Book Description
The modern means of communication have turned the world into an information fishbowl and, in terms of foreign policy and national security in post-Cold War power politics, helped transform international power politics. Information operations (IO), in which time zones are as important as national boundaries, is the use of modern technology to deliver critical information and influential content in an effort to shape perceptions, manage opinions, and control behavior. Contemporary IO differs from traditional psychological operations practiced by nation-states, because the availability of low-cost high technology permits nongovernmental organizations and rogue elements, such as terrorist groups, to deliver influential content of their own as well as facilitates damaging cyber-attacks (“hactivismâ€) on computer networks and infrastructure. As current vice president Dick Cheney once said, such technology has turned third-class powers into first-class threats.
Conceived as a textbook by instructors at the Joint Command, Control, and Information Warfare School of the U.S. Joint Forces Staff College and involving IO experts from several countries, this book fills an important gap in the literature by analyzing under one cover the military, technological, and psychological aspects of information operations. The general reader will appreciate the examples taken from recent history that reflect the impact of IO on U.S. foreign policy, military operations, and government organization.
Customer Reviews:
a Good Begining.......2007-03-20
The meaning of the tem `Information Operations' (IO) is still evolving, but it is generally recognized to be inextricably part of the concept of Network Centric Warfare which was made possible by what the U.S. Military refer to as the `Global Information Grid' (GID). Which is to say that the IO concept is essential to developing military strategy and force structure planning. So what is it? The simplest definition of IO that is currently in fashion would appear to be that it refers to techniques and actions that adversely affect an enemy's ability to collect, manage, and use information while defending ones own abilities in this regard.
All this is by way of introduction to this book, which although written by a committee of U.S. and Australian IO theorist and operators, is a pretty good over view of how IO works both in theory and, interestingly enough, in practice. The book makes perfectly valid claims that IO clearly must be based on effective intelligence production and good information systems. Ironically both defensive and offensive IO are dependant on access to accurate and timely information (knowledge) to be successful. In this context it was rather surprising that the book did not make more of an issue of the dangers of disinformation and corrupted information to IO success although it did discuss psychological warfare as an aspect of IO. Still the book is for now a good primer on IO and understanding the complexities of war in the 21st Century.
Yet this book is not the definitive statement on IO, rather it is another step on the road of the U.S. Military to transformation to force structures based on Network Centric Warfare. Incidentally for those interested in that concept I suggest they read "The Future of War" by Mark D. Mandeles (Amazon.com). A rather different but equally relevant view of IO can be found in "Information Operations' by Robert D. Steel (Amazon.com). Until the term `Information Operations' is finally established, it is a good idea to keep an open mind on what it means.
High level IO overview that can't be beat!.......2006-12-01
Info Ops: Warfare and Hard Reality of Soft Power is an awesome primer to information operations/information warfare (IO/IW). The book was originally written as a textbook for some high-level defense university classes, but has worked great as a layman's introduction to the field. In it you'll find many government agencies and the scope of their involvement in IO, great examples of IO/IW [save one example I'll mention later]
The book is the foundation to an IO/IW education, so it is a definite "must-purchase." Its low price may shy folks away, thinking its a "discount" overview - but that is a mistake in thinking, and maybe IO (deception) on the part of the publisher...
The one example of IO/IW I was disappointed in was mention of cyberspace exercises called Solar Sunrise and Elligible Receiver. The mainstream press have called them hoaxes or reporting blown out of proportion; the book does no better by using it as a "smoking gun" without the powder burns or shell casing. The mention of both exercises seem to be wrapped in the same mystery and hysteria as found on online conspiracy theory sites.
Other than that slight peeve, the book should be purchased to get the skinny on IO/IW.
Outstanding First Cut, Needs to Go Further.......2006-03-18
This is a first rate effort, but it is incomplete and overly U.S. centric. A new expanded edition is needed soonest.
For myself the best chapters were on "Intelligence Support: Foundations for Conducting IO" and "Information Projection: Shaping the Global Village." Other chapters on the language of IO, information protection, related and supporting activities, and implementing IO were good.
