The Future of Terrorism: ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and the Alt-Right
Written by Walter Laqueur and Christopher Wall
Narrated by Christopher Price
2/5
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About this audiobook
In this fascinating audiobook, an expert on terrorism and an expert on counterterrorism answer the two questions everyone is asking about the rise of terrorism today: why is this happening, and when will it end?
Since the death of bin Laden in 2011, ISIS has risen, al-Qaeda has expanded its reach, and right-wing extremists have surged in the United States for the same simple reason: terrorism works. It’s not caused by psychosis or irrationality, as the media often suggests. Instead, it’s terrifyingly logical. Violent acts produce political results.
To show why, Walter Laqueur and Christopher Wall explore the history, rationales and precepts of terrorism, from the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, through the terror campaigns by Irish and Indian nationalists, and to the Nazis and Italian Fascists.
To explain why terror is on the rise again, they show how the American invasion of Iraq created the conditions for the emergence of al-Qaeda in Iraq, part of which metastasized into ISIS, while Russia’s increasing intervention in Syria allowed both of the organizations to evolve.
The Future of Terrorism brings reason to a topic usually ruled by fear. Laqueur and Wall show the structural features behind contemporary terrorism: how bad governance abets terror; the link between poverty and terrorism; why religious terrorism is more dangerous than secular; and the nature of supposed “lone wolf” terrorists.
Fear alone provides no tools to combat the future of terrorism. This audiobook does.
Walter Laqueur
WALTER LAQUEUR served as the director of the Institute of Contemporary History in London and concurrently the chairman of the International Research Council of CSIS in Washington for 30 years. He was also a professor at Georgetown University and the author of more than twenty-five books on Europe, Russia, and the Middle East. He has had articles published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and countless other newspapers worldwide. His books include The Last Days of Europe and After the Fall.
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Reviews for The Future of Terrorism
2 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The author seems to ignore the influences of "state oppression" (eg, US sponsorship of brutal dictatorships in, especially, Muslim nations, and Israeli genocidal actions against the indigenous Palestinian population of that region) as a contributor of the evolving of "religious" (seemingly his primary concern in this publication) based terrorist organizations and/or groups. However, the first several chapters which deal with historical (18th, 19th and 20th century) "politically inspired terrorism" is mildly interesting except that it seems to be included primarily as a basis for his critique of "Islamist/Jihadist terrorism". In short the author sounds rather like an apologist for "western 'neo-imperialist" hegemony.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It was a hard listen, and I was expecting to hear more about right-wing terrorism in the USA. The author does provide good insight in the mind of a terrorist, which helps understand what motivates some people to follow extreme ideologies.