How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns - Softcover

Cronin, Audrey Kurth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 069115239X ISBN 13: 9780691152394

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2011

Synopsis

“A landmark study."—Robin Wright, The New Yorker

Why every terrorist movement comes to an end—and how this history can help us combat today's terrorist threats

Amid the fear following 9/11 and more recent terror attacks, it is easy to forget the most important fact about terrorist campaigns: they always come to an end—and often far more quickly than expected. Contrary to what many assume, when it comes to dealing with terrorism it may be more important to understand how it ends than how it begins. Only by understanding the common ways in which terrorist movements have died out or been eradicated in the past can we hope to figure out how to speed the decline of today's terrorist groups, while avoiding unnecessary fears and costly overreactions. In How Terrorism Ends, Audrey Kurth Cronin examines how terrorist campaigns have met their demise over the past two centuries, and applies these enduring lessons to outline a new strategy against al-Qaeda.

This book answers questions such as: How long do terrorist campaigns last? When does targeting the leadership finish a group? When do negotiations lead to the end? Under what conditions do groups transition to other forms of violence, such as insurgency or civil war? How and when do they succeed or fail, and then disappear? Examining a wide range of historical examples—including the anti-tsarist Narodnaya Volya, the Provisional IRA, Peru's Shining Path, Japan's Aum Shinrikyo, and various Palestinian groups—Cronin identifies the ways in which almost all terrorist groups die out, including decapitation (catching or killing the leader), negotiation, repression, and implosion.

How Terrorism Ends is the only comprehensive book on its subject and a rarity among all the books on terrorism—at once practical, optimistic, rigorous, and historical.

About this title

About the Author

Audrey Kurth Cronin is the Trustees Professor of Security and Technology at Carnegie Mellon University and director of the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology. She is the author of Ending Terrorism: Lessons for Defeating al-Qaeda and the coauthor of Attacking Terrorism: Elements of a Grand Strategy.

From the Back Cover

"A truly superb book that addresses the actual resolution of terrorist movements. It has a clarity and definitiveness that is rare in the literature and, moreover, will be of special interest to any official or analyst endeavoring to cope with this threatening and sinister problem. Its careful and rigorous message is one of hope."--Philip Bobbitt, author of Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-first Century

"Thoughtful books on terrorism are sadly a rarity. How Terrorism Ends not only meets that test but also tackles a neglected aspect of the subject. I cannot think of another book that addresses the ending of terrorist campaigns in the systematic way or with the depth that Audrey Cronin does."--Adrian Guelke, author of Terrorism and Global Disorder

"This is a thoughtful, sensible, and well-researched analysis of an important but understudied subject with immense policy relevance. It presents a systematic comparative framework that places al-Qaeda in historical perspective."--Martha Crenshaw, author of Terrorism in Context

"This is a superb book dealing with an important and timely topic. It is impressive in its research, very well written, and full of insights. A must-read."--Brian Michael Jenkins, author of Will Terrorists Go Nuclear?

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 069115239X
• ISBN 13: 9780691152394
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 336