"Although politically motivated murder is an ancient tactic - instances of what would be labeled terrorist today can be found throughout written history - terrorism in its contemporary form emerged as an international phenomenon only in the late 1960s. Since then, bombings, assassinations, armed assaults, hijackings, kidnapping, and other forms of hostage taking have become the basic terrorist repertoire. While weapons and tactics have evolved rather slowly over the past fifty years, terrorist violence intensified in volume and lethality...These order-of-magnitude increases invited further extrapolation to future terrorist attacks that would involve tens or even hundreds of thousands of casualties. Such a level of violence could be achieved with weapons of mass destruction : nuclear or biological weapons. That terrorists would someday acquire and employ stolen or improvised nuclear weapons was considered by many to be inevitable - to use the popular phrase : not if, but when. That has not happened. Instead, terrorists have employed the Internet and social media to exhort followers worldwide to carry out low-level attacks - a sort of horizontal rather than vertical escalation. Terrorist campaigns in the twenty-first century are global enterprises. The online exhortations reach huge audiences to inspire distant terrorist attacks. Therefore, terrorism is a global phenomenon, a major feature in current political discourse, often a condenser of society's broader anxieties...This...book takes on the ambitious goal of providing a comprehensive introduction to terrorism's actors and the actions involved in countering terrorism. It provides an explanation of the theory of terrorism, a description of terrorist strategy and tactics, and a broad historical and geographical survey of terrorists. These are necessary starting points for understanding what is essential for effectively combating terrorism while protecting society's essential freedoms." -- Condensed from the Foreword.

Foreword by Brian Michael Jenkins.

Introducing terrorism and counterterrorism -- Terrorism -- Contemporary forms of terrorism -- Radicalization -- Targets -- Methods and weapons -- Financing -- Media coverage -- Victims of terrorism -- Counterterrorism -- Counterterrorism and the rule of law -- Law enforcement and the military -- Intelligence collection and analysis -- Protection of critical infrastructure -- Deradicalization -- Global approaches to counterterrorism -- Conclusion -- Can the war on terror be won?.