What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Terrorist Threat - Tapa blanda

'Louise Richardson is a world authority on global terrorism. Here she brings her unique insights into the motivations of terrorists across the world into a passionate, incisive and groundbreaking argument that provocatively overturns the myths surrounding terrorism.' -- Mary Robinson 'Refreshingly clear' -- Metro 20060621 'Simply the best thing of its kind available now in this highly crowded area' -- Evening Standard: Robert Fox 20060619 'Rigorous, lucid and highly readable' -- Bookseller 20060605 'Richardson sweeps aside conventional and woolly notions of terrorism' -- Financial Times 20060610 'A thoughtful and stimulating study of the greatest security problem facing the world today' -- Deaglan de Breadun, Irish Times 20060624 '[Richardson's] book is calm, elegantly written and superbly researched. ! Possibly the most intelligent and readable contemporary one-volume account available' -- Steven Poole, Guardian 20060624

What can terrorists possibly hope to achieve by blowing up commuters, bond traders and tourists whom they have never even met? Why do seemingly ordinary young men and women volunteer to turn themselves into human bombs? What can we do to stop them? In What Terrorists Want" Louise Richardson investigates these crucial questions. She delves into the minds of terrorists and demystifies the threat we face today. She draws on her unique contact with real terrorists as well as years of teaching and research at Harvard to show that terrorists are not crazed criminals butrational peoplewilling to exploit their own weaknesses to maximum effect. By introducing us to other terrorists in other times she shows thatwe must look beyond 9/11 and simplistic associations with Islam. What Terrorists Want controversially but convincingly argues that only by understanding the forces that drive terrorism can we hope to contain it. It also shows us why the Global War on Terror is doomed to fail but how with a different strategy we can prevail.