Terrorism.

• Author: Smith, Ron
• Position: Book review

TERRORISM Edited by: Rosemary H.T. O'Kane Published by: Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, England, 2005, 2 vols, 900pp, 250 [pounds sterling].

This is a collection of essays on terrorist theory and practice from a wide variety of authors, and covering the last 40 years (the earliest essay is from 1964 and the latest from 2002). The range of subjects is correspondingly broad, encompassing as it does the problems of definition and characterisation of terrorism, as well as a wide range of case studies and analytical perspectives (from public choice to feminist). Some of the best known academic authors of recent years are here: Wilkinson, Coady, Lacqueur, Crenshaw, Jenkins, Wardlaw, and, of course, O'Kane herself, contributing four chapters in addition to the introduction.

For all that, Terrorism offers less than 50 out of the upwards of 40,000 articles on the topic (thrown up by an academic database) and one does wonder what the basis of selection was. It is also noteworthy that the pieces were, for the most part, written on average 20 years ago and frequently refer to cases long since extinct (such as those of the Italian Red Brigades and the German Bader-Meinhoff gang). Of course, these episodes (in their social and political context) retain some academic interest, but they are rather far from the pressing contemporary concerns of the 'war on terror'. In this connection, it is noteworthy that although the publication date is 2005, there is very little that was written after 2001. In fact, there are just four articles in this category: two of these are very short and a third, whilst fill-length, does offer a rather idiosyncratic feminist/Islamic perspective.

All this said, there is plenty of material here that bears on the continuing issues for scholars and policy practitioners in the domain of terrorism. Inevitably, these discussions begin with the question of how the central term itself is to be used. Clearly, unless there is a consensus on this point, authors and political activists are going to argue past each other and a great deal of the discussion will have the character of special pleading. The issue of definition does get some attention in Professor O'Kane's introductory essay and Part I of Volume I of the collection is devoted to the 'Concept' (of terrorism), but the work as a whole does not carry us very far forward. Certain defining characteristics for terrorism are offered by various authors and some even enjoy wide...