Terrorism and homeland security

Abstract

Reviews the book, Terrorism and Homeland Security by Gus Martin (2011). The author draws together the plethora of issues and literature prevalent in the realms of terrorism and homeland security in a readable and reachable fashion. The book is divided into four sections. The first section provides description of political extremism and emphasizes that while terrorism is almost always based on some form of extremism, not all extremism results in violence or terrorism. After providing a historical overview of the origins of terrorism from antiquity through nineteenth century Europe and Russia, the author introduces the concept of the 'New Terrorism', highlighting its loose cell structure, more vaguely defined goals and tendency toward significantly higher casualty rates. Further the author identifies three types of explanations for the causes of terrorism; the political explanation, the sociological explanation and the psychological explanation. In the final section the author provides an overview of single-issue terrorist groups such as anti-abortion, animal rights and environmentalist groups. The book is designed to be a resource for university students and professionals who require fundamental expertise in understanding terrorist violence and homeland security and in this goal, it succeeds quite well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)