This book argues that terrorism in the modern world has occurred in four "waves" of forty years each. It offers evidence-based explanations of terrorism, national identity, and political legitimacy by leading scholars from various disciplines with contrasting perspectives on political violence.

Whether violence is local or global, it tends to be both patterned and innovative. It elicits chaos, but can be understood by the application of new models or theories, depending upon the methods and data experts employ. The contributors in this volume apply their experiences and studies of terrorists, mob violence, fashions in international and political violence, religion's role in terrorism and violence, the relationship between technology and terror, a recurring paradigm of terrorist waves, nation-states struggling to establish democratic/elective governments, and factions competing for control within states - in order to make sense of both national and international acts of political violence and to ask and answer some of the most disturbing questions these phenomena present.

This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism, religion and violence, nationalism, sociology, war and conflict studies and IR in general.

About the Author

Jean E. Rosenfeld is an Academic Researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, Center for the Study of Religion.

Reviews

"The contributors to this conceptually interesting edited volume, who come from many disciplines and contrasting perspectives, apply David Rapoport's notion of the four historical waves of modern terrorism - with each one lasting for 40 year "generations" - to explain the trajectories of terrorism and their impact on society over time, including how mob violence breaks out, how political violence spreads, the role of religion in driving terrorism and violence, the relationship between technology and terrorist warfare, and other issues, in order to analyze the questions that such phenomena present, including future trends." - Joshua Sinai, 'Terrorism Bookshelf: Top 150 Books on Terrorism and Counterterrorism', Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 6, No. 2 (2012)

Book Information
ISBN 9780415510134
Author Jean E. Rosenfeld
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 520g