EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

Book The Banality of Suicide Terrorism

Download or read book The Banality of Suicide Terrorism written by Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2010 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Terrorist organizations have been able to market mass murder under hysteria's banner of alleged martyrdom. But when it comes to understanding Islamic suicide terrorism in particular, there is much more to it than martyrdom. In this groundbreaking book, Nancy Kobrin dismantles the psychological dynamics of suicide terrorism to help the reader gain a new perspective on one of the most destructive forces the world has witnessed to date. Until now, no one has explained why the mother-child relationship is central to understanding Islamic suicide terrorism. The Banality of Suicide Terrorism exposes the very ordinariness of one of the deepest yet most poorly understood causes of the suicide bomber's motivation: a profound terror of abandonment that is rooted in the mother-child relationship. According to Kobrin, this terror is so great in the would-be suicide terrorist that he or she must commit suicide (and mass murder in the process) in order to fend off that terror of dependency and abandonment. Suicide terrorists seek a return to the bond with the mother of early childhood-- known as maternal fusion--by means of a "death fusion" with their enemies, who subconsciously represent the loved (and hated) maternal figure. The terrorist's political struggle merely serves as cover for this emotionally terrifying inner turmoil, which can lead down the path of ultimate destruction.

Book Penetrating the Terrorist Psyche

Download or read book Penetrating the Terrorist Psyche written by Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking book takes the reader to a different level of understanding the terrorist psyche as it explores the darkness of Islamic suicide terrorism and its global implications through the first-person lens of a psychoanalyst turned counter-terrorist expert. What informs this innovative psychological anthropologic study is the author's deepening awareness that within the highly popular field of terrorism studies, as well as journalistic writings on the subject, there has been little serious discussion concerning early childhood development and the terrors of the terrorist. Nor has there been much discussion of how terrorists infiltrate, interact, and engage their global targets, be they professional or lay. This book maps out the interlocking links that extend from domestic violence and intimate terrorism to domestic and global terrorism, including jihad. In this pioneering work, Dr. Kobrin distills her years of living in environments of domestic and intimate terror and her psychoanalytical and anti-terrorist expertise as she explores the interacting dynamics underlying the sadomasochistic/masochistic seduction of suicide bombings.

Book Driven to Death

    Book Details:
  • Author : Ariel Merari
  • Publisher : Oxford University Press
  • Release : 2010-06-04
  • ISBN : 0199720614
  • Pages : pages

Download or read book Driven to Death written by Ariel Merari and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-04 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suicide attacks are the definitive form of terrorism. More than any other terrorist tactic, they convey the ruthless willingness of present day terrorists to kill themselves for killing others. Since September 11, 2001 the number of suicide attacks around the world has risen dramatically, causing on average far more fatalities per attack than other forms of terrorism. What drives a person to kill himself for killing others, in the name of a political or religious cause? This book is the first to report a series of studies in which failed suicide bombers and organizers of suicide attacks were subjected to systematic clinical psychological interviews and tests and were compared to non-suicide terrorists. This direct psychological examination enabled a first-hand assessment of the personality characteristics and motivation of suicide bombers. Additional interviews conducted by seasoned area specialists provided a comprehensive picture of the ways by which the suicide bombers were recruited, prepared and dispatched to their planned death, as well as how they felt and behaved along this road. This information was supplemented by data derived from interviews with the families of suicide bombers who died carrying out their attacks. The psychological makeup of suicide terrorists is put into context in other chapters of the book, so as to provide an inclusive understanding of this phenomenon, which takes into account public atmosphere and the ways in which terrorist groups influence the suicide candidates. The book examines the characteristics of suicide terrorists in light of the most influential theories of suicide and offers a critical and innovative analysis of current explanations of suicide terrorism.

Book Suicide Bombings

Download or read book Suicide Bombings written by Riaz Hassan and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an age when the Western world is preoccupied with worries about weapons of mass destruction in terrorist hands, terrorists in many parts of the world are using a more basic device as a weapon - life itself. Through analysis of data from The Suicide Terrorism Database, Suicide Bombings seeks to explain the motivation of these attackers, and uncovers a cocktail of forces that drive suicide bombers.

