Terrorism: How to Respond

The post-9/11 War on Terror has Spectacularly failed. Terrorism: How to Respond argues that we now need a radically new approach to dealing with the international terrorist threat. We can no longer afford to ignore the lessons of the past. Only by looking at the whole spectrum of terrorist violence over the last century will we be able to understand how and why terrorist organizations emerge and flourish- and only then will we be able to respond to them effectively.

Publishers Weekly

English (Armed Struggle), a professor of politics at Belfast's Queen's University, applies lessons learned from the sectarian struggle in Northern Ireland to the broader issue of international terrorism in this provocative primer. The author lambastes the "war on terror" for nurturing the "disaffection from which terrorist activity is generated." Effective response is contingent on a "sharper, more accurate, and more integrated" historical perspective, he posits, making selective comparisons between Irish and Islamic terrorism to tease out what conditions incite and sustain "significant terrorism campaigns." English's seven-point proposal (approaches the U.S. has "disastrously" ignored in its response to September 11) warns against "a primarily military response" and recommends instead a coordinated policy of security as well as financial and technological measures, with an emphasis on military intelligence-not force-as "the most vital element in successful counter-terrorism." More controversial is his advice to "learn to live with terrorism as part of our political reality" and his contention that terrorism, historically ubiquitous, can never be defeated, merely contained while we strive to address its "root problems." (Sept.)

Richard English is Professor of Politics at Queen's University, Belfast, and author of the award-winning Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA.