Tangled roots : social and psychological factors in the genesis of terrorism ; [proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Psyhology and Terrorism Castelvecchio Pascoli, Italy 14-17 September 2005

This book is organized to assist readers in finding the topics that interest them the most. What do we really know about the contributing causes of terrorism? Are all forms of terrorism created equal, or are there important differences in terrorisms that one must know about to customize effective counter-strategies? Does poverty cause terrorism? Are terrorists typically crazy, vengeful, misled, or simply making an entirely sensible choice? Why would people blow themselves (and others) up? Is the 'war on terrorism' even a useful idea? Is it being fought wisely, or are much better ideas staring policy makers in the face? Do leaders of targeted nations willfully neglect the best solutions? Most of the lessons in this book concern the basic human ingredients that combust to produce violent extremism. Thus - regardless of the mutations that occur in substate terrorism - the timeless scholarship here will hopefully be somewhat helpful even to our grandchildren.IOS Press is an international science, technical and medical publisher of high-quality books for academics, scientists, and professionals in all fields. Some of the areas we publish in: -Biomedicine -Oncology -Artificial intelligence -Databases and information systems -Maritime engineering -Nanotechnology -Geoengineering -All aspects of physics -E-governance -E-commerce -The knowledge economy -Urban studies -Arms control -Understanding and responding to terrorism -Medical informatics -Computer Sciences Title page......Page 1 Preface......Page 5 Acknowledgements......Page 7 Principal Contributors......Page 8 Contents......Page 11 Introduction: Managing Terror: The Devilish Traverse from a Theory to a Plan......Page 15 What Do We Know, and What Can We Know, About the Causes of Substate Terrorism?......Page 35 Knowledge Claims and the Study of Terrorism......Page 37 Tyranny of Data: Going Beyond Theories......Page 51 Have Motivations for Terrorism Changed?......Page 65 The Psychology of Terrorism: Toward a Scientific Approach......Page 73 The Psychology of Terrorism: "Syndrome" Versus "Tool" Perspectives......Page 75 Understanding Terrorism: Old Assumptions, New Assertions, and Challenges for Research......Page 88 Crusades and Jihads: An Existential Psychological Perspective on the Psychology of Terrorism and Political Extremism......Page 99 Identifying Cross-National Global Terrorist Hot Spots......Page 112 Economic Methods and the Study of Terrorism: An Evaluation......Page 129 Who Supports Terrorism and Why?......Page 145 The Radical Community: A Comparative Analysis of the Social Background of ETA, IRA, and Hezbollah......Page 147 Terrorists and the Societies from Which They Come......Page 161 Research Note: Who Supports Terrorism? Evidence from Fourteen Muslim Countries......Page 176 Individual Motivations for Joining Terrorist Organizations:A Comparative Qualitative Study on Members of ETA and IRA......Page 201 Adolescents' Willingness to Engage in Political Conflict: Lessons from the Gaza Strip......Page 217 Sympathy for Terrorism: Possible Interaction Between Social, Emotional, and Neuroendocrine Risk Factors......Page 241 Terrorist Behavior in Hostage Taking: Policy Issues and Research Directions......Page 249 The Empirical Study of the Terrorist Threat......Page 256 Religion and Culture in the Arab World: Evidence of Links to Political Violence......Page 273 Suicide Bombers: Why?......Page 289 Defusing Human Bombs: Understanding Suicide Terrorism......Page 291 Moral Agents, Immoral Violence: Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement in Palestinian Suicide Terrorism......Page 306 The Palestinian Human Bombers......Page 322 A Multi-Causal Analysis of the Genesis of Suicide Terrorism: The Chechen Case......Page 338 What Should We Do? Psychologically Informed Approaches to Reducing the Threat of Substate Terrorism......Page 369 Possible Causes and Motives of Nuclear and Radiological Terrorism in the Light of Empirical Data on Smuggling Incidents of Nuclear Materials......Page 371 Countering Islamist Militancy: An Epidemiologic Approach......Page 413 Suicide Terrorism: Modeling Group Dynamics and Individual Behavior......Page 424 Reducing the Threat of Substate Terrorism: Interventions to Reduce the Efficacy of Committed Terrorists......Page 445 Preventing Substate Terrorist Groups from Recruiting and Retaining Young Members......Page 452 Conflict Prevention and Conflict Resolution: Recommendations for Diplomatic, Political, Military, Economic, Legal and Human Rights Policies Likely to Prevent or Resolve Tension Provoking Conflict......Page 457 Perspectives, Comments and Recommendations......Page 459 Ten Rules for Preventing and Combating Terrorism......Page 464 Executive Summary......Page 467 Executive Summary......Page 469 Subject Index......Page 477 Author Index......Page 491

This book is organized to assist readers in finding the topics that interest them the most. What do we really know about the contributing causes of terrorism? Are all forms of terrorism created equal, or are there important differences in terrorisms that one must know about to customize effective counter-strategies? Does poverty cause terrorism? Are terrorists typically crazy, vengeful, misled, or simply making an entirely sensible choice? Why would people blow themselves (and others) up? Is the 'war on terrorism' even a useful idea? Is it being fought wisely, or are much better ideas staring policy makers in the face? Do leaders of targeted nations willfully neglect the best solutions? Most of the lessons in this book concern the basic human ingredients that combust to produce violent extremism. Thus -regardless of the mutations that occur in substate terrorism- the timeless scholarship here will hopefully be somewhat helpful even to our grandchildren.

What do we really know about the contributing causes of terrorism? Are all forms of terrorism created equal, or are there important differences in terrorisms that one must know about to customize effective counter-strategies? Does poverty cause terrorism? This book talks about the basic human ingredients that combust to produce violent extremism.