Book Dying to Kill

    Book Details:
  • Author : Mia Bloom
  • Publisher : Columbia University Press
  • Release : 2005
  • ISBN : 9780231133203
  • Pages : 292 pages

Download or read book Dying to Kill written by Mia Bloom and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What motivates suicide bombers in Iraq and around the world? Can winning the hearts and minds of local populations stop them? Will the phenomenon spread to the United States? These vital questions are at the heart of this important book. Mia Bloom examines the use, strategies, successes, and failures of suicide bombing in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe and assesses the effectiveness of government responses. She argues that in many instances the efforts of Israel, Russia, and the United States in Iraq have failed to deter terrorism and suicide bombings. Bloom also considers how terrorist groups learn from one another, how they respond to counterterror tactics, the financing of terrorism, and the role of suicide attacks against the backdrop of larger ethnic and political conflicts. Dying to Kill begins with a review of the long history of terrorism, from ancient times to modernity, from the Japanese Kamikazes during World War II, to the Palestinian, Tamil, Iraqi, and Chechen terrorists of today. Bloom explores how suicide terror is used to achieve the goals of terrorist groups: to instill public fear, attract international news coverage, gain support for their cause, and create solidarity or competition between disparate terrorist organizations. She contends that it is often social and political motivations rather than inherently religious ones that inspire suicide bombers. In her chapter focusing on the increasing number of women suicide bombers and terrorists, Bloom examines Sri Lanka, where 33 percent of bombers have been women; Turkey, where the PKK used women feigning pregnancy as bombers; and the role of the Black Widows in the Chechen struggle against Moscow. The motives of individuals, whether religious or nationalist, are important but the larger question is, what external factors make it possible for suicide terrorism to flourish? Bloom describes these conditions and develops a theory of why terrorist tactics work in some instances and fail in others.

Book Root Causes of Suicide Terrorism

Download or read book Root Causes of Suicide Terrorism written by Ami Pedahzur and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-09-27 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This highly topical new study clearly shows how there are at least two reasons to question the central role that is assigned to religion, in particular Islam, when explaining suicide terrorism. suicide terrorism is a modern phenomenon, yet Islam is a very old religion. Except for two periods in the twelfth and eighteenth centuries, suicide was never part of Islamist beliefs and behaviours. Actually, Islam clearly forbids suicide, hence, the argument that Islamic religious beliefs are the main cause of suicide terrorism is inherently dubious many suicide attacks have been carried out by secular organizations with little connection to fundamentalist Islam: Palestinian Fatah; the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; and the Kurdish Workers Party. Moreover, one of the organizations that has employed this strategy devastatingly and regularly is the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam). Not only are members of this organization not Muslim, most of them are not religious at all. This superb new book contains essays by some of the world's leading scholars of terrorism and political violence. It is essential reading for students of terrorism, political science and Middle Eastern politics, and useful to students of social psychology, theology and history.

Book Terrorists and Suicide Attacks

Download or read book Terrorists and Suicide Attacks written by Audrey Kurth Cronin and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2009-12 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suicide attacks by terrorist organizations have become more prevalent globally, and assessing the threat of suicide attacks against the U.S. and its interests at home and abroad has therefore gained in strategic importance. This report focuses on the following questions: What are suicide attacks? What have been the patterns and motivations for terrorist organizations using suicide attacks in the past? What terrorist groups and other organizations are most likely to launch such attacks? How great a threat are terrorist suicide attacks to the U.S., at home and abroad? How can the U.S. counter such a threat? The report analyzes the key lessons of the international experience with suicide attacks and examines their relevance to the U.S.

