The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction [Anglais] [Broché]

The use of violence to achieve political goals stretches all the way back to biblical times, and Walter Laqueur outlines its long practice in these pages. Yet his main concern is with the 21st-century threat of "megaterrorism": "What we know about past ages of barbarism is frightening enough," he writes. "The consequences of aggressive madness in the age of high technology and the era of weapons of mass destruction may well be beyond our imagination." Along the way, he offers a fascinating sociology of terrorism; its practitioners, for instance, tend to come from the educated middle classes (although this is far from a hard-and-fast rule). Also, terrorists rarely believe their actions will allow them to seize political power. Instead, they aim to provoke specific responses from their targets, such as lighting an international conflict. Although it is hardly a how-to book, The New Terrorism describes what it takes for terrorism to succeed--Laqueur's list of essentials includes careful planning, an ability to improvise, small units of operation, the anonymity of large urban areas, and ready sources of money. The book is full of rich observations, and there probably isn't a more knowledgeable source on the subject than Laqueur, who has written several books on European and Middle Eastern history and military analysis. His mild pessimism is troubling, but perhaps warranted. Terrorism is about to become even more terrible. --John J. Miller --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

The New Terrorism would serve admirably as a first-rate textbook on the subject. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Laqueur's descriptive survey of terrorism touches on all geographic locales of religio-political violence over the past 125 years. Supplying a quantity of detail suited for the student-researcher, Laqueur spools up the various threads that come together in particular terrorist incidents. The explanations for them include the stated grievance of the perpetrators, their psychology, and their ideologies. The anarchists and the People's Will of Tsarist Russia initiated the relativistic intellectual arguments for terrorism that extend up to the present. Though contemporary assassins or bombers really have no new arguments, they have innumerable causes and potential access to a frightful variety of destructive means, described in Jessica Stern's The Ultimate Terrorists. Laqueur discusses weapons, too, but concentrates more on the actors and their acts, be they Tamil Tigers, IRA Provos, American groups left and right, or Islamists claiming (dubiously) religious sanction, as in the unending atrocities in Algeria and elsewhere. A handy integration of the background and present face of the terrorist phenomenon. Gilbert Taylor --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Veteran historian Laqueur (Fascism: Past, Present, Future, 1996, etc.) muses on the future of terrorism in an age when weapons of mass destruction are a readily available consumer item. Terrorism is nothing new. Fanatical groups have been wreaking havoc from time immemorial. Today two things have changed that together transform terrorism from a ``nuisance'' to ``one of the gravest dangers facing mankind.'' First terroristsbe they Islamic extremists in the Middle East, ultranationalists in the US, or any number of other possible permutationsseem to have changed from organized groups with clear ideological motives to small clusters of the paranoid and hateful bent on vengeance and destruction for their own sake. There are no longer any moral limitations on what terrorists are willing to do, who and how many they are willing to kill. Second, these unhinged collectivities now have ready access to weapons of mass destruction. The technological skills are not that complex and the resources needed not too rare for terrorists to employ nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons where and when they wish. The consequences of such weapons in the hands of ruthless, rootless fanatics are not difficult to imagine. In addition to the destruction of countless lives, panic can grip any targeted society, unleashing retaliatory action which in turn can lead to conflagrations perhaps on a world scale. To combat such terrorist activities, states may come to rely more and more on dictatorial and authoritarian measures. In short, terrorism in the future may threaten the very foundations of modern civilizations. On all of this, Laqueur is quite convincing. Useful, too, is his elaboration on the nature of the various terrorist threats we face. Yet he too often falls back on questionable, if not offensive, opinion. He asserts, for instance, that in non-Western countries ``human lives count for less,'' and so the danger of terrorism in these countries is greater. This is simply unacceptable doggerel. Useful in pointing out the terrorist danger, but be wary of the author's more outlandish pronouncements. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

The New Terrorism is an important book. It makes clear the reason government officials have begun to come to grips with the vulnerabilities of U.S. infrastructure to terrorist attack. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

I found Walter Laqueur's The New Terrorism to be an authoritative and comprehensive review of international and domestic terrorism. It is also a discomfiting augury for the future. Laqueur's excellent work is probably the best single volume I've seen on the phenomenon of terrorism and political violence. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

A riveting story of terrorism's colorful past and multi-faceted nature. At today's juncture in history, as weapons of mass destruction begin to escape their Cold War confinement, Walter Laqueur's profound understanding of the politics and psychology of terrorism superbly illuminates a fearsome aspect of our future. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

Recent attacks in Oklahoma City, at the World Trade Towers, and at American embassies in Africa demonstrate the horrifying consequences of a terrorist strike. But as technological advances make weapons of mass destruction frighteningly easy to acquire, a revolution is occurring in the very nature of terrorism--one that may make these attacks look like child's play. In The New Terrorism Walter Laqueur, one of the foremost experts on terrorism and international strategic affairs, recounts the history of terrorism and, more importantly, examines the future of terrorist activity worldwide. Laqueur traces the chilling trend away from terrorism perpetrated by groups of oppressed nationalists and radicals seeking political change to small clusters of fanatics bent on vengeance and simple destruction. Coinciding with this trend is the alarming availability of weapons of mass destruction. Chemical and biological weapons are cheap and relatively easy to make or buy. Even nuclear devices are increasingly feasible options for terrorists. And with the information age, cyber terrorism is just around the corner. Laqueur argues that as a new quasi-religious extreme right rises, with more personal and less ideological motivations than their left-wing counterparts, it is only a matter of time before the attainability of weapons of mass destruction creates a terrifying and unstable scenario. From militant separatism in Kashmir to state-sponsored extremism in Libya and ecoterrorism in the West, The New Terrorism offers a thorough account of terrorism in all its past and current manifestations. Most importantly, it casts a sober eye to the future, when the inevitable marriage of technology and fanaticism will give us all something new to think about.

One of the foremost experts on terrorism and international strategic affairs recounts the history of terrorism and, more importantly, examines the future of terrorist activity worldwide. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.