective. This book will interest all intermediate and senior undergraduate as well as graduate courses on relations between the US and Europe, American foreign policy, and European Union foreign policy. A specialist readership that includes academic and think tank researchers, policy practitioners, and opinion leaders will also benefit from this timely volume.

This book reveals how counterterrorism discourses and practices became the main tool of a systematic violation of human rights in Egypt after the Arab Uprising. It examines how the civic and democratic uprising in Egypt turned into robust authoritarianism under the pretence of counterterrorism and the 'war on terror'. By interrogating Egypt's counterterrorism legislation, the book identifies a correlation between counterterrorism narratives and the systemic violation of human rights. It examines the construction of a national security state that has little tolerance for dissent, political debate or the questioning of official policy, and how the anti-terrorism measures undertaken are actually anti-democracy strategies. The book also traces 150 years of Egyptian counterterrorism and counterinsurgency discourse, and analyses how this links with these practices of human rights assaults. By investigating how this discourse constructs and reproduces knowledge and meaning about terrorism and counterterrorism practices in Egypt, the book highlights how the government legitimises these violations against the population in the interests of the ruling elite. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, critical terrorism studies, discourse theory, Middle Eastern politics, decoloniality, and International Relations.

Offers approaches and strategies for combating radicalisation and extremism. The first book to explore cultural identity, acculturation and perceived discrimination of Muslim youth across Western countries in relation to social work. An interdisciplinary resource for those researching and working in social work, psychology, public health, psychiatry, sociology, political science and community development.

Offers new insights into the history of right-wing extremism and violence in Europe, East and West, from 1900 until the present day. Examines various forms of organizational and ideological interconnectedness and what inspires right-wing terrorism. In addition to several empirical chapters on prewar extreme-right political violence, the book features extensive coverage of postwar right-wing terrorism including the recent resurgence in attacks.

Conceptualizing Terrorism argues that, in the post 9/11 world, the need for an internationally agreed definition of terrorism is more important than it has ever been, despite the challenges that such an endeavour presents. Indeed, in a global context, where the term is often applied selectively and pejoratively according to where one's interests lie, there is a real need to instill some analytical quality into the concept of terrorism, not least in order to prevent the term being manipulated to justify all manner of counter-terrorism responses. Not only is this important for the policymaking context but it is also an imperative task within academia - in order to strengthen the theoretical foundation of terrorism studies, for all other terrorism related theories rest on what one means by terrorism in the first place. Written from an academic perspective, the book explores the prospects for terrorism as an analytical concept. Arguing that the essence of this particular form of political violence lies in its intent to generate a psychological impact beyond the immediate victims, it goes on to propose the adoption of three key preliminary assumptions that have implications for the definitional debate and that it suggests might help to increase the analytical potential of terrorism. The book then considers potential elements of a definition before concluding with its own conceptualization of terrorism.

Given the extremely high cost of overseas military operations today, the author offers readers scholarly insights as to what motivates kingdoms, countries, and groups to engage in religious conflict, beginning with those found in the Hebrew Bible. To do this, he analyzes three related religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, to determine their similarities and differences regarding the killing of people. The areas of conflict analysis include Fundamentalism, Proselytization, Sacrifice (to include martyrdom), and Revenge (to include genocide). The insights of preeminent religious and political scholars are integrated into this comprehensive analysis of conflict involving religion, leading to an answer to the ultimate question: Is the killing worth it?

When we take a look back at the way Western states have fought terrorist organizations in the last 20 years, it is difficult not to think that these alternatives to war might have been more ethical than the decisions to invade Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and in 2003. These cases speak for themselves as they have both led to the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, which is highly paradoxical in light of the logic that supported these interventions. There is a need to think of alternatives to war that will imply the legitimization of proactive sets of measures that would allow states to effectively prevent terrorist attacks through the use of kinetic force in a limited extent as a way to avoid the terrible and unpredictable effects of wars. Violent Alternatives to War: Justifying Actions Against Contemporary Terrorism engages in a moral discussion of the challenges associated with violent alternatives to war when confronting terrorism and suggests a comprehensive approach to how this form of violence can be legitimized and how it ought to be used against this contemporary threat.

