Suicide Terrorism (ISBN 074563382X)

Solid work on suicide terrorism:
The purpose of this book is to explore suicide terrorism in the latter part of the 20th century and the early 21st century. In the 1980s, Hezbollah used this tactic in Lebanon--with spectacular results. As the Preface remarks (page xv): "Suicide bombing is the signature tactic of the fourth or 'religious wave' of modern terrorism, a wave that began with the Iranian Revolution of 1979." The chapters in this edited volume deal with a variety of key issues: 1. The nature of suicide terrorism; 2. Motivations for suicide terrorism; 3. Islam and Al Qaeda; 4. Osama bin Laden. The Introduction does a nice job of laying out what is at stake in this volume. It concludes by noting that (page 11): "In summary, the characteristics of suicide attacks which have been discussed point to the fact that, in contrast to common belief, suicide attacks are varied and change from region to region and during different time periods." A good edited volume that gets one to thinking about the issues involved with suicide terrorism.