Terrorism: Patterns of Internationalization

The book challenges a number of conventional patterns of analysis and underlines the importance of visualizing terrorism as an act driven by political motivation, notwithstanding the fact that it is manifested through ideological or religious sentiments. It also analyzes the various tactics used by different terrorist organizations in different regions and distinguishes terrorists from other non-state actors. It dwells on the dangerous implications of the internationalization of terrorism and emphasizes the need to develop a research methodology which can help understand the current conceptualization of the phenomenon and bring forward analytical solutions.

This will be an important sourcebook for the military, the police, law enforcement agencies, and government training institutes. In addition, it will also benefit political analysts and professionals such as counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism experts.

Jaideep Saikia (India) is a security and terrorism analyst based in Assam. He has authored and/or edited seven books, including, Terror Sans Frontiers: Islamist Militancy in North East India (2004) and Bangladesh: Treading the Taliban Trail (ed., 2006), Frontier in Flames: North East India in Turmoil (ed. 2007). He had his education at the Royal Indian Military College, Dehra Dun, St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, and as a Ford Fellow at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, USA. He has travelled widely in the USA, Europe, China, and in South and South East Asia on academic assignments, and is the recipient of many fellowships including the National Foundation for India, when he studied the security situation in Kashmir, Regional Centre for Strategic Studies fellowship for research in Sri Lanka. He also visited the US as an International Visitor on the invitation of the Department of State in its programme on ‘International Crime Issues and Global Cooperation’. Later he also worked on the United Nations University project on challenges for peace building. Saikia has served the governments of India and Assam in security advisory capacities, including the National Security Council Secretariat of India as an expert on North East India. Saikia was a member of the Indian delegation for ‘Track II’ dialogue with Bangladesh in 2007 and is a referee for the journal, Strategic Analysis.

Ekaterina Stepanova (Russia) leads an Armed Conflicts and Conflict Management Project at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). She has been a Senior Research Associate on nontraditional security threats at Center for International Security, Moscow Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) since 2001. She serves on the editorial board of the journals Terrorism and Political Violence (St Andrews University), and Security Index (CREP, Geneva). Previously, she has worked as a researcher on armed conflict and terrorism at SIPRI (2003), and a researcher at the Moscow Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1994–2000). She has held several Russian research fellowships, was twice adjudged McArthur Research Fellow (2000 and 2003), and a McArthur NGO Fellow at King’s College, University of London (1998). She is the author of several monographs, including Terrorism in Asymmetrical Conflict: Ideological and Structural Aspects (2008), Anti-Terrorism and Peace-Building During and After Conflict (2003), and Civil–Military Relations In Operations Other Than War (2001). Her book, The Role of Illicit Drug Business in the Political Economy of Conflicts and Terrorism (2005), won the gold medal from the Russian Academy of Sciences.