The Darkest Sides of Politics, II: State Terrorism, “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” Religious Extremism, and Organized Crime (Routledge Studies in Extremism and Democracy)

"This book examines a wide array of phenomena that arguably constitute the most noxious, extreme, terrifying, murderous, secretive, authoritarian, and/or anti-democratic aspects of national and international politics. Scholars should not ignore these "dark sides" of politics, however unpleasant they may be, since they influence the world in a multitude of harmful ways. The second volume in this two-volume collection focuses primarily on assorted religious extremists, including apocalyptic millenarian cults, Islamists, and jihadist terrorist networks, as well as CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear) terrorism and the supposedly new "nexus" between organized criminal and extremist groups employing terrorist operational techniques. A range of global case studies are included, most of which focus on the lesser known activities of certain religious extremist milieus. This collection should prove to be essential reading for students and researchers interested in understanding seemingly arcane but nonetheless important dimensions of recent historical and contemporary politics."--Provided by publisher Most studies that deal with contemporary terrorism are based on the comforting assumption that different types of violent extremists and terrorists operate within discrete ideological and cultural milieus that are relatively insular, if not entirely distinct from one another. Hence virtually every introductory text on terrorism has separate chapters devoted to ethno-nationalist groups, secular left-wing groups, secular right-wing groups, and religious groups, as if these different types of groups had never interacted, or would never interact, with each other. This simplistic assumption ignores a far more complex and fluid reality, however, since elements from different extremist milieus have not infrequently interacted and lent one another assistance in the past, and there are indications that new patterns of ideological cross-fertilization and collaboration may presently be emerging among terrorist groups. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether, in spite of their marked ideological differences, a shared hatred of the global capitalist New World Order allegedly dominated by the United States might cause transnational Islamist terrorist networks such as al-Q ida (The Base or The Foundation) to collude on an operational level with certain radical right- and left-wing groups in the West." V. 1. Postwar Fascism, Covert Operations, And Terrorism -- V. 2. State Terrorism, Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Religious Extremism, And Organized Crime. Jeffrey M. Bale. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.