Book Review: The New Terrorism by Walter Laqueur Essay

Modern terrorism, as deduced from this literature, is acts to violence strategically used by secular groups spanning international borders with the aim of achieving a desired outcome. Further, it can be seen as organized activity whose genesis can be traced back to the 1880’s. From then to now there are identifiable traits and patterns observed from different (terrorist) groups which have allowed for the conceptualization of the term modern terrorism. This concept therefore, can be best explained in the context of being a wave or having a life cycle. That means it is a cycle of activity demarked by phases from inception and expands along the way then eventually it declines. The world, thus far, has experienced four waves of modern

The book “How Terrorism End; Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns”, written in 2011 at the height of Al-Qaeda, the most well-known international terrorist group of our time. The author of this work, Audrey Cronin, at the time of print, served as a professor of strategy at the United States National War College in Washington D.C., and a senior associate at Oxford University’s Changing Character of War Program. Both positions allowed her to impact strategic policy making in the execution of the Global War on Terror by allowing her access to senior military and civilian policymakers. Her previous area of her prior work has been mainly focused on international terrorism with an emphasis on al-Qaeda. She has authored

This article by Isabelle Duyvesteyn starts off by summarising the objectives that challenge the perspective of terrorism since the last decade of the twentieth century is fundamentally new. In this article certain questions have been debated regarding new aspects of terrorism and they are: “transnational nature of the perpetrators and their organizations, their religious inspiration, fanaticism, use of weapons of mass destruction and their indiscriminate targeting.” ("How New Is the New Terrorism?", 2017)In order to understand the depth of aspects of new terrorism the article talks about “national and territorial focus of the new terrorists, their political motivations, use of conventional weaponry and the symbolic targeting that is aimed in order to achieve a surprising effect.” ("How New Is the New Terrorism?", 2017)

Based on this week’s readings, I believe both rogue and established terrorist organizations possess the capability to unleash CBRN weapons in international and domestic attacks. The ability of sub and non-state actors to disperse CBRN weapons will be limited due to the fact they have limited resources. Small terrorist activities will not have a military or strategic capability to execute a high-altitude airburst, which would have the most widespread effect. According to Sinai (2007), terrorist

Acts of terrorism are typically political oriented and ideologically motivated, ranging from specific goals expressed in terms of the might of political nation-states to more general purposes connected to the dilemma of certain people and groups. Therefore, terrorism can result from demands made by ethnic groups to receive representation in an existing political community or have its own state be formed, while terrorism can also be part of ideological fights for the acknowledgment of diminished expressions of ideas and ways of life. Because of the essentially political ideological objectives of terrorism, the fundamental ideas of terrorism are important to consider as the inspiring forces that fuel terrorist groups and individuals.

Terrorists today are more than unlikely to use WMD in the future as they fear retaliation from the target country, also states that supply and train. terrorist groups cannot completely control them and they have no guarantee that a terrorist group would not use WMD against them. This article analysis shows that there is a need for more research that will explain how events and situations will make an impact on a terrorist group's decisions about using WMD. Only then can we appropriately analyze the threat of the future use of WMD by terrorists. To continue to prepare for the future use of WMD, governments should boost the training of efficient response personnel and increase funds to proliferation, research and development programs such as

On 20 March 1995, Aum members simultaneously released the chemical nerve agent sarin on several Tokyo subway trains, killing 12 people and injuring up to 6,000 more. This event was carefully planned in order to achieve the goal of drawing members into the group in order to receive more money, the group required all members to donate everything they owned to the organization. This action is an example of an ideological action.

As we move past defining terrorism we are now looking to give it an identity. Terrorism is an act that is acted out by groups and individuals. There are always some command grounds in differences when you evalute one terrorist to another. Person or group. Some command areas might be methods of employement and desired end result. One of the biggest difference between terrorists (group or person) is politics or motivatoin behind the act and a countinuing agenda. In order to obtain data and provide comparisons to such items as mentioned two executors of terrorism were selected. One individual Timothy McVeigh(domestic) and one group al-Shabaab (international). The intent of this paper will be to compare the key similarities and differences between Timothy McVeigh and al-Shabaab, reference one terrorist activity and the motives of the attacks for each and provide an assessment of which is a greater threat to the United States (threat should be interpreted as threat to the national security of the United States).

