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Spreading Hate examines the evolution of the white power movement
around the world, explaining its appeal and the threat it poses as
well as many failures. The modern white power movement is now a
global, transnational phenomenon. In this sweeping, authoritative
account, Daniel Byman traces the key moments in the white power
movement's evolution in the United States and around the world and
then details its many facets today. Using a wide range of sources,
Byman explodes several myths about white power terrorism and
exposes dangerous gaps in current policies. For almost two decades
since 9/11, white supremacist terrorism has been relegated to a
secondary concern in the US and Europe despite the fact that it was
clearly metastasizing. This neglect has led to shocking episodes of
violence from New Zealand to Norway to South Carolina and has
eroded faith in Western democratic institutions. Because white
power terrorists' grievances echo mainstream debates and their
violence often exacerbates polarization, their political impact can
be inordinately high even if the body count is low. As Byman
stresses, they are not a hide-bound movement seeking to turn back
the clock, but are dynamic, drawing on ideas from around the world
and exploiting the most cutting-edge technologies, especially
social media. White power terrorists, however, have many
weaknesses. They are divided, with poor leadership, and often
attract the incompetent and the criminal as well as the dangerous
and deluded. If governments act decisively and treat white power
terrorism with the same urgency they use to manage jihadist
violence, then the threat can be reduced. This will require
aggressive law enforcement, international intelligence cooperation,
crackdowns by technology companies, and other forceful steps.
Considering policy solutions as well as synthesizing a vast body of
scholarly research, Spreading Hate will be essential reading for
anyone worried about this an increasingly networked movement that
threatens to grow more dangerous in the years to come.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, the entire world was
introduced to Al Qaeda and its enigmatic leader, Osama bin Laden.
But the organization that changed the face of terrorism forever and
unleashed a whirlwind of counterterrorism activity and two major
wars had been on the scene long before that eventful morning. In Al
Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement: What
Everyone Needs to Know, Daniel L. Byman, an eminent scholar of
Middle East terrorism and international security who served on the
9/11 Commission, provides a sharp and concise overview of Al Qaeda,
from its humble origins in the mountains of Afghanistan to the
present, explaining its perseverance and adaptation since 9/11 and
the limits of U.S. and allied counterterrorism efforts. The
organization that would come to be known as Al Qaeda traces its
roots to the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Founded
as the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, Al Qaeda achieved a
degree of international notoriety with a series of spectacular
attacks in the 1990s; however, it was the dramatic assaults on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11 that truly launched Al
Qaeda onto the global stage. The attacks endowed the organization
with world-historical importance and provoked an overwhelming
counterattack by the United States and other western countries.
Within a year of 9/11, the core of Al Qaeda had been chased out of
Afghanistan and into a variety of refuges across the Muslim world.
Splinter groups and franchised offshoots were active in the 2000s
in countries like Pakistan, Iraq, and Yemen, but by early 2011,
after more than a decade of relentless counterterrorism efforts by
the United States and other Western military and intelligence
services, most felt that Al Qaeda's moment had passed. With the
death of Osama bin Laden in May of that year, many predicted that
Al Qaeda was in its death throes. Shockingly, Al Qaeda has staged a
remarkable comeback in the last few years. In almost every conflict
in the Muslim world, from portions of the Xanjing region in
northwest China to the African subcontinent, Al Qaeda franchises or
like-minded groups have played a role. Al Qaeda's extreme Salafist
ideology continues to appeal to radicalized Sunni Muslims
throughout the world, and it has successfully altered its
organizational structure so that it can both weather America's
enduring full-spectrum assault and tailor its message to specific
audiences. Authoritative and highly readable, Byman's account
offers readers insightful and penetrating answers to the
fundamental questions about Al Qaeda: who they are, where they came
from, where they're going-and, perhaps most critically-what we can
do about it.
In the sixty-plus years of the Jewish state's existence, Israeli
governments have exhausted almost every option in defending their
country against terror attacks. Israel has survived and even
thrived-but both its citizens and its Arab neighbors have paid
dearly. In A High Price, Daniel Byman breaks down the dual myths of
Israeli omnipotence and-conversely-ineptitude in fighting terror,
offering instead a nuanced, definitive historical account of the
state's bold but often failed efforts to fight terrorist groups.
The product of painstaking research and countless interviews, the
book chronicles different periods of Israeli counterterrorism.
Beginning with the violent border disputes that emerged after
Israel's founding in 1948, Byman charts the rise of Yasir Arafat's
Fatah and leftist groups such as the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine-organizations that ushered in the era of
international terrorism epitomized by the 1972 hostage-taking at
the Munich Olympics. Byman follows how Israel fought these groups
and new ones, such as Hamas, in the decades that follow, with
particular attention to the grinding and painful struggle during
the second intifada. Israel's debacles in Lebanon against groups
like the Lebanese Hizballah are also examined in-depth, as is the
country's problematic response to Jewish terrorist groups that have
struck at Arabs and Israelis seeking peace. In surveying Israel's
response to terror, the author points to the coups of shadowy
Israeli intelligence services, the much-emulated use of defensive
measures such as sky marshals on airplanes, and the role of
controversial techniques such as targeted killings and the security
barrier that separates Israel from Palestinian areas. Equally
instructive are the shortcomings that have undermined Israel's
counterterrorism goals, including a disregard for long-term
planning and a failure to recognize the long-term political
repercussions of counterterrorism tactics. Israel is often a
laboratory: new terrorist techniques are often used against it
first, and Israel in turn develops innovative countermeasures that
other states copy. Ultimately, A High Price expertly explains how
Israel's successes and failures can serve to inform all countries
fighting terrorism today.
This book examines how the United States uses limited military force and other means to influence adversaries and potential adversaries. It reviews when limited force can and cannot work and examines a range of current challenges, including those of guerrilla groups or minor powers armed with nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. It also looks at the complications arising from domestic politics and the difficulties of using force in an alliance.
The product of painstaking research and countless interviews, A
High Price offers a nuanced, definitive historical account of
Israel's bold but often failed efforts to fight terrorist groups.
Beginning with the violent border disputes that emerged after
Israel's founding in 1948, Daniel Byman charts the rise of Yasir
Arafat's Fatah and leftist groups such as the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine-organizations that ushered in the era of
international terrorism epitomized by the 1972 hostage-taking at
the Munich Olympics. Byman reveals how Israel fought these groups
and others, such as Hamas, in the decades that follow, with
particular attention to the grinding and painful struggle during
the second intifada. Israel's debacles in Lebanon against groups
like the Lebanese Hizballah are examined in-depth, as is the
country's problematic response to Jewish terrorist groups that have
struck at Arabs and Israelis seeking peace. In surveying Israel's
response to terror, the author points to the coups of shadowy
Israeli intelligence services, the much-emulated use of defensive
measures such as sky marshals on airplanes, and the role of
controversial techniques such as targeted killings and the security
barrier that separates Israel from Palestinian areas. Equally
instructive are the shortcomings that have undermined Israel's
counterterrorism goals, including a disregard for long-term
planning and a failure to recognize the long-term political
repercussions of counterterrorism tactics.
Thousands of people have died at the hands of terrorist groups who
rely on state support for their activities. Iran and Syria are well
known as sponsors of terrorism, while other countries, some with
strong connections to the West, have enabled terrorist activity by
turning a blind eye. Daniel Byman's hard-hitting and articulate
book analyzes this phenomenon. Focusing primarily on sponsors from
the Middle East and South Asia, it examines the different types of
support that states provide, their motivations, and the impact of
such sponsorship. The book also considers regimes that allow
terrorists to raise money and recruit without providing active
support. The experiences of Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria,
Saudi Arabia, and Libya are detailed here, alongside the histories
of radical groups such as al-Qaida and Hizballah. The book
concludes by assessing why it is often difficult to force sponsors
to cut ties to terrorist groups and suggesting ways in which it
could be done better in the future.
Thousands of people have died at the hands of terrorist groups who
rely on state support for their activities. Iran and Syria are well
known as sponsors of terrorism, while other countries, some with
strong connections to the West, have enabled terrorist activity by
turning a blind eye. Daniel Byman's hard-hitting and articulate
book analyzes this phenomenon. Focusing primarily on sponsors from
the Middle East and South Asia, it examines the different types of
support that states provide, their motivations, and the impact of
such sponsorship. The book also considers regimes that allow
terrorists to raise money and recruit without providing active
support. The experiences of Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria,
Saudi Arabia, and Libya are detailed here, alongside the histories
of radical groups such as al-Qaida and Hizballah. The book
concludes by assessing why it is often difficult to force sponsors
to cut ties to terrorist groups and suggesting ways in which it
could be done better in the future.
