NCJ Number
111832
Date Published
1988
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This article discusses 10 books written by 9 individuals who were leaders of or involved in 8 different terrorist movements spanning almost 100 years (1879 to 1978).
Abstract
These movements include, chronologically, Narodnaya Volya, the Terrorist Brigade, Irgunm Zwai Leumi Israel, EOKA, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Weather Underground, the 2nd June Group, and the Palestine Liberation Organization. These books are examined as manifestations of the three major waves of modern terrorism. The first, 1879 to World War I, involved terrorists operating largely within European states, who engaged mostly in assassination plots against major officials in hopes of reconstructing the social order. The second, began in Ireland after World War I and crested in the two decades after World War II, engulfing the colonial territories of the Western states. It normally entailed both guerilla and terrorist activity, and involved military and police units. The third wave, beginning in the 1960's, involved groups describing themselves as Marxists or anarchists who concentrated on attacks on softer or more defenseless targets. The memoirs reveal that while tactics have changed and terrorism has become increasingly international, there has always been an international component to terrorist activity. The political variables within that component include commitment to international revolution, the willingness of foreign states to support terrorist groups, the degree to which the population that terrorists claim to represent extends beyond the primary area being contested, and changes in the international state system. 73 footnotes.