Western Responses to Terrorism

Useful books on terrorism tend to take one of two forms: blow-by-blow insider accounts of specific operations, filled with page-turning action (for example, Steve Emerson's Terrorist); or surveys that assess the phenomenon and its responses by drawing conclusions from the larger picture. Western Responses to Terrorism offers some of the best writing in the second category.

To begin with, Schmid cuts through the Gordian knot of defining terrorism. Noting that "Terrorists have elevated practices which are excesses of war to the level of routine tactics," he defines terrorism as "peacetime equivalents of war crimes." This description ought to be adopted by everyone, for it is as elegant as it is insightful.

The main body of the book considers the experiences of eight West European countries, followed by a survey of the terrorist phenomenon as a twenty-five year phenomenon. Here the two editors draw some interesting, if controversial, conclusions. For example, looking over the record, they note the predominance of coercive responses (repression, violent action) over conciliatory ones (accommodation, reform) and make the case that "While coercive responses may be effective either in the short term or in reducing the coercive capabilities of the terrorist, they may be less effective in the long run." One does not have to agree with the editors to learn from their knowledgeable and subtle thinking.

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