"This is at the top of my list for best books on terrorism."
-Jessica Stern, author of "Terror 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. From the biblical Zealots to the medieval Islamic Assassins
to the anarchists who infiltrated the cities of Europe and North
America at the turn of the last century, terrorists have struck at
enemies far more powerful than themselves with targeted acts of
violence. Yet Richardson understands that terrorists are neither
insane nor immoral. Rather, they are rational political actors who
often deploy carefully calibrated tactics in a measured and
reasoned way. What is more, they invariably go to great lengths to
justify their actions to themselves, their followers, and, often,
the world.
Richardson shows that the nature of terrorism did not change after
the attacks of September 11, 2001; what changed was our response.
She argues that the Bush administration's "global war on terror"
was doomed to fail because of an ignorance of history, a refusal to
learn from the experience of other governments, and a fundamental
misconception about how and why terrorists act. As an alternative,
Richardson offers a feasible strategy for containing the terrorist
threat and cutting off its grassroots support.
The most comprehensive and intellectually rigorous account of
terrorism yet, " What Terrorists Want "is a daring intellectual
tour de force that allows us, at last, to reckon fully with this
major threat to today's global order.
KIRKUS- starred review
"The short answer? Fame and payback, perhaps even a thrill. The
long answer? Read this essential, important primer.
Terrorist groups have many motives and ideologies, notes Richardson
(Executive Dean/Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study), but they
tend to similar paths: They are founded by mature, well-educated
men but staffed by less learned and certainly more pliable youths;
they are fueled by a sense of injustice and the conviction that
only they are morally equipped to combat it; they see themselves as
defenders and not aggressors; they often define the terms of
battle. And, of course, this commonality: "Terrorists have elevated
practices that are normally seen as the excesses of warfare to
routine practice, striking noncombatants not as an unintended side
effect but as a deliberate strategy." Thus massacres, suicide
bombings and assassinations are all in a day's work. Richardson
argues against Karl Rove, who after 9/11 mocked those who tried to
understand the enemy, by noting that only when authorities make
efforts to get inside the minds of their terrorist enemies do they
succeed in defeating them, as with the leadership of the Shining
Path movement in Peru. Still, as Rove knows, if terrorists share a
pathology, then so do at least some of their victims: Once
attacked, people in democratic societies are more than willing to
trade freedom for security. Richardson closes by offering a set of
guidelines for combating terrorism, with such easily remembered
rules as "Live by your principles" and "Engage others in countering
terrorists with you"-observing, in passing, that the Bush
administration's attack on Iraq and subsequent occupation will
likely be remembered as serving as a recruiting poster for still
more terrorists.
How to win? Develop communities, settle grievances, exercise
patience and intelligence. That said, watch for more terrorism to
come: "We are going to have to learn to live with it and to accept
it as a price of living in a complex world."
_________________________________________________________________________________
"Louise Richardson . . . has now produced the overdue and essential
primer on terrorism and how to tackle it. "What Terrorists Want" is
the book many have been waiting for."--"The New York Times Book
Review "(Editor's Choice)
"Lucid and powerful, Richardson's book refutes the dangerous idea
that there's no point in trying to understand terrorists. . . .
rich, readable."--"Los Angeles Times Book Review"
"The kind of brisk and accessible survey of terrorism-as-"modus
operandi" that has been sorely missing for the past five years . .
. ["What Terrorists Want"] ought to be required reading as the
rhetoric mounts this campaign season."--"The American
Prospect"
"Richardson is one of the relative handful of experts who have been
studying the history and practice of terrorism since the Cold War.
. . . This book is a welcome source of information. It's written by
a true expert, giving her measured thoughts."--"Christian Science
Monitor"
"Richardson's clear language and deep humanity make "What
Terrorists Want "the one book that must be read by everyone who
cares about why people resort to the tactic of terrorism."-Desmond
M. Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus
"This is a book of hope. Terrorism, like the poor, will always be
with us in one form or another. But given sensible policies, we can
contain it without destroying what we hold dear."-"Financial Times
"
"A passionate, incisive, and groundbreaking argument that
provocatively overturns the myths surrounding terrorism."-Mary
Robinson, former president of Ireland and former UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights
"In its lucid analysis and summary, ["What Terrorists Want"] is
simply the best thing of its kind available now in this highly
crowded area."-"The Evening Standard "
"If a reader has the time to read only one book on terrorism, "What
Terrorists Want" is that book. Extensive historical knowledge,
personal contacts, enormous analytic skills, common sense, and a
fine mix of lucidity and clarity, make of this work a most
satisfying dissection of terrorists' motives and goals, and of the
effects of September 11, 2001. Richardson also offers a sharp
critique of American counterterrorism policies, and a sensible plan
for better ones."-Stanley Hoffmann, Buttenwieser University
Professor, Harvard University
"An astonishingly insightful analysis by one of the world's leading
authorities on terrorism, this book is filled with wisdom-based not
only on the author's extensive and long-term study of terrorism but
also on her experience growing up in a divided Ireland."-Jessica
Stern, author of T"error in the Name of God: Why Religious
Militants Kill
"
"A wide-ranging, clear headed, crisply written, cogently argued
anatomy of terrorist groups around the world."-Peter Bergen, senior
fellow, New America Foundation, and author of "The Osama bin Laden
I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader
"
"Among the numerous books published on terrorism after the 9/11
attacks, Louise Richardson's stands out as an unusually wise,
sensible, and humane treatise. An engrossing and lucid book, which
hopefully will be read by many and spread its unique spirit of
realistic optimism."
-Ariel Merari, Professor of Psychology, Tel Aviv University
"Thoughtful and stimulating . . . Controversially, and indeed
courageously, [Richardson] argues that, instead of regarding the
terrorists-even al-Qaeda types-as mindless and irrational creatures
motivated by dark forces of evil, it would be more constructive to
examine and seek to moderate some of the grievances that drive
previously normal and even nondescript characters to kill and maim
innocent people they don't even know."-"The" "Irish Times"
"A textbook and a myth-buster . . . [Richardson] is calling for
nothing less than a total re-evaluation of how we consider, and
react to, terrorism. . . . "What Terrorists Want" ought to be on
the bookshelf in every government office. Certainly, for any
student of international affairs it is an essential reading."
-"The Atlantic Affairs
"
"From the Hardcover edition."
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