Book The Smile of the Human Bomb

Download or read book The Smile of the Human Bomb written by Gideon Aran and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-15 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2017, nearly six thousand people were killed in suicide attacks across the world. In The Smile of the Human Bomb, Gideon Aran dissects the moral logic of the suicide terrorism that led to those deaths. The book is a firsthand examination of the bomb site at the moment of the explosion, during the first few minutes after the explosion, and in the last moments before the explosion. Aran uncovers the suicide bomber’s final preparations before embarking on the suicide mission: the border crossing, the journey toward the designated target, penetration into the site, and the behavior of both sides within it. The book sheds light on the truth of the human bomb. Aran’s gritty and often disturbing account is built on a foundation of participant observation with squads of pious Jewish volunteers who gather the scorched fragments of the dead after terrorist attacks; newly revealed documents, including interrogation protocols; interviews with Palestinian armed resistance members and retired Israeli counterterrorism agents; observations of failed suicide terrorists in jail; and conversations with the acquaintances of human bombs. The Smile of the Human Bomb provides new insights on the Middle East conflict, political violence, radicalism, victimhood, ritual, and death and unveils a suicide terrorism scene far different from what is conventionally pictured. In the end, Aran discovers, the suicide terrorist is an unremarkable figure, and the circumstances of his or her recruitment and operation are prosaic and often accidental. The smiling human bomb is neither larger than life nor a monster, but an actor on a human scale. And suicide terrorism is a drama in which clichés and chance events play their role.

Book Suicide Terror

Download or read book Suicide Terror written by Ophir Falk and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-07-15 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Ophir Falk and Henry Morgenstern have compiled a book that should be read by anyone who is serious about winning the war on terror. By painstakingly analyzing the empirical data, they help us better understand the nature of our enemies and why they employ these barbaric tactics. Most crucially, they offer important insights on how terrorism can be effectively confronted and ultimately defeated. In so doing, they have performed an invaluable service for all those who are committed to winning this crucial battle."—Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel FIRSTHAND ACCOUNTS AND ANALYSES FROM FRONTLINE PERSONNEL AND EXPERTS IN THE WAR AGAINST TERROR Based on U.S. and Israeli experiences and detailed interviews with frontline personnel, Suicide Terror enables policymakers, first responders, and students of homeland security to understand and deal with the growing threat of suicide terror. It analyzes recent suicide attacks as well as our current vulnerabilities and high-risk scenarios for future attacks. Following the expert authors' advice, readers learn possible measures to prevent an attack. Moreover, they learn how to prepare for and implement an effective and quick response to minimize casualties and losses in the event of an attack. Following an overview and historical review of suicide terror, the book covers: Global jihad Israel's confrontation with suicide terrorism America's experience with suicide bombings Internationalization of suicide terrorism High-risk scenarios and future trends Methods for confronting suicide terror Medical management of suicide terrorism Using eyewitness accounts, the text re-creates the look and feel of actual terrorism incidents. Detailed case studies help readers get into the minds of suicide terrorists in order to understand how to best prevent and confront these very dangerous threats. This book is a definitive study of suicide terror, synthesizing the experience of well-known Israeli and American experts who have dealt with it firsthand. Anyone responsible for understanding, preventing, and confronting this devastating threat should read this book and consider its recommendations with all seriousness.

Book Dying to Win

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robert Pape
  • Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
  • Release : 2006-07-25
  • ISBN : 0812973380
  • Pages : 370 pages

Download or read book Dying to Win written by Robert Pape and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2006-07-25 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes a new Afterword Finalist for the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award One of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject of suicide terrorism, the esteemed political scientist Robert Pape has created the first comprehensive database of every suicide terrorist attack in the world from 1980 until today. In Dying to Win, Pape provides a groundbreaking demographic profile of modern suicide terrorist attackers–and his findings offer a powerful counterpoint to what we now accept as conventional wisdom on the topic. He also examines the early practitioners of this guerrilla tactic, including the ancient Jewish Zealots, who in A.D. 66 wished to liberate themselves from Roman occupation; the Ismaili Assassins, a Shi’ite Muslim sect in northern Iran in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; World War II’s Japanese kamikaze pilots, three thousand of whom crashed into U.S. naval vessels; and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a secular, Marxist-Leninist organization responsible for more suicide terrorist attacks than any other group in history. Dying to Win is a startling work of analysis grounded in fact, not politics, that recommends concrete ways for states to fight and prevent terrorist attacks now. Transcending speculation with systematic scholarship, this is one of the most important studies of the terrorist threat to the United States and its allies since 9/11. “Invaluable . . . gives Americans an urgently needed basis for devising a strategy to defeat Osama bin Laden and other Islamist militants.” –Michael Scheuer, author of Imperial Hubris “Provocative . . . Pape wants to change the way you think about suicide bombings and explain why they are on the rise.” –Henry Schuster, CNN.com “Enlightening . . . sheds interesting light on a phenomenon often mistakenly believed to be restricted to the Middle East.” –The Washington Post Book World “Brilliant.” –Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc.

