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This book explains the lifecycle of terrorist organizations from an innovative theoretical perspective, combining economics with social psychology. It provides a new approach to understanding human behaviour in organized society, and then uses this to analyze the forces shaping the lifecycle of violent political movements.

Economic and rational-choice theorists assume that human beings are motivated only by self-utility, yet terrorism is ultimately an altruistic act in the eyes of its participants. This book highlights the importance of the desire to belong to a group as a motivating factor, and argues that all of us face an eternal trade-off between selfishness and community concern. This hypothesis is explored through four key groups; the IRA in Northern Ireland, Al Qaeda, Hamas, and the Naxalites in India. Through this, the book analyzes the birth, growth, transformation and demise of violent political movements, and ends with an analysis of the conditions which determine the outcome of the war against terrorism.

Understanding Terrorism and Political Violence will be essential reading for advanced students of terrorism studies and political science, and of great interest to students of social psychology and sociology.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• List of figures(p. x)
• List of tables(p. xi)
• Foreword(p. xii)
• Preface: "The years that try a man's soul": a personal narrative(p. xiv)
• Acknowledgments(p. xx)
• 1 Introduction(p. 1)
• 2 Theories of the origins of movements(p. 11)
• 3 Selfish altruist: modeling the mind of a terrorist(p. 32)
• 4 The dynamics of dissent: a theoretical perspective(p. 64)
• 5 Faith, nationalism, and class warfare: the birth of a movement(p. 102)
• 6 Growth of a movement: accounting for rapid escalation of violence(p. 123)
• 7 A marriage made in hell? Terrorism and organized crime(p. 146)
• 8 Demise of dissent: the endgame of terrorism(p. 161)
• 9 Terrorism's trap: a winnable war?(p. 181)
• Appendix A Trade-off between interests of the individual and the collective: an expanded assumption of rationality(p. 207)
• Appendix B Terrorism and organized crime: a formal model(p. 211)
• Notes(p. 215)
• Bibliography(p. 242)
• Index(p. 274)

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CHOICE Review

This study is a welcome addition to the literature on political violence in general and terrorism in particular. Gupta (San Diego State University, CA) uses an interdisciplinary, comparative perspective to focus on the issues of public good, opportunity cost, poliheuristics decision making, network analysis, and political entrepreneurship. Students using this lucidly written work as an introductory textbook would benefit from the discussion of various theories in chapter 2, the summary for each chapter, and the interesting case studies (al Qaeda, Hamas, the IRA in Northern Ireland, and the Naxalites in India). Gupta notes that by bridging the gap between the individual and the group, terrorists overcome the free-rider problem of collective action for common goods. Chapter 4, the heart of the book, is where Gupta develops a life-cycle framework along with a typology of terrorism: ideological, professional (requiring specialized skills), anomic (mercenary), hooligan, and vigilante. In reality, the core group comprises the first three types as well as "captive participants." While public and quasi-public goods become important in distinguishing terrorist groups from criminal gangs, bombing, shooting, and hostage taking account for much of terrorist activities. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate collections. R. G. Mainuddin North Carolina Central University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Dipak K. Gupta is the Fred J. Hansen Professor of Peace Studies and the Distinguished Professor in Political Science at San Diego State University, California. He is author of seven books