NCJ Number
109532
Editor(s)
M Stohl,
G A Lopez
Date Published
1988
Length
360 pages
Annotation
Eleven papers on state terrorism are presented under the broad topics of the structure of terrorism, the United States and state terrorism, regions and state terrorism, and international law and the future.
Abstract
The papers discuss five forms of state terrorism as foreign policy behavior: coercive terrorist diplomacy, which is overt state terrorist activity; clandestine state terrorism, consisting of covert terrorist action by state agents; state-sponsored terrorism, covert action in which state or private groups are employed for terrorist actions on behalf of the sponsoring state; surrogate terrorism, which empowers and coordinates existing violence-oriented groups; and state acquiescence to terrorism, which does not involve explicit state support but neither does the state oppose it. One paper scrutinizes the structure of the contemporary international system and identifies nuclear weapons as the heart of the structural problem that creates conditions for state terrorism. Four papers examine the impact of state terrorism on the United States, and five papers explore state terrorism in foreign policy in the Middle East, Latin America, and Third World countries. The book concludes with a paper on the impact of international law on the process of state terrorism. Bibliographic essay and subject index.