Book Suicide Terrorism

Download or read book Suicide Terrorism written by Ami Pedahzur and published by Polity. This book was released on 2005 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suicide terrorism in its modern form made its first appearance in Lebanon in the early 1980s. Over the last quarter century, terrorist attacks perpetrated by suicide bombers have spread to many corners of the world and have become a major threat for both the governments and citizens of numerous countries. Can this devastating phenomenon be attributed to a specific religion or culture? What are the causes and motivations that lead ordinary people to embark upon suicide attacks? How are potential bombers trained for their mission? And is it possible for democratic governments to effectively cope with this challenge? In this compelling book, Ami Pedazhur investigates the root causes of suicide terrorism and its rapid proliferation in recent years. Drawing on a variety of sources, the book explores the use of human bombs in Lebanon, Israel, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Chechnya, Iraq, and the ostentatious attacks of Al-Qaeda and the global jihad. It is the only book to offer such an in-depth, up-to-date, cross cultural analysis of suicide terrorism in the twenty-first Century.

Book Contemporary Suicide Terrorism  Origins  Trends and Ways of Tackling It

Download or read book Contemporary Suicide Terrorism Origins Trends and Ways of Tackling It written by T. Dronzina and published by IOS Press. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suicide terrorism represents a tangible challenge to national, regional and global security. This much is not in question; but opinions differ, conceptually and normatively, as to its root causes, factors and motives.This book presents the research papers delivered at the conference ‛Contemporary Suicide Terrorism: Origins, Trends and Ways of Tackling it’ held in Astana, Kazakhstan, in September 2010. The conference was funded by the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme, and provided a forum for dialogue and discussion between scholars and security practitioners from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Romania and Russia. The focus of the conference was on methodological and theoretical approaches to suicide terrorism researches. Topics addressed include: the effectiveness of suicide terrorism; the roots of suicide terrorism and its religious legitimation; the impact of new technologies on the radicalization process; terrorism and the drug trade; female suicide bombers; and migration, radicalization and disorder in the EU. Examples are drawn from experiences in the Maghreb, the West Bank and Gaza Strip in Israel, Dagestan, Romania, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The book conveys the spirit of tolerance, exchange of ideas, dialogue and convergence that dominated the conference. It offers a contribution to better understanding between societies and the fostering of a culture of peace and non-violence.

Book On Suicide Bombing

    Book Details:
  • Author : Talal Asad
  • Publisher : Columbia University Press
  • Release : 2007-05-11
  • ISBN : 0231511973
  • Pages : 138 pages

Download or read book On Suicide Bombing written by Talal Asad and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2007-05-11 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like many people in America and around the world, Talal Asad experienced the events of September 11, 2001, largely through the media and the emotional response of others. For many non-Muslims, "the suicide bomber" quickly became the icon of "an Islamic culture of death" a conceptual leap that struck Asad as problematic. Is there a "religiously-motivated terrorism?" If so, how does it differ from other cruelties? What makes its motivation "religious"? Where does it stand in relation to other forms of collective violence? Drawing on his extensive scholarship in the study of secular and religious traditions as well as his understanding of social, political, and anthropological theory and research, Asad questions Western assumptions regarding death and killing. He scrutinizes the idea of a "clash of civilizations," the claim that "Islamic jihadism" is the essence of modern terror, and the arguments put forward by liberals to justify war in our time. He critically engages with a range of explanations of suicide terrorism, exploring many writers' preoccupation with the motives of perpetrators. In conclusion, Asad examines our emotional response to suicide (including suicide terrorism) and the horror it invokes. On Suicide Bombing is an original and provocative analysis critiquing the work of intellectuals from both the left and the right. Though fighting evil is an old concept, it has found new and disturbing expressions in our contemporary "war on terror." For Asad, it is critical that we remain aware of the forces shaping the discourse surrounding this mode of violence, and by questioning our assumptions about morally good and morally evil ways of killing, he illuminates the fragile contradictions that are a part of our modern subjectivity.

