NCJ Number
86997
Date Published
1982
Length
150 pages
Annotation
This book places contemporary terrorism in its historical context, emphasizing the rise of terrorist violence since the 1960's. It focuses on the objectives, activities, and leaders of a wide variety of terrorist groups including the Tupamaro guerrillas in Uruguay, the Weather Underground in the United States, the Baader-Meinhof gang in West Germany, the Red Brigades in Italy, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Abstract
The author shows how early terrorists, such as Robespierre in France and Nechaev in Russia, influenced contemporary terrorists around the globe. The book explains the origins of several modern terrorist groups and their leaders' philosophies and backgrounds. It discusses the terrorist threat to open liberal democracies and comments on the future directions of these groups, particularly the danger of nuclear terrorism. The author also discusses how society should respond to terrorism and whether terrorism is ever justified. As an alternative to terrorism, the author offers the philosophy of nonviolence set forth by Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. He shows that the success of terrorism depends upon the ability to force people to do what the terrorists want, concluding that if those who advocate violence are not permitted to have their way. An index and 18 references are included.