The Power Paradox: A Toolkit for Analyzing Conflict and Extremism reveals how mainstream views of power restrict the conceptual insights needed to resolve conflict. Anna Bennett insightfully explores Michel Foucault's work on power and discourse in order to advance conceptual and contextual tools for understanding power dynamics. Through an examination of a range of extremist, terrorist, and counter-terrorist rhetoric, as well as various theories of power, Bennett analyzes the widespread problems associated with assuming that power is only repressive and competitive. This limited view reinforces - often unwittingly - divisive dynamics and stubborn polemics, which serve to continue conflict. By offering a comprehensive and constructive view of power struggles, The Power Paradox argues that power is a relational dynamic. Bennett identifies fascinating contradictions within discourses of power and relational dynamics, acknowledging the enduring quandary of power struggles: we are all implicated within them.

One of America's most distinguished reporters and historians offers the deeply moving personal story of Engine 40, Ladder 35 -- located on the West Side of Manhattan near Lincoln Center -- and the absolute sacrifice its firefighters made on September 11, 2001. On the morning of September 11, 2001, two rigs carrying thirteen men set out from this firehouse: twelve of them would never return.Firehouse takes us to the epicenter of the tragedy. Through the kind of intimate portraits that are Halberstam's trademark, we watch the day unfold--the men called to duty while their families wait anxiously for news of them. In addition, we come to understand the culture of the firehouse itself: why gifted men do this; why, in so many instances, they are eager to follow in their fathers' footsteps and serve in so dangerous a profession; and why, more than anything else, it is not just a job, but a calling. This is journalism-as-history at its best, the story of what happens when one small institution gets caught in an apocalyptic day. Firehouse is a book that will move readers as few others have in our time. More than 6 years after his death David Halberstam remains one of this country's most respected journalists and revered authorities on American life and history in the years since WWII. A Pulitzer Prize-winner for his groundbreaking reporting on the Vietnam War, Halberstam wrote more than 20 books, almost all of them bestsellers. His work has stood the test of time and has become the standard by which all journalists measure themselves.

1. There have been very few research projects on victims of terrorism, so this book helps reset this balance. 2. Furthermore, this book engages with the philosophical and psychological literature on resilience and trauma, giving it a wider market.

Understanding and harnessing the persuasive powers of narrative is central to U.S. and international counter-terrorism efforts. There is an urgent need to understand the narrative tactics of terrorist recruitment and an equal if not greater need to destabilize and exploit the weaknesses of those narratives. Maan makes a connection, unique to terrorism studies, between the mechanisms of colonizing narratives and psychological warfare aimed at the recruit. The power of both relies on misidentification, both types of narratives encourage individuals to take actions contrary to their best interests, and both are insidious: they are continued internally without the implementation of external physical force. While these narrative strategies have been powerful, Maan makes the argument, also unique to terrorism studies, that certain types of compositional structures lend themselves to manipulation and the weakness of those structures can be exploited from a security standpoint.

Necrogeopolitics: On Death and Death-Making in International Relations brings together a diverse array of critical IR scholars, political theorists, critical security studies researchers, and critical geographers to provide a series of interventions on the topic of death and death-making in global politics. Contrary to most existing scholarship, this volume does not place the emphasis on traditional sources or large-scale configurations of power/force leading to death in IR. Instead, it details, theorizes, and challenges more mundane, perhaps banal, and often ordinary modalities of violence perpetrated against human lives and bodies, and often contributing to horrific instances of death and destruction. Concepts such as "slow death," "soft killing," "superfluous bodies," or "extra/ordinary" destruction/disappearance are brought to the fore by prominent voices in these fields alongside more junior creative thinkers to rethink the politics of life and death in the global polity away from dominant IR or political theory paradigms about power, force, and violence. The volume features chapters that offer thought-provoking reconsiderations of key concepts, theories, and practices about death and death-making along with other chapters that seek to challenge some of these concepts, theories, or practices in settings that include the Palestinian territories, Brazilian cities, displaced population flows from the Middle East, sites of immigration policing in North America, and spaces of welfare politics in Scandinavian states.