The most important point in this book from my point of view was its observation that modern war is only 15-25% military action, and the rest must be a unified national campaign that leverages all sources of national power **for which IO is the glue that provides the inter-agency coherence.** These authors understand and teach, very ably, how IO is at the heart of managing complex coalition contingency operations.
The book over-all shows a real appreciation for the role that must be played by non-military agencies, coalitions, and private sector organizations including religions, academics, and business as well as media personalities.
The discussion of the "information battlespace" is useful, as are the illustrations. There is an excellent "strategy to task" section helpful to anyone actually implementing IO.
The authors are to be commended for emphasizing that knowing the enemy is not enough--you must know yourself and be firmly grounded in reality rather than ideological fantasy, if the IO message is to have traction. The authors also address, diplomatically but directly, the limitations of the traditional insular military planning process (especially the secretive intelligence process), and clearly articulate the need for open processes that can embrace and leverage varied communities of interest, non-US as well as US.
The authors also raise an extremely important issue to which they cannot provide an answer, but which must be resolved sooner than later: the urgency of being able to educate Americans about global realities and threats, without being accused of propagandizing Americans. [This is one reason why Congressman Simmons, on both the House Armed Services Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee, is so important--he understands that the state intelligence centers and networks we are advocating can serve two functions: as bottom up dot collectors, and as disseminators of real world open source intelligence to the state and local publics.]
One minor nit: the authors assume that because most of the 9-11 hijackers had Saudi passports they were Saudi. My understanding is that they were a mixed bag with passports of convenience from Saudi Arabia for those who were not Saudi.
The book concludes with cursory attention to Russian, Chinese, and Australian IO doctrine and practices, and does not address Iranian, Indian, Pakistani, and Venezuelan-Cuban IO, which are of considerable importance.
The book, very understandably, does not spend a lot of time on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) or the need to properly monitor all information in all languages all the time, but the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence has clearly articulated the need to do "universal coverage, 24/7, in all languages, at the neighbood level of granularity" (this is an abdiged paraphrase) and DoD appears well on its way to doing just that. I recommend that this book be read in conjunction with Max Manwaring and John Fishel's "Uncomfortable Wars Revisited," with Max Manwaring's edited work on "The Search for Security" which emphasizes key moral messages; and my own IO book, which focuses exclusively on information peacekeeping or the foreign language content side of IO, and has a comprehensive annotated bibliography. Specialty books that I recommend to IO practitioners include Larry Beinhart's "Fog Facts," Robert Cialdini's "INFLUENCE," Robert Parry's "Lost History," and John Hasling's "The Audience, the Message, the Speaker."
Discovering Practical Information Operations.......2004-08-23
Finally, here's a book that cuts through the dense brush of information operations theory and reaches a clearing where the reader can truly discover the practical application of information operations. The list of contributors is impressive...and all have practical experience in information operations. A must read for practitioners of IO.
The premier book on military Information Operations.......2004-07-13
This is the most up-to-date book on Information Operations I've read. There are over a dozen contributors from the US, UK and Australia, all of whom have hands-on Information Operations experience. It is must reading for anyone serious about this important field of military operations.
Book Description
Lively political and public debates on war and morality have been a feature of the post-Cold War world. The Price of Peace argues that a re-examination of the just war tradition is therefore required. The authors suggest that despite fluctuations and transformations in international politics, the just war tradition continues to be relevant. However they argue that it needs to be reworked to respond to the new challenges to international security represented by the end of the Cold War and the impact of terrorism. With an interdisciplinary and transatlantic approach, this volume provides a dialogue between theological, political, military and public actors. By articulating what a reconstituted just war tradition might mean in practice, it also aims to assist policy-makers and citizens in dealing with the ethical dilemmas of war.
Product Description
Terrorism - Environmental Policy - Political Freedom & Security - Political Science-History & Theory - Radical Thought - Public Policy Permanent global peace and sustainable development. Eliminating monopolies we are told are not there. Creating a modern commons. Increasing economic efficiency equal to the invention of money, the printing press, and electricity. The efficiency increase measures the previously wasted labor, capital, and resources. Each person works 2-3 days per week without loss of food, fiber, shelter, or recreation Under full and equal rights, poverty can be eliminated in 10 years. Under full and equal rights, within 50 years each citizen of the world can have a quality life. Plunder by trade and Capital destroying capital eliminated through superefficient capitalism. Empowering the powerless. The evolution from plunder by raids to plunder by trade began 800 to 1,000 years ago in the Free Cities of Europe. As those cities evolved into nations and those nations into empires, plunder by trade was plunder by both raids and trade was practiced. Plunder by trade has been the dominant feature of world trade since WWII. But the developing world is now aware and that structure of world trade may soon be history.
