Coping With Terror

A resurgence of worldwide terrorism threats has become a major problem for Israel, the United States, and numerous other countries. While citizens, politicians, and commentators demand a solution, the Israeli experience suggests that there are limits to the effectiveness of "heroic" action in solving this problem. A level-headed examination of a deeply unsettling topic, Coping With Terror argues that strategic responses to terrorism must focus on managing terrorism and its effects on the population rather than on solving it outright. It describes personal and collective stresses associated with terror and examines the idea of coping as the key to understand how policymakers, military personnel and ordinary citizens deal with these stresses. A non-polemical approach to a sensitive and serious topic, Coping With Terror provides new perspectives on this global problem.

Coping With Terror argues that strategic responses to terrorism must focus on managing this serious problem rather than solving it outright. Author Ira Sharkansky describes personal and collective stresses associated with terror, and examines the idea of coping as the key to understand how policymakers, military personnel and ordinary citizens deal with these stresses.

Ira Sharkansky is Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.