Understanding Terrorist Innovation Technology, Tactics and Global Trends [Hardcover]

This book explores the innovations and advances in terrorist tactics and technologies to help fill the gap in the contemporary terrorism literature by developing an empirical theory of terrorist innovation. The key question concerns the global historical trends in terrorist innovation, as well as the critical factors responsible for the differences in practices among terrorist organizations.

The first part of the book provides an overview of the tactics and technology used by terrorists in the last century and identifies the key trends for the future. The second part compares four differing terrorist organizations with the aim of identifying key factors in producing innovative tactics and weaponry. The volume provides a historical explanation of the trends in terrorist innovation and also has policy relevance, as the ability to identify signature characteristics of innovation-prone terrorist organizations is a critical element in predictive threat assessment.

Understanding Terrorist Innovationwill be of great interest to students of terrorism studies, security studies and political science in general.

Introduction  1. Terrorism and Innovation  2. Terrorist Tactics and Technologies  3. Aum Shinrikyo  4. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine  General Command  5. Riyadus-Salikhin Suicide Battalion  6. Revolutionary Organization November 17  7. Understanding Terrorist Innovation.  Conclusions and Implications for the Future

An important examination of innovations in terrorist tactics and technologies over the years in order to develop an empirical theory of innovation by terrorist groups. -Joshua Sinai, Terrorism Bookshelf: Top 150 Books on Terrorism and Counterterrorism, Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 6, No. 2 (2012)