Customer Reviews:
Explains what we don't know.......2007-03-05
I rate this book as amongst the most influential in my life. The author spends the first half of the book explaining why even though things may look much more advanced and different now than 2000 years ago, the same underlying forces are at play. The powerful are in control and we live under a system of mercantilism and not anything resembling the free trade we are taught at school.
I have read widely and believe that the solutions proposed by Dr Smith in the second half of this book focus too narrowly on the economic aspects of peoples lives and tend to be very prescriptive such as specific taxation reforms. I prefer the writings of Noam Chomsky who is less proscriptive but generally has more the right idea - that as human beings our main goal should be to let everyone live in freedom and peace where everyone is able to be himself. People just want to be free to control their own destiny and economics is only one part of this solution.
Despite not agreeing with all the solutions posed by Dr Smith I still fully rate this book because it is the first half that will blow your socks off. You do not have to agree with the second half and can pick and choose which reforms should be implemented as I did. This book changed my thinking forever and I now realise and understand the real forces at play when I see news items and read books.
A mind-altering experience.......2005-01-20
Essentially this book is an extremely in-depth deconstruction of neo-liberal economics/politics. I had long thought myself almost unique (outside Academia) in the depth and breadth of my reading, but after having read this book, I realized that I understood very little about what was really going on. It was a humbling experience, to say the least. But it was also liberating, in that for the first time in my life, the opaque inconsistencies between what I had been taught in university and the realities I saw happening in the news became transparent. The author additionally offers many progressive ideas for a more just, efficient and ultimately sustainable economic system, which in my experience is very rare indeed. If you are looking for something more substantial than Michael Moore's often inarticulate rants - albeit less entertaining - than this is the book for you. BE WARNED: once you read this book, nothing will ever seem quite the same.
Getting on the right path to world peace and prosperity.......2004-02-12
I was first impressed by JW Smith's book, The World's Wasted Wealth 2, filled as it is with ideas about how to reduce waste. His Economic Democracy book exposes the roots of world poverty and identifies how all people everywhere can become truly wealthy while respecting and conserving the world's ecology. I use several chapters in the undergraduate sociology course I teach called, Cooperation and Conflict. Every chapter is packed with information that we all need to know in order to participate responsibly in redirecting government policies.
Review of Economic Democracy: The Political Struggle of the.......2004-01-26
A professor of economics once told me that "mainstream economics is 95% ideology and only 5% social science." This wonderful book by J.W. Smith shows why that is true. I found it utterly complelling and could not put it down. By exposing the macro-economic mechanisms of the past five centuries, Smith blows neo-liberal ideology right out of the water. This book should be required reading everywhere in the world. It points the way toward a liberated and decent world-order and shows that a just world-order would not be that difficult to achieve. This book lays the foundation for a new global economics of freedom and prosperity. Thank-you Dr. Smith!
Highly recommended.......2004-01-25
I've searched my whole life to the reasons for and the solution to world poverty and hunger. This work offers both in a well reasearched and thought out, realistic approach. The reasons for poverty become obvious after reading Dr. Smith's book. The posibility of ending poverty by building buying power in the Third World while improving the standard of living in the developed world is as brilliant as it feasible. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for answers to solving the world's ills
Book Description
While the destruction of the World Trade Center and the strike against the Pentagon shocked the world at large, experts on terrorism like Walter Laqueur couldn't feign complete surprise. In No End to War, Laqueur, who has devoted three decades to the study of political violence, answers the most-often raised questions about terrorism in the light of 9/11 and the still unsolved Anthrax letters. First, what constitutes terrorism? What is new about the "new" terrorism? Why is the Muslim world the most potent breeding ground of this new terrorism? To what extent is religion itself a factor? Is there a clash of civilizations between the Muslim world and the largely Christian or post-Christian West? Is America at fault? Israel? Did European nations turn a blind eye to terrorists and their sympathizers in their midst? To what extent are poverty and oppression the causes of terrorism? What is the likelihood that terrorists will obtain weapons of mass destruction-chemical, biological, or nuclear? Why was the United States unprepared for 9/11? Why the intelligence failure? Are Islamic terrorists the only terrorists we need to fear? What about other terrorists from the right of the left, ecoterrorists or anti-globalization terrorists? And finally, what is the best defense against terrorism?
