Origins of Terrorism

Walter Reich is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. A psychiatrist, he is former director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and was a Senior Research Psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health.

• Contents: Foreword Walter Laqueur Preface Walter Reich Introduction Walter Reich Part I. Strategy or psychology?: Origins of terrorist behavior 1 The logic of terrorism: Terrorist behavior as a product of strategic choice Martha Crenshaw 2 Terrorist psycho-logic: Terrorist behavior as a product of psychological forces Jerrold M. Post Part II. Varieties of terrorism: Ideological and religious motivations 3 Ideology and rebellion: Terrorism in West Germany Konrad Kellen 4 Ideology and repentance: Terrorism in Italy Franco Ferracuti 5 The psychopolitical formation of extreme left terrorism in a democracy: The case of the Weathermen Ehud Sprinzak 6 Terrorism in democracies: Its social and political bases Ted Robert Gurr 7 Sacred terror: A contemporary example from Islam David C. Rapoport 8 The moral logic of Hizballah Martin Kramer Part III. States of mind: How do terrorists think? Which psychological mechanisms enable them to do what they do? 9 Mechanisms of moral disengagement Albert Bandura 10 The readiness to kill and die: Suicidal terrorism in the Middle East Ariel Merari Part IV. Responding to terrorism: Decision making and the pressures on leadership 11 Hostage taking, the presidency, and stress Margaret G. Hermann Charles F. Hermann 12 Taking vows: The domestication of policy-making in hostage incidents Gary Sick Part V. The psychology of terrorism: What can we know? What must we learn? 13 Questions to be answered, research to be done, knowledge to be applied Martha Crenshaw 14 Understanding terrorist behavior: The limits and opportunities of psychological inquiry Walter Reich About the editor and contributors Index

Pursue[s] the pathology of terrorism through the centuries... A fascinating amount of information. Washington Post A disquieting but fascinating book... Strongly recommended. British Journal of Psychiatry An honest and penetrating effort to explain the role of human psychology in terrorism. Canadian Journal of Political Science