Book Dying to Win

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robert Pape
  • Publisher : Random House
  • Release : 2005-05-24
  • ISBN : 1588364607
  • Pages : 356 pages

Download or read book Dying to Win written by Robert Pape and published by Random House. This book was released on 2005-05-24 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suicide terrorism is rising around the world, but there is great confusion as to why. In this paradigm-shifting analysis, University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape has collected groundbreaking evidence to explain the strategic, social, and individual factors responsible for this growing threat. One of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject, Professor Pape has created the first comprehensive database of every suicide terrorist attack in the world from 1980 until today. With striking clarity and precision, Professor Pape uses this unprecedented research to debunk widely held misconceptions about the nature of suicide terrorism and provide a new lens that makes sense of the threat we face. FACT: Suicide terrorism is not primarily a product of Islamic fundamentalism. FACT: The world’s leading practitioners of suicide terrorism are the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka–a secular, Marxist-Leninist group drawn from Hindu families. FACT: Ninety-five percent of suicide terrorist attacks occur as part of coherent campaigns organized by large militant organizations with significant public support. FACT: Every suicide terrorist campaign has had a clear goal that is secular and political: to compel a modern democracy to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. FACT: Al-Qaeda fits the above pattern. Although Saudi Arabia is not under American military occupation per se, one major objective of al-Qaeda is the expulsion of U.S. troops from the Persian Gulf region, and as a result there have been repeated attacks by terrorists loyal to Osama bin Laden against American troops in Saudi Arabia and the region as a whole. FACT: Despite their rhetoric, democracies–including the United States–have routinely made concessions to suicide terrorists. Suicide terrorism is on the rise because terrorists have learned that it’s effective. In this wide-ranging analysis, Professor Pape offers the essential tools to forecast when some groups are likely to resort to suicide terrorism and when they are not. He also provides the first comprehensive demographic profile of modern suicide terrorist attackers. With data from more than 460 such attackers–including the names of 333–we now know that these individuals are not mainly poor, desperate criminals or uneducated religious fanatics but are often well-educated, middle-class political activists. More than simply advancing new theory and facts, these pages also answer key questions about the war on terror: • Are we safer now than we were before September 11? • Was the invasion of Iraq a good counterterrorist move? • Is al-Qaeda stronger now than it was before September 11? Professor Pape answers these questions with analysis grounded in fact, not politics, and recommends concrete ways for today’s states to fight and prevent terrorist attacks. Military options may disrupt terrorist operations in the short term, but a lasting solution to suicide terrorism will require a comprehensive, long-term approach–one that abandons visions of empire and relies on a combined strategy of vigorous homeland security, nation building in troubled states, and greater energy independence. For both policy makers and the general public, Dying to Win transcends speculation with systematic scholarship, making it one of the most important political studies of recent time.

Book Hamas and Suicide Terrorism

Download or read book Hamas and Suicide Terrorism written by Rashmi Singh and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses the root causes of suicide terrorism at both the elite and rank-and- file levels of the Hamas and also explains why this tactic has disappeared in the post-2006 period. This volume adopts a multi-causal, multi-level approach to analyse the use of suicide bombings by Hamas and its individual operatives in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It uses extensive fieldwork and on-the-ground interviews in order to delve beneath the surface and understand why and how suicide operations were adopted as a sustained mechanism of engagement within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Three core factors fuelled Hamas’s suicide bombing campaigns. First, Palestinian suicide operations are a complex combination of instrumental and expressive violence adopted by both organisations and individuals to achieve political and/or societal survival, retaliation and competition. In other words, suicide bombings not only serve distinct political and strategic goals for both Hamas and its operatives but they also serve to convey a symbolic message to various audiences, within Israel, the Palestinian territories and around the world. Second, suicide operations perform a crucial role in the formation and consolidation of Palestinian national identity and are also the latest manifestation of the historically entrenched cultural norm of militant heroic martyrdom. Finally, Hamas’s use of political Islam also facilitates the articulation, justification and legitimisation of suicide operations as a modern-day jihad against Israel through the means of modern interpretations and fatwas. This approach not only facilitates a much needed, multifaceted, holistic understanding of suicide bombings in this particular region but also yields policy-relevant lessons to address extreme political violence in other parts of the world. This book will be of much interest to students of Hamas, terrorism, Middle East politics and security studies.

