Purchase
The Allure of Suicide Terror
Columbia University Press
June 2007
On Sale: June 1, 2007
280 pages
ISBN: 0231133219
EAN: 9780231133210
Paperback
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
What motivates suicide bombers in Iraq and around the world?
Can winning the hearts and minds of local populations stop
them? Will the phenomenon spread to the United States? These
vital questions are at the heart of this important book. Mia
Bloom examines the use, strategies, successes, and failures
of suicide bombing in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe and
assesses the effectiveness of government responses. She
argues that in many instances the efforts of Israel, Russia,
and the United States in Iraq have failed to deter terrorism
and suicide bombings. Bloom also considers how terrorist
groups learn from one another, how they respond to
counterterror tactics, the financing of terrorism, and the
role of suicide attacks against the backdrop of larger
ethnic and political conflicts. Dying to Kill begins with a review of the long history of
terrorism, from ancient times to modernity, from the
Japanese Kamikazes during World War II, to the Palestinian,
Tamil, Iraqi, and Chechen terrorists of today. Bloom
explores how suicide terror is used to achieve the goals of
terrorist groups: to instill public fear, attract
international news coverage, gain support for their cause,
and create solidarity or competition between disparate
terrorist organizations. She contends that it is often
social and political motivations rather than inherently
religious ones that inspire suicide bombers. In her chapter
focusing on the increasing number of women suicide bombers
and terrorists, Bloom examines Sri Lanka, where 33 percent
of bombers have been women; Turkey, where the PKK used women
feigning pregnancy as bombers; and the role of the Black
Widows in the Chechen struggle against Moscow. The motives of individuals, whether religious or
nationalist, are important but the larger question is, what
external factors make it possible for suicide terrorism to
flourish? Bloom describes these conditions and develops a
theory of why terrorist tactics work in some instances and
fail in others.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy