CIAO DATE: 02/2008
Volume: 12, Issue: 3
May 2007
About This Issue
The cover of this edition of eJournal USA captures a Russian woman's horror as she gazes at photographs of children killed in the terrorist attack on a school in Beslan, Russia, in 2004. Some 330 people, more than half of them children, died when Chechen terrorists in opposition to the Russian government took more than 1,200 hostages by seizing the school and wiring it to explode.
Terrorism and Children
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
Obaid-Chinoy chronicles the many losses that children suffer when their societies are torn apart by terrorism, and their subsequent vulnerability to being recruited into extremism.
A Form of Psychological Warfare
Bruce Hoffman
Terrorism is intended to have psychological effects beyond the immediate victims, intimidating or otherwise affecting the behavior of a much wider target audience.
Collective Identity: Hatred Bred in the Bone
Jerrold Post
The most powerful lens through which to view terrorist behavior is that of group, organizational, and social psychology, with a particular emphasis on collective identity.
Women as Victims and Victimizers
Mia Bloom
Although women have long been involved in terrorist movements, they have recently migrated from mostly supportive roles to more active, operational ones, including suicide bombers.
Terrorism: A Brief History
Walter Laqueur
A leading terrorism expert provides some historical context for the phenomenon of modern-day terrorism.
From Profiles to Pathways: The Road to Recruitment
John Horgan
With so many people exposed to the presumed generating conditions for terrorism, why is it that so few are actually recruited?
Mass-Media Theater
Gabriel Weimann
Modern terrorism can be understood in terms of the same production requirements as any theatrical engagement: meticulous attention paid to script preparation, cast selection, sets, props, role-playing, and minute-by-minute stage management.
A Case Study: The Mythology of Martyrdom in Iraq
Mohammed Hafez
Through online video clips and biographies of suicide bombers, the jihadists in Iraq play on themes of humiliation, collusion, and redemption to demonize their enemies and motivate their cadres to make "heroic" sacrifices. These emotive elements are intended to galvanize support not just from a narrow circle of activists, but from the broader Muslim public as well.
New Paradigms for 21st Century Conflict
David Kilcullen
If the confrontation with terrorism is based on long-standing trends, it follows that it may be a protracted, generational, or multigenerational struggle. Thus, we need a grand strategy for combating terrorism that can be sustained by the American people, successive U.S. administrations, key allies, and partners worldwide.
A Strategic Assessment of Progress Against the Terrorist Threat
Cooperative international efforts in the world community's conflict with transnational terrorists have produced genuine security improvements. But despite this undeniable progress, major challenges remain.
Sidebar-Terrorism in 2006: Statistical Data from the Country Reports on Terrorism 2006 of the U.S. Department of State.