Counterterrorism Strategies: Successes and Failures of Six Nations - Hardcover

Alexander, Yonah

9781597970181: Counterterrorism Strategies: Successes and Failures of Six Nations

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1597970182 ISBN 13: 9781597970181

Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc., 2006

Despite the wake-up call of September 11, 2001, terrorism remains a dire threat to the security of all civilized nations, making it imperative for leaders to develop better national, regional, and global strategies to counter its many forms. Counterterrorism Strategies examines how six countries have combated terrorist groups from the 1970s to the present and draws lessons that are applicable to today’s threats. Some of this important new book’s case studies are the U.S. pursuit of al Qaeda, Italy’s efforts against the extreme left-wing Red Brigades and extreme right-wing New Order, Germany’s battles with the Red Army Faction, France’s struggles with separatist movements and international terrorist Carlos the Jackal, Egypt’s experience with Islamist terrorism, and Sri Lanka’s long confrontation with the Tamil Tigers. Counterterrorism Strategies shows that there are no simple or complete solutions to the dangers posed by determined and elusive terrorists, but several of the countries detailed here have had significant successes. The contributors’analyses of the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of strategies used by these six countries offer a counterterrorism road map for the twenty-first century. This book is essential reading for policymakers, for counterterrorism scholars and professionals, and for members of the general public who are concerned about the direction of the international campaign against terrorism.

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Review:

Professor Yonah Alexander, a veritable institution in his own right with regard to studies on terrorism . . . has not only been studying terrorism for decades, but has analyzed the most effective ways of combating it. By presenting an analysis of the successes and failures of six nations in their battle against terrorism, he is offering us a useful tool to help us learn from one another, so that we might develop a philosophy that inspires a shared strategy against terrorism, a phenomenon that threatens us all equally.

"Yonah Alexander and company have created a work of immeasurable importance. COUNTERTERRORISM STRATEGIES is unique in that it goes far beyond the commonplace recitations of current dangers by investigating counterterrorism problems and initiatives in six nations. The success and failures he distills for the reader are practical, rooted in experience, and battle tested. The clarity of analysis and presentation style combine to create a very useful volume that should be read by policymakers and tacticians alike."

The quality of the organization, research, and writing makes Counterterrorism Strategies invaluable for the critical and dynamic areas of criminal justice and international security policies. Editor Yonah Alexander has worked for many decades on international and comparative counterterrorism and is a giant without equal in the field of counterterrorism policy.

"Yonah Alexander and his team have provided counterterrorism strategies that are critical in the battle against future conventional and unconventional threats. The book is a sensible, coherent, and important contribution to our knowledge. It deserves to command serious attention by policymakers, the military, and the public in general."

"Learning from the experiences of other countries is a critical part of finding improved ways to combat terrorism. A valuable aid in that process is COUNTERTERRORISM STRATEGIES, which offers concise but comprehensive portraits of the counterterrorist perspectives and techniques of six nations that have faced a wide variety of terrorist challenges."

"No one person, entity, or country has an all-encompassing strategy for countering the evils of terrorism. The solution, therefore, is to assemble the collective wisdom of the countries most engaged in combating this threat. In this book, Yonah Alexander and the other authors offer insights and communicate lessons learned in fulfillment of the maxim that wise men learn by other men s mistakes; fools, by their own."

Counterterrorism Strategies is a must-read for specialists in the growing field of counterterrorism and homeland security as well as the general public. The six countries it examines are good examples of how much work still needs to be done to fully comprehend the true dimensions of the new global threat of terrorism. The book also emphasizes the need for more and deeper international cooperation in order to meet this complex challenge.

About the Author:

Editor and contributor YONAH ALEXANDER is a professor at, and the director of, the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies in Washington, D.C.; a senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies; and director of the Potomac Institute's Center for Terrorism Studies in Arlington, Virginia. The other contributors are GILLAUME PARMENTIER, professor and head of the French Center on the United States (CFE) at the Institut Francais de Relations Internationales in Paris; ULRICH SCHNECKENER, senior member of the Global Issues Research Unit at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin; SERGIO MARCHISIO, professor and director of the Instituto di Studi Giuridici Sulla Comunita Internazionale in Rome; AHMED ABOU-EL WAFA, professor of international law at Cairo University; and VERNON L. B. MENDIS, a former ambassador of Sri Lanka and current director general of the Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute in Columbo.

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