Customer Reviews:
Well written but not very thoughtful.......2004-11-22
The more I thought about this book, the less I liked it.
Oh, there is plenty to like about the book. It discusses roots of terrorism, jihad, suicide missions, intelligence failures by the West, anti-Americanism, and future potential battlefields.
It defines terrorism as "the systematic use of murder, injury, and destruction, or threat of such acts, aimed at achieving political ends." And it mocks those who insist on calling terrorists "activists" as though they were merely devoting some time to a political party or local club. He asks if we then ought to call Jack the Ripper "an amateur abdominal surgeon."
Laqueur explains that the main threat now is the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. He also discusses the connection between terrorists and the drug trade but points out that these groups are not natural allies: criminals want to preserve the status quo that keeps them in business, while terrorists want to mess things up.
And the author points out that there is no end in sight to terror: the terrorists will go on fighting for a very long time whether we fight back or not. For example, many Islamists believe that it is a sin against nature to allow Jews to exist in Jerusalem or Israel. This is not conducive to peace.
Laqueur also points out cases in which media supporters of terror have gone way out of bounds, including the Guardian, in England.
But there was one thing about this book that got me thinking more than any other. Namely the claim that Israel was foolish not to have surrendered the entire West Bank to the Arabs - any Arabs - immediately after winning the six-day war, even without any truce or peace or anything. Was this just a slip on Laqueur's part, or a symptom of poor thinking about terrorism in general?
I think it is a symptom of a more serious problem in the author's thinking. After all, there are two errors we see here. First, we see the claim that it would have been moral and practical for a land-poor nation to give disputed land to an enemy that holds itself to be superior and holds you to be trash. Second, we see the claim that it would be possible to convince the majority of the people in a democracy to simply roll over and unilaterally surrender their rights to an annihilationist enemy, given the disastrous results they had doing just that in World War 2. And I think this is a symptom of a larger problem of blaming ourselves just a little too much for the sins of the criminals who attack us.
What I think Laqueur needs to do is adopt some moral standards. There is a difference between being just and unjust. One can try to pretend that one does not know who one is, a Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Christian, Chinese, Arab, American, man, woman, adult, child, or whatever. And then try to come up with a just solution, knowing that one would find out who one was only afterwards. That would help clarify blame a little better. Another question Laqueur ought to ask is this: is he refusing to demand rights for his "friends" that he routinely demands for his enemies? I think he fails both questions on this little test. There is no need to make matters worse by alienating people who have the option of supporting terrorism, but I think that outright appeasement is almost always terribly counterproductive, and tends to establish a right of the terrorists to attack and oppress others.
So I'll give this book three stars. I don't recommend it. I think you ought to go out and buy Sharansky's book (The Case for Democracy) instead. Or maybe Paul Berman's (Terror and Liberalism). What we all need is truth and moral clarity. And this book gives us quite a bit of it, but not enough.
a good start.......2004-10-25
This new book on terrorism is quick to be honest in showing that while Islamic terrorism is by no means the only terrorism, it is in fact the greatest threat to the world today. This book builds on other books on the topic of terrorism focusing mostly on the second half of the 20th century. Here we learn also about the `battlefields' of the future where terrorism will certainly bring new conflicts to China and India and Southeast Asia. Already one sees this books predictions proving themselves in Thailand and the Phillipines. A good study and a great edition to the post 9/11 terrorist literature.
An Important Book.......2004-08-08
Like many Americans, I'm searching for some explanation of the terrorism that has befallen us. Although I'm an avid reader of several good daily newspapers, no analysis found in those pages has provided me with any particular insight. What I was looking for, however, I found in Walter Laqueur's No End To War.