Book The Banality of Suicide Terrorism

Download or read book The Banality of Suicide Terrorism written by Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2010-03-31 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Terrorist organizations have been able to market mass murder under hysteria's banner of alleged martyrdom. But when it comes to understanding Islamic suicide terrorism in particular, there is much more to it than martyrdom. In this groundbreaking book, Nancy Kobrin dismantles the psychological dynamics of suicide terrorism to help the reader gain a new perspective on one of the most destructive forces the world has witnessed to date. Until now, no one has explained why the mother-child relationship is central to understanding Islamic suicide terrorism. The Banality of Suicide Terrorism exposes the very ordinariness of one of the deepest yet most poorly understood causes of the suicide bomber's motivation: a profound terror of abandonment that is rooted in the mother-child relationship. According to Kobrin, this terror is so great in the would-be suicide terrorist that he or she must commit suicide (and mass murder in the process) in order to fend off that terror of dependency and abandonment. Suicide terrorists seek a return to the bond with the mother of early childhood— known as maternal fusion—by means of a “death fusion” with their enemies, who subconsciously represent the loved (and hated) maternal figure. The terrorist's political struggle merely serves as cover for this emotionally terrifying inner turmoil, which can lead down the path of ultimate destruction.

Book Hamas and Suicide Terrorism

Download or read book Hamas and Suicide Terrorism written by Rashmi Singh and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses the root causes of suicide terrorism at both the elite and rank-and- file levels of the Hamas.Using extensive fieldwork and on-the-ground interviews, the volume seeks to delve beneath the surface and understand why and how suicide operations were adopted as a sustained mechanism of engagement within the Israeli-Palestinian landscape of conflict. Challenging widespread arguments that tend to either emphasise the role of religion, particularly Islam, in propelling suicide terrorism or to trace its roots to the power struggles between Palestinian political players, this work locates the emergence and spread of this phenomenon in a complex network of interrelated factors.This multifaceted approach, combined with extensive research conducted in Israel and the Palestinian territories, enables the author to identify three core factors that fuel suicide bombing campaigns in the region. First, Palestinian suicide operations as a complex combination of instrumental and expressive violence which are adopted by rational organisations and individuals to assert power, achieve political and/or societal survival, and enable retaliation as well as competition. In other words, suicide bombings not only serve distinct political and strategic goals for both Hamas and its operatives but they also serve to convey a symbolic message to various audiences, within Israel, the Palestinian territories and around the world. Second, how suicide operations not only perform a crucial role in the formation and consolidation of Palestinian national identity but also how they are the latest manifestation of the historically entrenched norm of militant heroic martyrdom. Finally, it illustrates how political Islam is systematically employed by organisations like Hamas in order to facilitate the articulation, justification and legitimisation of suicide operations as a modern-day jihad against Israel through the means of modern interpretations and fatwas.In short, the main themes of this work counter approaches that juxtapose social and/or political motivations against religious ones in favour of studying suicide terrorism in the Palestinian territories from a combined socio-political cultural perspective which acknowledges the roles played by not only the organisation and the individual â?martyr' but also that of Palestinian society. This approach not only facilitates a much needed, multifaceted, holistic understanding of suicide bombings in this particular region but also yields policy-relevant lessons to address extreme political violence in other parts of the world. By adopting such a multi-level and multi-causal approach, this work fills a fundamental gap in contemporary terrorism literature.This book will be of much interest to students of Hamas, terrorism, Middle East politics and security studies. (Global Books in Print).