Making Sense of Suicide Missions [Hardcover]

Suicide attacks have become the defining act of political violence of our age. From New York City to Baghdad, from Sri Lanka to Israel, few can doubt that they are a pervasive and terrifying feature of our political landscape. Based on a wealth of original information and research, and containing contributions from internationally distinguished scholars, Making Sense of Suicide Missions furthers our understanding of this chilling feature of the contemporary world in radically new and unexpected ways.


Foreword
1. Kamikaze 1943-45,Peter Hill
2. Tamil Tigers 1987-2002,Stephen Hopgood
3. Palestinians 1981-2003,Luca Ricolfi
4. Al Quaeda, September 11, 2001,Stephen Holmes
5. Dying Without Killing: Self-Immolations 1962-2002,Michael Biggs
6. Killing Without Dying: The Absence of Suicide Missions,Stathis Kalyvas and Ignacio Sanchez Cuenca
7. Motivations and Beliefs in Suicide Missions,Jon Elster
8. Can We Make Sense of Suicide Missions?,Diego Gambetta

The contributions are all of a high quality, asking searching questions of the available evidence. --Foreign Affairs

Gambetta brings together a remarkable group of academics from different disciplines and countries who bring a formidable array of research and analysis to their attempt to make sense of suicide missions. This is an important book, and the best treatment of the subject I've read. --Louise Richardson,Financial Times

Making Sense of Suicide Missionsis an enlightening collection of essays, so badly needed in the prevalent mood of misconceptions and half-baked analysis. --The Guardian

... in a fascinating contribution to the new essay collectionMaking Sense of Suicide Missions, the Yale political scientist Stathis Kalyvas and a Spanish colleague, Ignacio Sanchez Cuenca, point out that FARC, the Columbian rebel group, once hatchlS(