Laqueur is a scholar who has devoted much of his career to studying and writing about terrorism. His book provides an historical perspective to today's terrorism, which he demonstrates differs markedly and frighteningly from the terrorism of the past. He debunks many popular myths about today's terrorists, such as that terrorism is caused by poverty, or that the peaceful settlement of disputes, which necessarily involves compromises, will stop the terrorists from further atrocities. Laqueur admits that much is not known about terrorism, and he proposes no particular one course of action on how to stop terrorism, thereby thankfully rendering his book non-political. On the other hand, there is a great deal of knowledge on the subject and much of it is contained in these pages.
I read this book slowly and with a highlighter in hand. I have gained from it some understanding of terrorism, which I had previously lacked. The book is difficult reading in part because it is not elegantly written. However, what it lacks in style and organization, it more than makes up for in information and wisdom. I'm going to read many parts of it a second and third time. The one adjective that best describes my view of this is book is "important."
Great detail but disorganized.......2003-12-19
For facts and details this book is a marvel. You will not only learn about the situation regarding terrorism in different parts of the world but about groups and splinter groups and how they differ on their philosophy toward terror. The author's knowledge of the field is truly encyclopedic. The book is not tightly organized and several times I wondered where the author was going with his line of thought and how, exactly, it tied in to the chapter title. Laqueur doesn't like to leave an issue without a thorough examination and more than once he would pull himself back to the topic after a discourse. I got the impression that this book may have been hurried to publication. However, his thought is so interesting that I was willing to hear him out. Loaded with details, this book might be a bit hard to digest for someone looking for a good, easily readable overview of the field and recent history of terrorism. A better book for that is Jonathan White's "Terrorism: An Introduction". I finished Laqueur's book thinking what a complicated and dangerous political situation exists in so many parts of the world and how "progress" is a fragile thing, mostly a matter of people having money and lots of goodies to spend it on instead of raging at each other. You don't get overly irritated with others if you have enough money to be preoccupied with your own comfort and possessions in a place of your own. Americans such as I are truly clueless about the depth of turmoil and resentment that roils the world. Laqueur lets us see how there are many fanatics that can loosely organize for a cause, and quite a few mentally disturbed individuals who have a cause all their own. Both the groups and the individuals are using more powerful means to terrorize. The future has always been unpredictable, but now it will be more explosive than ever.
A must read for those determining U.S. foreign policy.......2003-07-21
Laqueur's book is an excellent source of background information for those interested in approaching the issue of terrorism as objectively as possible. For those lacking the time to read this work in its entirety, the conclusion is a must-read. It is hoped that Bush, Powell and Rice, and their advisors, have the opportunity to share Laqueur's views as they develop foreign policy for our nation.
Book Description
As the world moves into the Information Age, globalization continues to alter the customary relationships among peoples, societies, and nations that evolved during the Industrial Age. Author Daniel Gerstein, however, maintains the United States still follows an Industrial Age framework for national security. Despite such recent changes as creating the Department of Homeland Security and the post of a director for national intelligence, the current U.S. national security strategy remains based on the National Security Act of 1947. To advance the U.S. response to the particular demands of the Information Age, Gerstein proposes nothing short of overhauling our nation’s security strategy and, more important, complementary changes to the U.S. approach to strategic leadership.
Beginning with the foundations of leadership, Gerstein addresses four key abilities that the twenty-first-century leader must master for the Information Age: (1) to develop and communicate a vision, (2) to incorporate new tools for analysis and for enhancing the leader’s judgment or reasoning skills, (3) to gain greater perspective in developing national strategies, and (4) to promote the three I’s—imagination, innovation, and initiative. While theories and accepted methods of leadership remain relevant, they must be augmented with new and improved concepts. The fundamental premise of Leading at the Speed of Light is that leadership skills will require changes and enhancements to ensure that leaders are capable of performing in a data- and information-rich environment that is often uncertain and challenging.
Average customer rating:
- A thoughtful reflection on the menacing threats
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A World Challenged: Fighting Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century
E. M. Primakov , and
Yevgeny M. Primakov
Manufacturer: Brookings Institution Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0815771940 |
Book Description
In this candid and sobering account, former Russian premier Yevgeny M. Primakov considers the threats posed by independent terrorist organizations to the security of the global community.
