New Global Terrorism Characteristics, Causes, Controls

The September 11, 2001 terrorist destruction of New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, has stimulated much fresh thinking about the way collegiate instruction in international affairs and national security ought to be organized, and has culminated in reconstruction and revision of conventional coverage concerning the global terrorism now unfolding in the discourse about this problem. Understandably, in the wake of that horrendous 9/11 event and in response to the fear and interest that it provoked, the syllabi of many courses now give expanded coverage to global terrorism as a topic, and numerous new courses dealing exclusively with the subject have been added to the undergraduate and graduate curriculum. However, the available recent scholarship on terrorism arguably has not yet been assembled in a way that accommodates the need for instructional materials for use in the classroom, in light of the troubled new realities that now so stubbornly confront the entire world. There is arguably a notable lag between the perceived new realities and the issues and topics addressed by much of the existing literature prepared primarily to orient students to the key points of debate about the nature, determinants, and means to combat the latest wave of terrorism. Moreover, the contemporary reader who wanders into a bookstore or library to find books and journal articles about international terrorism is likely to walk into a morass of contending views and competing prescriptions, and cannot help coming away feeling more puzzled than enlightened. It is my belief that the commentary regarding the rising threat of global terrorism needs to be put into perspective in a concise but representative sample of prevailing and divergent opinion that clarifies rather than adds to the confusion, while presenting a balanced assessment that allows for the spectrum of disagreement on the major issues to be considered. This book is written primarily for instructors use to aid their students and help them to evaluate the key questions surrounding terrorism, in the aftermath of 9/11. The collection has been assembled by selecting the world's leading experts and asking them to write original interpretations on particular topics. The goal is to provide an integrated anthology for instruction, written in the same accessible language that covers the most important topics and central arguments in the current debate about the nature of today's terrorist threats and methods of containing those multiple threats. Obviously, no book on this topic can cover all issues, and this book is no exception. Without apologizing, this anthology seeks to sample the range of discussion without billing itself as providing a complete picture. Indeed, what has been included for student instruction is extracted from a huge nest of available research and commentary on the subject, and this book only provides a partial glimpse of the range of evaluation that exists. However, to assist instructors, it is important for them to note and to take advantage of the fact that the editor has written detailed introductions to each of the three parts. These essays summarize the key concepts and literature dealing with, respectively, the characteristics, causes, and control of today's terrorism. Each part introduction also provides a rationale for the essays that are presented as well as an overview of each chapter's theme and conclusion, placed into the context of other literature dealing with the same topic. Considerations of space precluded the publication of these extensive part introductions in the text, in the interest of making more space available for the authoritative essays deemed crucial for readers. However, the part introductions are available at the Prentice Hall website. All instructors are encouraged to exploit the information and critical comparative analysis provided by the editor's part introductions, which serves as a hanKegley, Charles W., Jr. is the author of 'New Global Terrorism Characteristics, Causes, Controls', published 2002 under ISBN 9780130494139 and ISBN 0130494135.