What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Terrorist Threat - Softcover

Richardson, Louise

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719563062 ISBN 13: 9780719563065

Publisher: John Murray, 2006

Synopsis

What can terrorists possibly hope to achieve by blowing up commuters, bond traders and tourists whom they have never even met?

Why do seemingly ordinary young men and women volunteer to turn themselves into human bombs?

What can we do to stop them?

In What Terrorists Want Louise Richardson investigates these crucial questions. She delves into the minds of terrorists and demystifies the threat we face today. She draws on her unique contact with real terrorists as well as years of teaching and research at Harvard to show that terrorists are not crazed criminals but rational people willing to exploit their own weaknesses to maximum effect. By introducing us to other terrorists in other times she shows that we must look beyond 9/11 and simplistic associations with Islam.

What Terrorists Want controversially but convincingly argues that only by understanding the forces that drive terrorism can we hope to contain it. It also shows us why the Global War on Terror is doomed to fail but how with a different strategy we can prevail.

About this title

About the Author

Irish-born Louise Richardson is one of the world's experts on international security and terrorism. She is Dean of the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. In addition to her research and teaching she gives lectures to audiences as diverse as corporate executives, the US senate and, most recently, the international conference held in Madrid to mark the first anniversary of the bombing there.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Murray
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719563062
• ISBN 13: 9780719563065
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352