As the attacks of September 11, 2001 made clear, the course of international affairs is no longer shaped exclusively by cooperation and confrontation among nations. Stateless factions with extreme agendas—their methods enhanced by globalization and technological advances—pose serious threats to global stability.
Primakov expresses grave concern over the likelihood that independent terrorist organizations will obtain weapons of mass destruction. More than 100 nations are stockpiling nuclear material, he writes, and there is no reason to believe that all of it is well managed or protected. A terrorist group intent on developing a weapon can easily find the information and fissile material to develop a compact nuclear device.
He recommends that the global community develop a comprehensive Charter on Terrorism to facilitate criminal prosecution of terrorism. And he urges Russia and the United States to join forces more readily to share information and intelligence about emerging terrorist threats.
Customer Reviews:
A thoughtful reflection on the menacing threats.......2004-08-09
A collaborative publishing project of The Nixon Center and the Brookings Institution Press, A World Challenged: Fighting Terrorism In The Twenty-First Century is a thoughtful reflection on the menacing threats posed by independent terrorist organizations to global security. Russian premier Yevgeny M. Primakov expresses his critical concerns over such terrorist organizations obtaining weapons of mass destruction, especially when over 100 nations today are stockpiling such nuclear material. Strongly recommending that the global community develop a comprehensive Charter on Terrorism to facilitate criminal prosecution, and exhorting that Russia and the United States need to join forces and share information about emerging terrorist threats, A World Challenged is a critical and astutely written account of the dangers facing the world in the twenty-first century.
Book Description
In the early twenty-first century, perhaps no political ideology has become more important—yet less understood—in the Western world than Radical Islam or Islamism, the fundamentalist ideology that holds the jihad or "Holy War" against infidels as the ultimate service to God and the highest obligation of every Muslim. Understanding Radical Islam outlines and discusses the major tenets, segments, developments, problems, and contradictions surrounding Islamism and its impact on global politics in the twenty-first century. The book details the people, policies, and events associated with Islamism, as well as the cultural clashes between Islamism and the West. Understanding Radical Islam should be a major addition to any collegiate class in Middle Eastern politics, political theory, and ideology.
Book Description
In Leigh Armistead’s second edited volume on warfare in the Information Age, the authors explore the hype over possibilities versus actuality in their analysis of Information Operations (IO) today. First, leaders must better understand the informational element of national power, and second, their sole focus on technology must expand to include IO’s physical interconnectivity, content, and cognitive dimensions. Finally the authors urge the United States to use its enormous IO advantage to deal with complex national security issues beyond the Department of Defense, for example, in swaying global opinion and influencing other populations. Armistead and his colleagues set aside the hype and conjecture concerning IO, because its real potential is more powerful and comprehensive than currently appreciated. In a straightforward format they take practitioners on the path toward a smart and effective way of waging IO.
While the original claims of “bloodless†wars or of computer hackers plunging North America into a new “dark age†of constant electric grid collapses quickly raised awareness of new threats and capabilities in the Information Age, these scenarios strain credulity and hamper our understanding of those threats and capabilities. This volume corrects this situation, grounding IO in the real world, and concentrates on its actual challenges, capabilities, and accomplishments. Information Warfare will be an indispensable guide and reference work for professionals and students in the fields of national security.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent Book
- A textbook on Terrorism
- A textbook on Terrorism
- Mediocre Textbook
- Insightful, engaging, and informative--but lacking
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Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century (2nd Edition)
Cindy C. Combs
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Textbook Binding
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ASIN: 0130208876 |
Book Description
Post-cold war in focus and Unbiased in perspective, this book makes clear not only what terrorism is, and has been, but also what it may be like in this new century. Using clear, careful explanations of concepts and case studies of real events (including Sept. 11), it makes this multidimensional, complex and emotionally-tinged phenomena accessible and understandable to those with no scholarly background in the subject. It 1) examines the known facets of contemporary terrorism—explaining what terrorism is, who carries it out, and how terrorist acts are committed; 2) analyzes the laws and special forces which nations within the international community have created to meet this challenge; and 3) predicts forthcoming patterns of terrorism in the new century. An Idea Whose Time Has Come? Not a Modern Phenomenon. Ideology and Terrorism: Rights from Wrongs. Criminals or Crusaders? Terrorism By The State. “Terrorism, Inc.” Terrorist Training. The Media: Another Weapon for Both Sides? Domestic Terrorism in the U.S.: Challenge to Democracies. Legal Perspectives on Terrorism. Counterterrorism: The Use of Special Forces. Terrorism, Intelligence, and the Law. Security Measures: A Frail Defense. Post-Cold War Trends. Future Prospects. For law enforcement personnel, special police anti-terror units, military personal, and anyone interested in understanding terrorism.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Book.......2006-02-07
I am a prior student of Cindy Combs and have studied terrorism for over 5 years. I own both a copy of the 3rd and 4th edidtions and can say without a doubt the book provides an excellent introduction to the study of terrorism. I have read reviews concerning the book and must say that the information is outdated, but it is meant as a guideline. The book is best used in conjunction with the Encyclopedia of Terrorism and the Terrorism Readers (aka governement reports on activity and News articles concerning recent actions).
A textbook on Terrorism.......2002-07-07
The book is a thorough review of the differnet aspects of terrorism, and as such it fits as an undergraduate textbook on the subject. Combs reviews the history of terrorism, different types of terrorism, and how people and governmnets dealt with this phenomenon during the years.
The book is written is a clear and communicative style, and each chapter ends with several issues for indepth thinking and discussion.
The relatively small size of the book, the clarity and exhaustiveness of its coverage of terrorism make it attractive to a busy student who wishes to learn about terrorism but has very little time to spend on such study. I truely think the book merits 5 point especially compared to other material written on this subject these days.
A textbook on Terrorism.......2002-07-07
The book is a thorough review of the differnet aspects of terrorism, and as such it fits as an undergraduate textbook on the subject. Combs reviews the history of terrorism, different types of terrorism, and how people and governmnets dealt with this phenomenon during the years.
The book is written is a clear and communicative style, and each chapter ends with several issues for indepth thinking and discussion.
The relatively small size of the book, the clarity and exhaustiveness of its coverage of terrorism make it attractive to a busy student who wishes to learn about terrorism but has very little time to spend on such study. I truely think the book merits 5 point especially compared to other material written on this subject these days.
Mediocre Textbook.......2002-05-20
I used this textbook for my POS 333, Dynamics of Terrorism class recently and found the book to be thought provoking. However, the latest edition, revised and published in 2000 still is very much out of date. The book reads as if it was written in the late 80s and never was updated except with one or two examples (some of which are wrong). There is very little discussion of the 90s, even though the first edition was published in 1997. I do believe Ms. Combs has some heaving revisiong to do on this text and should make the text more relevant to terrorism, as terrorism is relatively quick changing much like computer technology.
Insightful, engaging, and informative--but lacking.......2002-03-15
Cindy Combs's "Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century" is generally a well-written text. Cogent and coherent, it provides introductory readers with a good basic overview of a complex phenomenon that should demand our attention. Combs covers many important topics on terrorism, from terrorism and the media, to counterterrorism, to terrorism and the law.
One of this book's greatest strengths is the penetrating questions it asks. Combs makes her readers think; for example, she underscores the difficulty that may lie in differentiating between terrorists killing for their cause and "freedom fighters" struggling for ethnic self-determination. Often, the criteria are far from wholly objective.
This being said, one of the book's greatest drawbacks (as other readers will no doubt notice) is its reliance on an outdated bibliography. Combs does justice to modern terrorism by citing some of the most noteworthy cases of the 1980s and 1990s, but the sources she uses to back up her analyses and conclusions are mostly from the 1970s and 1980s. Certainly she should have found more current and relevant sources on which to base her theoretical constructs.
Thus it seems fair to say that the "suggested readings" Combs offers in her text might not be the best guide for new readers. Although Combs's style makes for easy reading and her book is engaging, this book is best read as one of a larger collection of texts on terrorism, not a source to rely on heavily.
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Books Index
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