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This book looks at the concept of ‘terrorism’ and its primary aim of creating a climate of fear. Any discussion of terrorism has to firstly define its terms: what do we mean by terrorism and how does it manifest itself in contemporary accounts and moreover, what is the difference between legitimate military action and one based on terror? The definitions of terrorism are complex and depend, to a very large extent, on who one is asking. A government defence adviser would, for instance, have a markedly different notion of what constitutes terrorism than a member of a paramilitary organisation and an ordinary member of the public might have a notion based somewhere on the interaction between these two depending on their socio-cultural background. This is primarily the main reason why the term has not been universally accepted by all scholars or academics. There are many reasons why political groups attempt to bring about radical change through terrorism. People are often frustrated with their position in society. They may in some way feel persecuted or oppressed because of their race, religion, or they feel exploited by a government. Any group that uses terrorist actions have very complex and powerful reasons to engage in those activities. The usual experience of violence by a stronger party has historically turned victims into terrorists. State terror very often breeds collective terror. Because ‘terrorism’ is a word that has been used so much and so loosely that it has lost a clear meaning. It can be argued that terrorists are not born, but created as issues of today develop into the conflicts of tomorrow.
The Oklahoma City bombing, intentional crashing of airliners on September 11, 2001, and anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001 have made Americans acutely aware of the impacts of terrorism. These events and continued threats of terrorism have raised questions about the impact on the psychological health of the nation and how well the public health infrastructure is able to meet the psychological needs that will likely result. Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism highlights some of the critical issues in responding to the psychological needs that result from terrorism and provides possible options for intervention. The committee offers an example for a public health strategy that may serve as a base from which plans to prevent and respond to the psychological consequences of a variety of terrorism events can be formulated. The report includes recommendations for the training and education of service providers, ensuring appropriate guidelines for the protection of service providers, and developing public health surveillance for preevent, event, and postevent factors related to psychological consequences.
New York Times bestselling author Michael Crichton delivers another action-packed techo-thriller in State of Fear. When a group of eco-terrorists engage in a global conspiracy to generate weather-related natural disasters, its up to environmental lawyer Peter Evans and his team to uncover the subterfuge. From Tokyo to Los Angeles, from Antarctica to the Solomon Islands, Michael Crichton mixes cutting edge science and action-packed adventure, leading readers on an edge-of-your-seat ride while offering up a thought-provoking commentary on the issue of global warming. A deftly-crafted novel, in true Crichton style, State of Fear is an exciting, stunning tale that not only entertains and educates, but will make you think.
Essay from the year 2021 in the subject Sociology - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, University of Wrocław, language: English, abstract: This essay deals with a culture of fear in the West, which provides a perfect breeding ground for the fear of terrorism. Terrorism is a global phenomenon and omnipresent in Western societies, such as the European Union or the United States. The goal of terrorism is to produce a climate of fear and to disrupt the social cohesion. Since the attacks on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, terrorism has been attracting more and more attention within Western society and their mass media. It gave rise to a universal awareness of vulnerability of the West (Beck, 2009, p. 14). After Islamic terrorist attacks on Germany and France in 2015 (Charlie Hebdo attack, Bataclan attack, Berlin attack), 44% of the people surveyed stated that terrorism was the greatest threat within the European Union, according to Eurobarometer 87 in the following spring (Eurobarometer, 2017). In the United States, the public concern about Islamic terrorism was even higher, half of the US population were worried about themselves or a family member becoming the victim of terrorism after the attacks (OWD, 2019). These surveys illustrate that terrorism is perceived by the Western public as a major threat to social life. In this essay I will argue that we have established a culture of fear in the West, which provides a perfect breeding ground for the fear of terrorism. Terrorism in fact is dangerous, but my point is that the danger is massively exaggerated, and we fear the wrong things. I will deal with the culture of fear and how it influences the perception of risk in terms of terrorism. Furthermore, I argue that media and terror maintain a symbiotic relationship that benefits from each other and this leads to a reinforced distortion of perception in the public. The excessive coverage of terrorism in the mass media is disproportionate to the numbers of death and leads to a staged threat. To put it in the words of Ulrich Beck: “Whether it be the mass media broadcasting the images of bloodstained victims across the world, or American President Bush declaring war on terrorism, or NATO declaring a case of legitimate defence after 9/11: only when such reactions follow the deed does every terrorist’s dream of a meteoric rise from obscure petty criminality to the ‘number one enemy’, the ‘global danger’ – in short, to ‘terrorist world stardom’ – become a reality.” (Beck, 2009).
The word 'terrorism' describes a lexicon but has little utility as a politically relevant and beneficial concept. The implacable nature of the terrorism lexicon is such that our current usages lack significant veracity and hence, utility. The word 'terrorism' is an extremely contested word for which there is no ideological consensus. Unfortunately the American government's conception and characterisation of 'terrorism' and 'terrorists' is dangerous, hypocritical, and violent and leaves no possibility of finding a lasting resolution to the problem of "terrorism". Also, if 'terrorism' does not conform to fact it is not accurate and thus misleading so it cannot be useful in our political and media discourses especially when its usage has very dangerous consequences. The word 'terrorism' is used to instil fear, dehumanize, to remove civil liberties and freedoms and is used to justify a new, violent international norm. Moreover, because our current usage is defective and equivocal it can actually further the "terrorist" cause. The American government has helped create our befuddled understanding of the word and created a climate of fear and divisiveness through their calculated employment of persuasive definitions of 'terrorism' and in their greater and enduring use of 'the war on terror'. In light of the principle of universality and the historical record, American state violence makes them the largest global terrorist. Thus, 'terrorism' has lost all its veracity and utility and its usages are dangerously evolving and mutating to justify the otherwise unjustifiable. It is with haste that we should abandon the word altogether.
