Root causes of terrorism
The price of growthThe Ultimate Terrorists, by Jessica SternReveiwed by Leonard A. root causes of terrorism Terrorism-threats. ColeHarvard University, 1999176 pages; $22. 95The Ultimate Terrorists by Jessica SternCuba: Confronting the U. S. root causes of terrorism American war on terrorism. Embargo by Peter SchwabWorld War II gave rise to a new meaning of "abc" that was unrelated to the alphabet or the broadcast network. The initials, representing atomic, biological, and chemical, were military shorthand for weapon-types that were set apart from conventional munitions. The trinity later morphed into "NBC," with "N" standing for nuclear, and into "CBR," with "R" standing for radiological. root causes of terrorism Singapore + terrorism. By the mid-1990s, these triads of initials gave way to the more ominous designation of "wmd"- weapons of mass destruction. The rhetorical ante keeps going up. In 1997, I participated in a conference on terrorism and wmd called "Superterrorism. " Now, Jessica Stern, the former director of the Nuclear Smuggling Interagency group of the National Security Council, has given us a book on this subject titled The Ultimate Terrorists. If there is a more maximal term than "ultimate," which in this context I take to mean "as bad as something can ever get," I am not aware of it. The doomsday implication is consistent with some recent fevered, if unwarranted, pronouncements that terrorist attacks with wmd are inevitable, even imminent. Happily, the title aside, this slender volume is largely free of hype, and is characterized by fair reporting and sober analysis. Stern's unexceptional thesis is that the threat that terrorists will use weapons of mass destruction-particularly chemical and biological ones-has grown in recent years. While there is no reason to panic, she says, society should be taking measures to prevent and respond to attacks. Little in this book will be unfamiliar to the specialist. But it presents an immensely valuable snapshot of where the world stands vis-a-vis the threat, and how the worst possibilities might be minimized. Early on, Stern addresses one of the most intriguing questions about the subject: Why now? Why have we become so much more concerned about wmd terrorism than we were 20 or 30 years ago? After all, gas was used extensively in World War I, and biological and chemical agents have been considered effective weapons for several decades. Her answers fall into two broad categories: the changing motivations and technical capabilities of terrorists, and recent conditions and behaviors of some countries. Her arguments for the importance of the former are less persuasive than for the latter. More precisely, the interest in these weapons by terrorists seems in large measure to be a consequence of state actions. Stern believes that "a new breed of terrorists"-religious fanatics, right-wing extremists, apocalyptic cults-are more inclined to use weapons of mass destruction. But kooks and fanatics who commit indiscriminate violence in the name of politics or religion were around long before this decade. And the technical know-how for making many types of chemical and biological weapons has been publicly available for most of this century.
Root causes of terrorism
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