The increased availability of weapons of mass destruction, cheap and easily accessible chemical and biological weapons and cyber-terrorism is a disturbing factor of recent times. In this book, Walter Laqueur, an expert on terrorism and international strategic affairs, recounts the history of terrorism and examines the future of terrorism worldwide.
Laqueur traces the chilling trend away from group terrorism of oppressed nationalists and towards small clusters of fanatics bent on vengeance and simple destruction. Coinciding with this is the alarming increased availability of weapons of mass destruction, cheap and easily accessible chemical and biological weapons, and cyber-terrorism. He argues it is only a matter of time before the attainability of weapons of mass destruction creates a terrifying and unstable scenario.
Along the way, Laqueur offers a fascinating sociology of terrorism; its practitioners, for instance, tend to come from the educated middle classes (although this is far from a hard-and-fast rule). Also, terrorists rarely believe their actions will allow them to seize political power. Instead, they aim to provoke specific responses from their targets, such as lighting an international conflict.
Although it is hardly a how-to book, 'The New Terrorism' describes what it takes for terrorism to succeed - Laqueur's list of essentials includes careful planning, an ability to improvise, small units of operation, the anonymity of large urban areas, and ready sources of money.