This book examines how the United States uses limited military force and other means to influence adversaries and potential adversaries. It reviews when limited force can and cannot work and examines a range of current challenges, including those of guerrilla groups or minor powers armed with nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. It also looks at the complications arising from domestic politics and the difficulties of using force in an alliance.
Ever since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, fighters
from abroad have journeyed in ever-greater numbers to conflict
zones in the Muslim world to defend Islam from-in their
view-infidels and apostates. The phenomenon recently reached its
apogee in Syria, where the foreign fighter population quickly
became larger and more diverse than in any previous conflict. In
Road Warriors, Daniel Byman provides a sweeping history of the
jihadist foreign fighter movement. He begins by chronicling the
movement's birth in Afghanistan, its growing pains in Bosnia and
Chechnya, and its emergence as a major source of terrorism in the
West in the 1990s, culminating in the 9/11 attacks. Since that
bloody day, the foreign fighter movement has seen major ups and
downs. It rode high after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, when the
ultra-violent Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) attracted thousands of foreign
fighters. AQI overreached, however, and suffered a crushing defeat.
Demonstrating the resilience of the movement, however, AQI
reemerged anew during the Syrian civil war as the Islamic State,
attracting tens of thousands of fighters from around the world and
spawning the bloody 2015 attacks in Paris among hundreds of other
strikes. Although casualty rates are usually high, the survivors of
Afghanistan, Syria, and other fields of jihad often became skilled
professional warriors, going from one war to the next. Still others
returned to their home countries, some to peaceful retirement but a
deadly few to conduct terrorist attacks. Over time, both the United
States and Europe have learned to adapt. Before 9/11, volunteers
went to and fro to Afghanistan and other hotspots with little
interference. Today, the United States and its allies have
developed a global program to identify, arrest, and kill foreign
fighters. Much remains to be done, however-jihadist ideas and
networks are by now deeply embedded, even as groups such as Al
Qaeda and the Islamic State rise and fall. And as Byman makes
abundantly clear, the problem is not likely to go away any time
soon.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, the entire world was
introduced to Al Qaeda and its enigmatic leader, Osama bin Laden.
But the organization that changed the face of terrorism forever and
unleashed a whirlwind of counterterrorism activity and two major
wars had been on the scene long before that eventful morning. In Al
Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement: What
Everyone Needs to Know, Daniel L. Byman, an eminent scholar of
Middle East terrorism and international security who served on the
9/11 Commission, provides a sharp and concise overview of Al Qaeda,
from its humble origins in the mountains of Afghanistan to the
present, explaining its perseverance and adaptation since 9/11 and
the limits of U.S. and allied counterterrorism efforts. The
organization that would come to be known as Al Qaeda traces its
roots to the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Founded
as the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, Al Qaeda achieved a
degree of international notoriety with a series of spectacular
attacks in the 1990s; however, it was the dramatic assaults on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11 that truly launched Al
Qaeda onto the global stage. The attacks endowed the organization
with world-historical importance and provoked an overwhelming
counterattack by the United States and other western countries.
Within a year of 9/11, the core of Al Qaeda had been chased out of
Afghanistan and into a variety of refuges across the Muslim world.
Splinter groups and franchised offshoots were active in the 2000s
in countries like Pakistan, Iraq, and Yemen, but by early 2011,
after more than a decade of relentless counterterrorism efforts by
the United States and other Western military and intelligence
services, most felt that Al Qaeda's moment had passed. With the
death of Osama bin Laden in May of that year, many predicted that
Al Qaeda was in its death throes. Shockingly, Al Qaeda has staged a
remarkable comeback in the last few years. In almost every conflict
in the Muslim world, from portions of the Xanjing region in
northwest China to the African subcontinent, Al Qaeda franchises or
like-minded groups have played a role. Al Qaeda's extreme Salafist
ideology continues to appeal to radicalized Sunni Muslims
throughout the world, and it has successfully altered its
organizational structure so that it can both weather America's
enduring full-spectrum assault and tailor its message to specific
audiences. Authoritative and highly readable, Byman's account
offers readers insightful and penetrating answers to the
fundamental questions about Al Qaeda: who they are, where they came
from, where they're going-and, perhaps most critically-what we can
do about it.
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