Although September 11, 2001, marks the day when average Americans first began to grapple with the concept of terrorism in the United States, it wasn’t the first terrorist attack on American soil. The history of terrorism and the fight against it in the United States is long and filled with more action and intrigue than a novel or movie. Readers discover the details of this part of American history through comprehensive main text, enlightening sidebars, and historical and contemporary images. They also take a look at what’s being done today to protect Americans and fight terrorism at home and abroad.
This book provides a multifaceted array of answers to the question, In the ten years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, how has America responded? In a series of essays, RAND authors lend a farsighted perspective to the national dialogue on 9/11's legacy. The essays assess the military, political, fiscal, social, cultural, psychological, and even moral implications of U.S. policymaking since 9/11. Part One of the book addresses the lessons learned from America's accomplishments and mistakes in its responses to the 9/11 attacks and the ongoing terrorist threat. Part Two explores reactions to the extreme ideologies of the terrorists and to the fears they have generated. Part Three presents the dilemmas of asymmetrical warfare and suggests ways to resolve them. Part Four cautions against sacrificing a long-term strategy by imposing short-term solutions, particularly with respect to air passenger security and counterterrorism intelligence. Finally, Part Five looks at the effects of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. public health system, at the potential role of compensation policy for losses incurred by terrorism, and at the possible long-term effects of terrorism and counterterrorism on American values, laws, and society.--Publisher description.
In this book, the author offers an approach to understanding and fighting the increase in domestic and international terrorism throughout the world. Citing diverse examples from around the globe, he demonstrates that domestic terrorist groups are usually no match for an advanced technological society which can successfully roll back terror without any significant curtailment of civil liberties. But he sees an even more potent threat from the new international terrorism which is increasingly the product of Islamic militants, who draw their inspiration and directives from Iran and its growing cadre of satellite states. The spread of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, coupled with the possibility that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons, poses a more frightening threat from an adversary less rational and therefore less controllable than was Soviet Communism. How democracies can defend themselves against this new threat concludes this book.
This Citizen’s Guide addresses the public policy issues of terrorism and counterterrorism in the United States. Written for the thinking citizen and student alike, this succinct and up-to-date book takes a “grand strategy” approach toward terrorism and uses examples and issues drawn from present-day perpetrators and actors. Christopher C. Harmon, a veteran academic of military theory who has also instructed U.S. and foreign military officers, organizes his book into three sections. He first introduces the problem of America’s continued vulnerability to terrorist attack. Part II examines the varied ways in which the U.S. is fighting terrorism, highlighting the labors of diverse experts, government offices, intelligence and military personnel, and foreign allies. The book outlines the various aspects of the U.S. strategy, including intelligence, diplomacy, public diplomacy, economic counterterrorism, and law and law-making. In Part III, Harmon sketches the prospects for further action, steering clear of simple partisanship and instead listing recommendations with pros and cons and also including factual stories of how individual citizens have made a difference in the national effort against terrorism. New to the Second Edition • Adds coverage of the Islamic State, explained in terms of its character, rise, and relative collapse under coalition pressures. • Focuses on the growing right-wing terrorist threat, domestically as well as internationally. • Covers additional schools of militancy including anarchism; variants of communism and especially Maoist insurgency; and the Iranian/Shia terrorist threat throughout the Middle East and Europe, among others. • Analyzes the current published White House strategy for countering terrorism.
The authors address one of the fundamental assumptions underlying the conduct of the War on Terrorism -- the nature of our enemy, whether perpetrators of terrorist activities are criminals or soldiers (combatants). Although the United States recognizes that terrorist acts are certainly illegal, it has chosen to treat perpetrators as combatants; but much of the world, including many of our traditional allies, have opted for a purely legalistic approach. Disagreement about assumptions is not the only basis for divergent policies for confronting terrorism, but certainly explains much of our inability to agree on strategies to overcome what we recognize as a serious common and persistent international problem. Their insights into how our respective cultures and histories influence our definitions, assumptions, and subsequent policy decisions can assist us to respect and learn from competing strategies. They correctly surmise that our current international struggle is too important for us to ignore assumptions underlying our own and competing ideas.
A Brookings Institution Press and the Nixon Center publication In this candid and sobering account, former Russian premier Yevgeny M. Primakov considers the threats posed by independent terrorist organizations to the security of the global community. As the attacks of September 11, 2001 made clear, the course of international affairs is no longer shaped exclusively by cooperation and confrontation among nations. Stateless factions with extreme agendas—their methods enhanced by globalization and technological advances—pose serious threats to global stability. Primakov expresses grave concern over the likelihood that independent terrorist organizations will obtain weapons of mass destruction. More than 100 nations are stockpiling nuclear material, he writes, and there is no reason to believe that all of it is well managed or protected. A terrorist group intent on developing a weapon can easily find the information and fissile material to develop a compact nuclear device. He recommends that the global community develop a comprehensive Charter on Terrorism to facilitate criminal prosecution of terrorism. And he urges Russia and the United States to join forces more readily to share information and intelligence about emerging terrorist threats.
"Examines the state of governance in the countries of the greater Horn of Africa region--Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, the Sudan, and Yemen--and discusses strategies to combat the transnational threat of terrorism, including suggestions for more effective U.S. engagement in the region"--Provided by publisher.
From the publisher. Insurgencies are like the hydra, the many-headed beast of Greek mythology. Once one begins, the measures a government takes to eliminate militants -- to cut off the insurgency's head -- can provoke countless others to join the enemy ranks. Tactical victories often breed strategic defeats. Traditional "search, destroy, and withdraw" missions that rely on firepower to wipe out rebels frequently destroy the livelihoods and loved ones of innocent people caught in the cross fire. U.S. troops have seen the pattern repeated as their initially successful offensives toppled enemy regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq but soon transformed into grueling guerrilla wars. Hearts, Minds, and Hydras outlines the reasons for these worsening situations. The most crucial were self-defeating decisions made by the George W. Bush administration, whose neoconservatism and hubris rather than careful analysis of genuine threats, national interests, and reasonable options shaped its policies. Although the Americans were eventually able to contain and diminish the insurgency in Iraq, the one in Afghanistan not only steadily intensified but also spread into neighboring Pakistan. The near abandonment of the war in Afghanistan and the neoconservative campaign in Iraq were godsends for al Qaeda and all other enemies of the United States. Then, as America's position deteriorated in both wars, the neoconservatives became even more determined to stay the course. William Nester analyzes some of the more prominent dilemmas haunting American policymakers now struggling to win in Afghanistan, fight terrorism in the United States, and reshape their relationship with Pakistan. In doing so, he reveals the nature of that all-too-real monster of insurgency, what feeds it, and how to starve it.
The war on terror, launched by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has been waged inside as well as outside the U.S. borders. Perception of threat and efforts to ensure national security have led the United States to major reforms in its national security policy, involving new military, security and legislative concepts. On the level of waging war outside the U.S. borders, the United States has introduced the system of Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs), autonomous aircrafts without human pilot aboard, opening the possibility of highly effective computer game-like targeted killing. On the domestic level, new pieces of legislation and other antiterrorism measures have been raising privacy awareness and concerns whether the U.S. government keeps observing the Constitution. Nowadays, as advanced technology offers wide range of possibilities how to intrude one´s privacy and effectively kill people, legal and ethical considerations have to catch up the reality. This work therefore seeks to elaborate on the statutory and constitutional framework of the current U.S surveillance measures as well as the limits of utilization of UAVs.
