THE MAKING OF A TERRORIST
Recruitment, Training, and Root Causes

Edited by James JF Forest (3 Volumes: Praeger Security International, 2005)

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Praeger Security International

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REVIEWS

NEW: Review of The Making of a Terrorist published in Parameters (the US Army War College Quarterly), Winter 2006-07, p. 129-44. Reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Matthew W. Markel, a strategist at the Army Capabilities Integration Center.

Excerpt:

With The Making of a Terrorist, editor James J. F. Forest of West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center and his contributors have created a useful and practical reference for commanders, planners, and analysts. As its title suggests, the three-volume set aims to provide an understanding of terrorist phenomena, focusing on the actual mechanics of terrorism. Even the volume on Root Causes, whose title suggests a fruitless search for a single, grand strategic solution, actually provides useful insight about where we can anticipate the emergence of terrorism. . . . Editor James J. F. Forest intended “to provide readers with a centralized and authoritative information source of the most essential topics of terrorist recruitment, training, and root causes,” an endeavor in which he admirably succeeded. The series derives considerable strength from the variety of perspectives it offers, from which the practitioner can select those applicable to a particular situation. The result amply justifies the light editorial touch. The appendices, which include profiles of terrorist organizations, examples of training manuals for terrorism and guerilla warfare, and other resources for study, help make this three-volume set a valuable resource.

Web version and PDF version of the complete review are available.

In this three-volume set, Forest brings together articles by over 50 international experts that address three areas: Recruitment (Volume 1), Training (Volume 2), and Root Causes (Volume 3). The word terrorism comes from the Latin terrere (to cause to tremble), explains Forest, and although there is no consensus on the modern definition of terrorism, it is commonly known as acts of politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents. With a special emphasis on the psychological, social, ideological, and religious aspects of terrorism recruitment....[t]his is a wise investment. - Library Journal

The Making of a Terrorist: Recruitment, Training, and Root Causes surpasses all other lighter treatments on the topic, providing the depth which makes it highly recommendable to security collections, military libraries, and more. Three weighty volumes thoroughly cover the topic....This set is an invaluable 'must' for anyone seeking more depth and detail than the usual casual reviews of problems and theories. - Midwest Book Review's California BookWatch

The library of worthwhile works on terrorism is about to grow exponentially with the publication of a massive three-volume compendium, The Making of a Terrorist, edited by James J.F. Forest, director of terrorism studies at the U.S. Military Academy. The three volumes examine, respectively, recruitment, training, and root causes. Each volume contains useful and original work by journalists, government officials, and academics. But the third book, dealing with root causes, is by far the most valuable....Who are they? Does it matter who they are, or is it enough to know what they do? What drives them? We don't seem any closer to the answers than we were on September 10, 2001, but at least now, with the help of work such as that represented in The Making of a Terrorist, we're beginning to ask the questions. - Wilson Quarterly

Click here for the complete review of this publication in the Wilson Quarterly (Winter 2006)

CONTENTS

VOLUME I: RECRUITMENT

Chapter	Author
Editor's Note
Preface to Volume I
1. Introduction to The Making of a Terrorist, Volume I: Recruitment	James JF Forest
PLACES AND METHODS OF TERRORIST RECRUITMENT
2. Innovative Recruitment and Indoctrination Tactics by Extremists: Video Games, Hip Hop, and the World Wide Web	Madeleine Gruen
3. Prisons as Terrorist Breeding Grounds	J. Michael Waller
4. Communication and Recruitment of Terrorists	Brigitte L. Nacos
5. Terrorist Dot Com: Using the Internet for Terrorist Recruitment and Mobilization	Gabriel Weimann
6. Education and Radicalization: Jemaah Islamiyah Recruitment in Southeast Asia	Zachary Abuza
7 Recruitment for Rebellion and Terrorism in the Philippines	Joseph Felter
SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS
8. The New Children of Terror	Peter W. Singer
9. Hamas Social Welfare: In the Service of Terror	Matthew Levitt
10. Terrorism, Gender and Ideology: A Case Study of Women who Join the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC)	Keith Stanski
11 The Making of Suicide Bombers: A Comparative Perspective	Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger
12. Unresolved Trauma and the Thirst for Revenge: The Retributional Terrorist	Raymond H. Hamden
IDEOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS
13. Political and Revolutionary Ideologies	Leonard Weinberg
14. The Role of Religious Ideology in Modern Terrorist Recruitment	J.P. Larsson
15. Christian Fundamentalism and Militia Movements in the U.S.	James Aho
16. Political Islam: Violence and the Wahhabi Connection	Maha Azzam
17. Jihad Doctrine and Radical Islam: Truths and Myths	Jarret Brachman
18. Zionism and the Pursuit of West Bank Settlements	Allan C. Brownfeld
Appendix A: Profiles of Terrorist Organizations
Appendix B: Al Qaeda Declarations of War
Bibliography
Index

