The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction. - Review - book review

Parameters, Autumn, 2000

The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction. By Walter Laquer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 312 pages. $30.00. Reviewed by Major Glenn Schweitzer, USAR, a counterterrorism analyst for the Department of Defense at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

Walter Laquer asks unsettling questions:

What if weapons of mass destruction had been at the disposal of the Unabomber, a person with considerable scientific knowledge? Would he have hesitated to use them? Is it not likely that sooner or later another person or small group of persons with similar but perhaps more radical views or fewer scruples will acquire such weapons?

Someday the United States will have to deal with an effective terrorist attack using a chemical or biological weapon on US soil; the question is when. As the population increases, the number of psychopaths increases, and given the increasing ability for individuals to access scientific and technological information, it is only a matter of time before some wacko with an obscure agenda decides he is going to transform society by killing people in large numbers.

The New Terrorism is the best single book currently available on the history and psychology of terrorists ranging from animal rights activists and UFO cultists to religious extremists. Author Walter Laquer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is one of America's most distinguished political theorists and has published key works over the past few decades not only on terrorism but on other political subjects as well. Like his previous books on the subject--Terrorism (1977, reprinted as The Age of Terrorism in 1985) and the Terrorism Reader (1978 and 1987)--Laquer's study of the subject is both broad in scope and keenly informed. Laquer is an excellent writer and he does a superb job of not falling into the traps of tedious academicjargon or breathless newspaper journalism. These characteristics will give The New Terrorism a shelf-life that will far exceed most of the books being published on the subject.

Despite the "new" in the title, Laquer does a better job looking backward at the history of terrorism than addressing how it will evolve in the future. Laquer does not deal with policy issues such as what the United States should do to defend against terrorism with weapons of mass destruction (WMD), nor does he grapple with practical subjects such as what types of weapons are in vogue among terrorists this year. The book is devoid of charts, graphs, and statistics that would provide readers a perspective on current terrorist trends. Despite its title, Laquer does not deal extensively with the issues of WMD terrorism or cyberterrorism. One particular strength of The New Terrorism is that unlike many books on the subject, it does have sections devoted to obscure causes such as animal rights terrorists and the US militia movements. A consistent frustration in reading the book is that Laquer lets his opinions about the worthiness of the various causes intrude into the .text. This style of writing may be suitable for newspaper opinion columns, but it is a bit jarring in a book-length study.

One of the greater strengths of the book lies in the unusual manner in which the history of violent extremism is linked with psychology, literature, and popular culture in Laquer's quest to understand the personality of terrorists and what makes them tick. Laquer's discussion flows easily from books read by American right-wing extremists, such as the Turner Diaries (which apparently helped shape Timothy McVeigh's views when he planned the 1995 Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma), to fictional depictions of violent psychopaths such as the protagonist in the classic Stanley Kubrick film The Clockwork Orange. If nothing else, the book certainly convinces the reader that there are numerous reasons for people to commit acts of extreme violence and that it is difficult to stereotype terrorists beyond the obvious statements that they are dissatisfied with society, usually have little regard for human life, and are committed to their cause.

Despite the book's strengths, it has some significant weaknesses as well. Laquer's discussion of the phenomena of Islamist terrorism is somewhat superficial. Military officers seeking to understand the complex nature of the global threat posed by groups such as the Usama Bin Ladin network will be left wanting. Likewise, readers seeking details about specific terrorist weapons and tactics-including WMD--will find that the The New Terrorism does not fully address those subjects.

Military school libraries should definitely purchase The New Terrorism as an essential part of their collections. As for military officers in the field who are likely to read only one book on terrorism, Bruce Hoffman's Inside Terrorism (Columbia University Press, 1998) is probably more pertinent (in fact, the cover blurb for that book is by Walter Laquer, who states that it is 'the best work at present available"). Hoffman's inside Terrorism is a much more tightly focused book than Laquer's The New Terrorism, and it does a better job of discussing the current environment in which terrorism is taking place.