Terrorism is the systematic use of terror or unpredictable violence against governments, public or individuals to attain a political objective. It evolved from numerous attacks in the 20th century, to comparatively less frequent but more destractive assaults in the 21st century.
The book does not go into any micro-level data, stating names of countries, political groups, individuals, or religions as name calling in terms of political, national, and religious affiliations does not necessarily help critical thinking. Instead, it objectively and conceptually examines the problems or issues related to serious forms of violence. It provides an impartial and objective outlook by completely avoiding any discussions in any emotionally charged manner or sensationalism. The focus is on types or forms, general impacts, explanations, and preventive measures of violence, without appeasing or insulting particular vested interests, if any. By concentrating on conceptual analysis of the terrorist phenomena, the book enables readers to look at a ‘bigger picture’, examining the issues involved, instead of resorting to incidental enumerations, etc.
There is no easy understanding of a complex situation of terrorism; no easy answers to many questions puzzling us about the issue over the years; no oversimplification of conclusions we may arrive at; and no hasty decisions on the so-called solutions. The book attempts to address the problems related to terrorism and discusses various options for prevention. It is simple and straightforward in approach and avoids technical jargon, so that it is easily comprehensible to academic readers in humanities, social and hard sciences, as well as to general readers.
The approach of the book is to study violence in both realistic and constructive ways. We need to be preventive and optimistic in dealing with all sorts of violence in human society. A doom and gloom approach has not been pursued in this book despite an increase in new forms of violence. It presents no popular formulas for ‘solving’ problems of violence and terrorism but provides the readers a glimpse of what the issues or human problems are, what some of their consequences are, and what selected possible preventive strategies could be.
The book touches upon almost every aspect related to terrorism. It will be useful for policymakers, administrators, those concerned with maintaining law and order in society, security personnel, etc. It will also benefit the students, teachers and researchers in sociology and law and criminology, particularly terrorism. To those who wish to know about various issues related to terrorism and the measures to prevent and combat terrorism, it will provide for a richly rewarding reading.
R.N. Singh received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Panjab University and taught for four years in Govt. College, Chandigarh before moving to the U.S. He completed his Ph.D. in Sociology at Mississippi State University in 1971. He has been teaching at the Texas A&M University since then. He received several research grants and has published significantly in areas such as family violence and terrorism. He has received several academic awards and has been recently named by the Texas A&M University System as the Regents Professor.