 

VOLUME II: TRAINING

Chapter	Author
Preface to Volume II
1. Introduction to The Making of a Terrorist, Volume II: Training	James JF Forest
TEACHING TOOLS AND DEVELOPMENTAL EXPERIENCES
2. "When Hatred is Bred in the Bone": The Socio-Cultural Underpinnings of Terrorist Psychology	Jerrold M. Post
3. Training for Terrorism Through Selective Moral Disengagement	Albert Bandura
4. Cults, Charismatic Groups and Social Systems: Understanding the Behavior of Terrorist Recruits	Marc Galanter and James JF Forest
5. The Psychological Power of Charismatic Leaders in Cults and Terrorist Organizations	Arthur Deikman
6. Teaching Terrorism: Dimensions of Information and Technology	James JF Forest
7. Mediated Terrorism: Teaching Terror through Propaganda and Publicity	Brigitte Nacos
CASE STUDIES OF TERRORIST LEARNING
8. Training for Urban Resistance: The Case of the Provisional Irish Republican Army	Brian A. Jackson
9. Teaching New Terrorist Recruits: A Review of Training Manuals from the Uzbekistan Mujahideen	Martha Brill Olcott and Bakhtiyar Babajanov
10. Learning to Die: Suicide Terrorism in the 21st Century	Adam Dolnik
11. The Al Qaeda Training Camps of Afghanistan and Beyond	Rohan Gunaratna and Arabinda Acharya
12. The Bosnian Mujahideen: Origins, Training and Implications	Evan Kohlmann
13. Indoctrination Processes Within Jemaah Islamiyah	Kumar Ramakrishna
14. Christian Militia Training: Arming the "Troops" with Scripture, the Law and a Good Gun	Cindy Combs, Elizabeth A. Combs and Lydia Marsh
15. The Hizballah Training Camps of Lebanon	Magnus Ranstorp
16. Training for Terror in the Jungles of Colombia	Román David Ortiz
17. The Making of Aum Shinrikyo's Chemical Weapons Program	John V. Parachini
18. Terrorist Training Centers Around the World: A Brief Review	James JF Forest
Appendix: Examples of Training Manuals for Terrorism and Guerilla Warfare
Bibliography
Index

 

VOLUME III: ROOT CAUSES

Chapter	Author
Preface to Volume III
1. Introduction to The Making of a Terrorist, Volume III: Root Causes	James JF Forest
POLITICAL DIMENSIONS
2. Instability and Opportunity: The Origins of Terrorism in Weak and Failed States	Erica Chenoweth
3. Superpower Foreign Policies: A Source for Global Resentment	Paul R. Pillar
4. A Failure to Communicate: American Public Diplomacy and the Islamic World	Hassan Abbas
5. The Complex Relationship Between Global Terrorism and U.S. Support for Israel	Ruth Margolies Beitler
6. Political Repression and Violent Rebellion in the Muslim World	Mohammed M. Hafez
7. Rejection of Political Institutions by Right Wing Extremists in the United States	Eugenia K. Guilmartin
RELIGIOUS AND SOCIOECONOMIC DIMENSIONS
8. Religious Sources of Violence	Susanna Pearce
9. Terrorism and Doomsday	Michael Barkun
10. Fueling The Fires: The Oil Factor in Middle Eastern Terrorism	Michael T. Klare
11. Socioeconomic and Demographic Roots of Terrorism	Paul R. Erhlich and Jianguo (Jack) Liu
12. The Intersection of Terrorism and the Drug Trade	Vanda Felbab-Brown
13. Terrorism and Export Economies: The Dark Side of Free Trade	Michael Mousseau
ALTERNATIVE VIEWS ON ROOT CAUSES OF TERRORISM
14. Terrorism, Interdependence and Democracy	Benjamin R. Barber
15. Human Security and Good Governance: A Living Systems Approach to Understanding and Combating Terrorism	Cindy R. Jebb and Madelfia A. Abb
16. Terrorism and the State: The Logic of Killing Civilians	Clark McCauley
17. Digging Deep: Environment and Geography as Root Influences for Terrorism	P. H. Liotta and James F. Miskel
18. Dealing with the Roots of Terror	Karin von Hippel
Appendix: Recommended Resources for the Study of Terrorism
Index to Terrorist Groups
General Index
Bibliography