The French Revolution’s aftermath during the 18th century sparked a vicious campaign against nobles who were seen as enemies of the newly formed state. The post-revolutionary government because of their series of mass executions was referred to as terror. The terror concept differs from the modern use of “terrorism” because the perpetrators are not usually governments and are instead nonstate actors (Lacquer, 2001). The word terrorism can be like the word globalism because it can be difficult to define because of the diversity of its meanings among different individuals and different groups. The continual transformation of the contexts in which the term is used causes difficulty in forming a distinctive meaning, but does not make it impossible to study the phenomenon as a distinctive form of political violence. Terrorism may differ from media outlets, governments, cultures, scholars, and readers. Examining the usage of the term thorough-out history will be a useful way to come to a conclusion as to the true meaning and definition of the term. Even though examples of terrorism can go back several millennia, studying the history of it will make it seem considerably new at this time and

The purpose of this essay is to deal with the fact that chemical warfare should be brought back to modern warfare strategies. As Warren Rudman said, “And they will tell you unequivocally that if we have a chemical or biological attack or a nuclear attack anywhere in this country, they are unprepared to deal with it today, and that is of high urgency.” Rudman’s words are true in what they say and that we should do everything to counter-act his statement. Biological weapons are a key to outstanding success in war and therefore, I strongly suggest that chemical warfare is an effective and producible weapon tactic that can be used on today’s battlefield.

This was the first declaration by Osama Bin Laden in 1996 calling upon Muslims around the globe for the destruction of America and other Westernised countries for their hostility towards Islam and Muslims. It is safe to say that this declaration was the beginning of what was about to be the most terrorising decades the world has ever been through. The increasing numbers of terrorist attacks around the world in recent years serve to show the importance in learning to understand terrorism and the reasoning behind the crime. This essay will do this by analysing the

With this mindset, there has been a greater emphasis on collecting intelligence on possible terror attacks and the prevention of, or the response to, these types of attacks. One part of this intelligence process is understanding what targets are valuable to terrorists and why, and not worrying to heavily about why the terrorists are attacking in the first place. “Local police cannot hope to deal with these distant causes; but by focusing on the four pillars of terrorist opportunity—targets, weapons, tools, and facilitating conditions—all of which are accessible to intervention, police can control the opportunities for terrorist action and planning. This means that the opportunities for terrorist exploitation must be identified at the local level where actions can be taken to reduce these opportunities. ” By collecting intelligence on terrorists, their potential targets and the possible effects of these attacks, those responsible for countering and responding to terrorism can better prepare themselves, and those they are responsible to, for these attacks. Some of the possible ways to attack U.S. citizens are nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, along with explosives, firearms, and even automobiles. Intelligence can be collected at the Federal, state, and local levels, but needs to be shared also. With proper dissemination of

The rise of radical Islam and it’s creation of it’s many terrorist groups is one of the largest political problems of the 21st century. The solution to this issue does not lie in blindly asserting military force within the Middle East, but rather targeting the root of the hate itself. Though, this does not disqualify military intervention. The target of this paper is to dissect the issues that create tension, with regards to the spectrum of modern terrorism, and to propose a solution to the conflict that rages on everyday. I believe that this is best accomplished through analyzing historical events and ideas that created our current situation. I will look into a few crucial events that I believe lead radical groups to harbor hatred towards

The operational problems with terrorism are associated with the primary needs of secrecy, communication, and funding. Three fundamentals we can call them for now. In small arms marksmanship where you can still hit your target accurately by having only two basic fundamentals properly engaged; however with terrorism a weakness in one our more of these fundamentals means failure in long term success.

The history of terrorism can be traced back as far as the French revolution. Some of these acts of terrorism only seem as distant reminders of our past, but at the same time, are not a far cry from today’s brutal acts; and although these acts seem distant, it doesn’t also mean they are no longer in the thoughts of individuals in today’s time.