This book rigorously documents and explains the genocide perpetrated by the Guatemalan state against indigenous Maya populations within the context of its counterinsurgency campaign against leftist guerrillas between 1981 and 1983. In doing so it brings to light a genocide that has remained largely invisible within both academic disciplines and the practitioner sphere. In May 2013, former de facto president of Guatemala, General Efrain Rios Montt, was for ten days indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity within Guatemala's domestic courts. Based upon over a decade of ethnographic research, including in survivors' communities in Guatemala, this book documents the historical processes shaping the genocide by analysing the evolution of both counterinsurgent and insurgent violence and strategy, focusing above all on its impact upon the civilian population. The research clearly evidences the impact of political violence upon non-combatants; how military and insurgent strategies gradually implicate civilians in conflict and the strategies civilians may adopt in order to survive them. Convincingly framed within key theoretical scholarship from genocide studies and comparative politics it speaks to a broad audience beyond Latin Americanists.

This new edited volume analyzes the Middle East's political, strategic, and economic realities in 2015, looking at both old and new challenges, how political actors are evolving, and how policymakers can think strategically about the region.

This reference analyzes and chronicles the Soviet occupation of and withdrawal from Afghanistan in the period from 1973 to 1990 by an observer in the area who relied on a variety of sources and cross-checked them carefully. The analysis of events leading to the Soviet withdrawal covers the important negotiations and relates them to the historic changes that were taking place in the Soviet Union and in its relationships to the rest of the world. This analysis and chronology is indispensable to students and researchers assessing the final years of the Soviet Union, events in Afghanistan, and current problems.

A brief introduction precedes a discussion of the international implications of Soviet policy in Afghanistan, a description of the negotiations following years of crisis from 1973 to 1986, an analysis of the Soviet decision to withdraw, and the final years from 1988 to 1990. The chronology covering the Soviet intervention and withdrawal is detailed and occupies the main portion of this reference. An index makes important detail easily accessible to students and researchers in history, political science, military studies, and Soviet and Asian affairs.

This book illustrates the plethora of security concerns of the Americas in the 21st century. It presents the work of a number of prolific scholars and analysts in the continents of America. The book provides one of the only expansive applications of theory to a wide geographical area. It offers new perspectives and urges readers to take theory seriously through use. Within the Americas, we find a number of important issues that compose of this geographic security complex. Most important are the threats that supersede borders: drug trafficking, migration, health, and environment. These threats change our understanding of security and the state and region process of neutralizing or correcting these threats. This volume evaluates these threats within contemporary security discourse.

This book delivers an interpretive framework for making sense of today's geopolitical landscape and casts new light on the impact ideology and technology have had on American foreign policy and contemporary security practices. Edwin Daniel Jacob argues that America's security practices in the Global War on Terror have been guided by an anachronistic Cold War logic that has subordinated strategy to tactics. Jacob shows that deep-rooted prejudices and presuppositions regarding American exceptionalism have had a disastrous impact on the policies of the United States, not only in dealing with terrorism, but also in seeking to impose American hegemony in the Middle East. Ineffectual security practices of dubious moral character, from rendition and torture to preemptive strikes and nation building to drones and assassinations, privilege exigency over ethics. Yet the result of this "post-strategic" approach to security, where interchangeable tactics, like these, masquerade as strategy, only increases insecurity. Jacob offers a fresh perspective on American foreign policy that links national security with human security in regional terms. This approach highlights the need for order, predictability, and stability-the cornerstone of political realism. Making use of insights derived from Machiavelli, Hobbes, Marx, Weber, Schmitt, and Morgenthau, this interdisciplinary work provides an overview of American foreign policy in the twenty-first century and speaks to crucial themes in the fields of history, political science, and sociology.