Robert A. Pape and James K. Feldman
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226645605
- eISBN:
- 9780226645643
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226645643.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This book offers a wealth of new knowledge about the origins of suicide terrorism and strategies to stop it. It presents the results of examinations of every suicide terrorist attack worldwide from ...
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This book offers a wealth of new knowledge about the origins of suicide terrorism and strategies to stop it. It presents the results of examinations of every suicide terrorist attack worldwide from 1980 to 2009, and how the insights that have been gleaned from that data fundamentally challenge how we understand the root causes of terrorist campaigns today—and reveal why the War on Terror has been ultimately counterproductive. Through a close analysis of suicide campaigns by Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Israel, Chechnya, and Sri Lanka, the chapters provide powerful new evidence that, contrary to popular and dangerously mistaken belief, only a tiny minority of these attacks are motivated solely by religion. Instead, the root cause is foreign military occupation, which triggers secular and religious people alike to carry out suicide attacks.Less
This book offers a wealth of new knowledge about the origins of suicide terrorism and strategies to stop it. It presents the results of examinations of every suicide terrorist attack worldwide from 1980 to 2009, and how the insights that have been gleaned from that data fundamentally challenge how we understand the root causes of terrorist campaigns today—and reveal why the War on Terror has been ultimately counterproductive. Through a close analysis of suicide campaigns by Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Israel, Chechnya, and Sri Lanka, the chapters provide powerful new evidence that, contrary to popular and dangerously mistaken belief, only a tiny minority of these attacks are motivated solely by religion. Instead, the root cause is foreign military occupation, which triggers secular and religious people alike to carry out suicide attacks.
