Terrorism: A Very Short Introduction

Read as general background and interest to Network Imperialism for the final substantive essay.

Bibliographic Deets

 * Townshend, Charles 2002. Terrorism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Chapter 1

 * "Something about terrorism makes its threat inflate, genie-like, way beyond its actual physical scale" (2)
 * "The USA, for instance, defines it as 'the calculated use or threat of violence to inculcate fear, intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies'; the UK as 'the use or threat, for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, or ideological course of action, of serious violence against any person or property'." (3)
 * "... the notorious adage that 'one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter'. This relativism is central to the impossibility of finding an uncontentious definition of terrorism." (5)
 * "Terrorism operates, therefore, through subjective psychological pressure. Its biggest facilitator is collective alarmism, a regrettably banal phenomenon that has been registerred in the White House as well as middle class suburbs and peasant villages around the world." (15)

The Terror Process

 * From Pages 8-9


 * 1) Seizing Attention: Shock, Horror, Revulsion
 * 2) Getting the Message: What do terrorists want? (Not always clear, often manipulated/distorted)
 * 3) Fight or Flight? The Response

The Philosophy of the Bomb

 * From Johannes Most's (circa 1880's) Philosophy of the Bomb
 * Quoted from page 13


 * 1) Outrageous violence will seize public imagination
 * 2) Its audience can thus be awakened to political issues
 * 3) violence is inherently empowering
 * 4) systemic violence can threaten the state and impel it into delegitimizing reactions
 * 5) violence can destablize the social order and threaten social breakdown
 * 6) ultimately the people will reject the government and turn to the 'terrorists'

Chapter 2

 * History of the "Good Terrorist"
 * of Dynamite as social leveler
 * Of semtex (a plastic explosive)

Other

 * Part of At Cambridge