Book Review Book Title: Terrorism - How to Respond?

 
Book Review                                 
Book Title: Terrorism - How to Respond?
Author: Richard English
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Price: Rs.295/-
Pages: 178
Reviewed by: Nida Zainab & Syed Ahtisham Raza Naqvi
The author argues that we now need a radically new approach to deal with the international terrorist threat. It is no longer affordable to ignore the terrorist activities of past. The emergence and flourishment of terrorist activities can only be understood if we look into the whole spectrum of terrorist violence over a couple of years. Then only, we would be able to respond effectively.  
The book is divided into four chapters. Chapter I deal with the definition of Terrorism. The author has referred to various definitions given by different categories of scholars, organisations and dictionaries. There is no precise, particular and concrete definition of Terrorism. From the definition given by U.S. FBI to U.S Department of Defence, from Cambridge Dictionary to Oxford Dictionary, the author has penned down several definitions of Terrorism. He has also given definition of Terrorism, by various scholars like I. Prianoratz, C.A.J. Coady, C. Gearty, B. Hoffman and Wilkinson. In the end, the author has deduced or rather stated that an act of Terrorism terrifies, uses of political violence, effect some degree of fear, it is done with a purpose, it is coercive intimidation so as to cause others to do things, they would otherwise not do. By the end of the Chapter, the author has given several examples of acts of Terrorism like anti-Israel activities by Palestine, 9/11 attack, London attack 2005 etc and thus, has tried to explain terrorism under the light of these incidents.  
Chapter II of the book is headed, “Why Do People Resort to Terror?” The author has examined from different angles, the supposed causes of terrorism. One of the reasons is a psychological dimension which needs to be looked into. Another reason he pointed out is clash of civilizations and cultures. He gives the example of West and Islamist movement. He also, has elaborately discussed conflict within, rather than between civilizations like Basque political violence in Spain, paramilitary conflict in Northern Ireland or radical-leftist terrorism in Germany. Another reason he gave is religion. He answers different questions like how effectively can terrorism be explained by reference to religion? To what extend are terrorists motivated by religion? In what ways does religion play a part in explaining terrorist violence? He then gave strategic explanation of terrorism which helps to account for the particular kinds of violence employed during frequently changing campaigns e.g. suicide attacks. Lastly, he emphasized on the pursuit of expressly political goals, ranging among others from irredentism, to regime change to policy alteration, to redress of specific grievance, to maintenance of a fragile status quo, to revolutionary social change, to religious transformation, to decolonolization and liberation from empire and beyond.
Chapter III of the book is “What can we Learn from Past Terrorism?” The author starts the chapter with two incidents, which occurred in 2005. One on July 7, 2005, when a series of bomb blasts announced the arrival of post 9/11 era in England. And, the second incident occurred on July 28, 2005 when IRA announced that it had formally ordered an end to armed campaign. The author points out the vitality of learning from past incidents with reference to IRA and Jihadism or so called modern terrorism. He answers several questions like why do significant terrorist campaigns begin? How are terrorist campaigns sustained? Why does terrorism end? He has compared pattern of activities of the IRA and Al-Qaeda, in particular. He gave a brief history of Al-Qaeda, Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, how historically, serious terrorism has emerged, the case of 9/11 and post 9/11 sequence of international conflict that has provided a gruesome illustration of the self-sustaining dynamics of terrorist related conflict.
Chapter IV is the last chapter of the book. In this chapter the author has given some suggestions regarding terrorism and how to control it. The chapter is titled, “How Should We Respond”. The suggestions which the author gave are pointed as learn to live with it, address root problems, avoid over militrilization, intelligence agencies for counter-terrorism, respect orthodox framework and adhere to the democratically established rule of law, co-ordinated preventive action, maintain strong credibility in counter-terrorist public argument. The author concludes the chapter by saying that if such measures are taken care of, then surely the menace of terrorism can be well contained in a more humanised way.