Terrorism has consistently dogged this supposedly modern and enlightened age. It has merely adopted new shapes and forms in keeping with the times. The causes have also evolved over the years, as old problems are solved and new ones created. Moreover, it has gone high-tech, like everything else. Thus, as this book convincingly shows, terrorism will remain with us in the future, even if, with the end of the Cold War, it again mutates and becomes more sophisticated and potentially more dangerous. So it is essential to get a better grasp of what the phenomenon consists, who practices it...and against whom.
That is not an easy task, not when terrorism is so widespread and diversified. Nor is it even simple to explain just what acts or groups are terrorists. Still, this newly updated and expanded edition certainly makes the situation more clear by tracing an amazing number of acts and groups in literally hundreds of informative entries. This edition also has many new entries on basic concepts and theory. The chronology inserts terrorism into its historical context. Of no less significance is an introduction that helps us understand the "whys" and "therefores". The bibliography has been substantially revised and updated. It contains a newsection, which deals with weapons of mass destruction, "cyber-terrorism," as well as more conventional terrorist threats. In addition, it has new sections devoted specifically to U.S. government documents as well as Internet sources for research or emergency planning or personal interest. For all these reasons this volume is bound to become a standard reference work.