Pathologic leaders are capable of using their power, mind manipulation skills, and unchecked authority to manipulate and annihilate others, their own people, and themselves, as the Nazi Fhrer Adolf Hitler, the messianic reverend James Jones, or Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaeda social movement, have reminded us. But what about the regular guys? Can a person who, in principle is like you and me, become an agent of terror? In the rise of the media age, it is easy to forget that humankind has been subject to the darkness of terrorism for centuries. In a world scarred by tragedies in locations as divergent as Oklahoma City, Blacksburg, London, Madrid, and New York, finding a way to combat terrorism and acts of terror in our own time is of paramount concern. Yet how do a community, a culture, and a world come to understand how terrorists develop? How do we come to terms with the idea that most terrorists and individuals who commit acts of terror are products of the cultures that we live in, rational actors who operate among us, at times undetected until their actions come to their deadly end? The Dynamics of Terror is a series of essays from a group of expert psychologists, sociologists, and military terror experts. By examining the differences between the individuals who engage in terrorist activities, the authors have composed a unified theory of terrorists. These engaging essays will shed light into the minds of terrorists and provide new ways to identify potential aggressors before tragedy occurs.
Is one person's terrorist another's freedom fighter? Is terrorism crime or war? Can there be a 'War on Terror'? For many, the terrorist attacks of September 2001 changed the face of the world, pushing terrorism to the top of political agendas, and leading to a series of world events including the war in Iraq and the invasion of Afghanistan. The recent terror attacks in various European cities have shown that terrorism remains a crucial issue today. Charting a clear path through the efforts to understand and explain modern terrorism, Charles Townshend examines the historical, ideological, and local roots of terrorist violence. Starting from the question of why terrorists find it so easy to seize public attention, this new edition analyses the emergence of terrorism as a political strategy, and discusses the objectives which have been pursued by users of this strategy from French revolutionaries to Islamic jihadists. Considering the kinds of groups and individuals who adopt terrorism, Townshend discusses the emergence of ISIS and the upsurge in individual suicide action, and explores the issues involved in finding a proportionate response to the threat they present, particularly by liberal democratic societies. Analysing the growing use of knives and other edged weapons in attacks, and the issue of 'cyberterror', Townshend details the use of counterterrorist measures, from control orders to drone strikes, including the Belgian and French responses to the Brussels, Paris, Nice, and Rouen attacks. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
In compiling this annotated bibliography on the psychology of terrorism, the author has defined terrorism as "acts of violence intentionally perpetrated on civilian noncombatants with the goal of furthering some ideological, religious or political objective." The principal focus is on nonstate actors. The task was to identify and analyze the scientific and professional social science literature pertaining to the psychological and/or behavioral dimensions of terrorist behavior (not on victimization or effects). The objectives were to explore what questions pertaining to terrorist groups and behavior had been asked by social science researchers; to identify the main findings from that research; and attempt to distill and summarize them within a framework of operationally relevant questions. To identify the relevant social science literature, the author began by searching a series of major academic databases using a systematic, iterative keyword strategy, mapping, where possible, onto existing subject headings. The focus was on locating professional social science literature published in major books or in peer-reviewed journals. Searches were conducted of the following databases October 2003: Sociofile/Sociological Abstracts, Criminal Justice Abstracts (CJ Abstracts), Criminal Justice Periodical Index (CJPI), National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts (NCJRS), PsycInfo, Medline, and Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS). Three types of annotations were provided for works in this bibliography: Author's Abstract -- this is the abstract of the work as provided (and often published) by the author; Editor's Annotation -- this is an annotation written by the editor of this bibliography; and Key Quote Summary -- this is an annotation composed of "key quotes" from the original work, edited to provide a cogent overview of its main points.
This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Examines terrorists¿ involvement in a variety of crimes ranging from motor vehicle violations, immigration fraud, and mfg. illegal firearms to counterfeiting, armed bank robbery, and smuggling weapons of mass destruction. There are 3 parts: (1) Compares the criminality of internat. jihad groups with domestic right-wing groups. (2) Six case studies of crimes includes trial transcripts, official reports, previous scholarship, and interviews with law enforce. officials and former terrorists are used to explore skills that made crimes possible; or events and lack of skill that the prevented crimes. Includes brief bio. of the terrorists along with descriptions of their org., strategies, and plots. (3) Analysis of the themes in closing arguments of the transcripts in Part 2. Illus.
Are humans violent or peaceful by nature? We are both. In this ambitious and wide-ranging book, Agner Fog presents a ground-breaking new argument that explains the existence of differently organised societies using evolutionary theory. It combines natural sciences and social sciences in a way that is rarely seen. According to a concept called regality theory, people show a preference for authoritarianism and strong leadership in times of war or collective danger, but desire egalitarian political systems in times of peace and safety. These individual impulses shape the way societies develop and organise themselves, and in this book Agner argues that there is an evolutionary mechanism behind this flexible psychology. Incorporating a wide range of ideas including evolutionary theory, game theory, and ecological theory, Agner analyses the conditions that make us either strident or docile. He tests this theory on data from contemporary and ancient societies, and provides a detailed explanation of the applications of regality theory to issues of war and peace, the rise and fall of empires, the mass media, economic instability, ecological crisis, and much more. Warlike and Peaceful Societies: The Interaction of Genes and Culture draws on many different fields of both the social sciences and the natural sciences. It will be of interest to academics and students in these fields, including anthropology, political science, history, conflict and peace research, social psychology, and more, as well as the natural sciences, including human biology, human evolution, and ecology.