TERRORISM

Literature from the 1980s

G - Z

Gordon, Don E. "Terrorism -- Are We Losing the War?" Journal of Defense & Diplomacy 4, no. 3 (1986): 38-43.

Petersen: "Weak counterterrorism intelligence system."

Goren, Roberta. The Soviet Union and Terrorism. London: Allen & Unwin, 1984.

Henderson, Robert D'A. "Washington's Debate on Terrorism." International Perspectives (Ottawa), Sep./Oct. 1986: 17-19.

The focus here is the U.S. air raids against Libya in April 1986 in response to Libyan support of the terrorist bombing of a disco in West Berlin. The author concludes that the use of force in this instance "is unlikely to deter substantially future terrorist activities by individual radical or religious groups within the Middle East.... But those states that have in the past sponsored such terrorist activities may be deterred to the extent of reducing their support for them -- in the short run at least."

Laqueur, Walter A., and Yonah Alexander, eds. The Terrorism Reader: A Historical Anthology. New York: New American Library, 1987. [Wilcox]

Livingstone, Neil C.

1. The Cult of Counterterrorism: The Weird World of Spooks, Counterterrorists and the Not Quite Professionals. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1989.

Surveillant 1.1: "An insider's account of the people and organizations that attempt to defend and take action against terrorism."

2. And Terrell E. Arnold, eds. Beyond the Iran-Contra Crisis: The Shape of U.S. Anti-Terrorism Policy in the Post-Reagan Era. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1988.

3. And Terrell E. Arnold, eds. Fighting Back: Winning the War Against Terrorism. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1986.

Martin, David C., and John Walcott. Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America's War Against Terrorism. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.

Petersen: "Unsympathetic account of Carter and Reagan efforts to deal with Middle Eastern terrorism."

Melman, Yossi. The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal. New York: Adama, 1986. [Wilcox]

Miller, Brian R.E. [CAPT/USA] "Counterterrorism and Intelligence." Military Intelligence 14, no. 4 (Oct. 1988): 11-13.

Motley, James Berry. "International Terrorism: A Challenge for U.S. Intelligence." International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 1, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 83-96.

This is a good short explanation of the international terrorism problem from an intelligence perspective for this particular timeframe.

Motley, James Berry. U.S. Strategy to Counter Domestic Political Terrorism. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1983. [Petersen]

Mukerjee, Dulip. The Terrorists. New York: Vantage, 1980.

Wilcox: "Study of terrorism, main terrorists, their motives, psychology, tactics and strategy around the world."

Murphy, John F. State Support of International Terrorism: Legal, Political, and Economic Dimensions. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1989.

Choice, Sep. 1990: The "remedies include greater intelligence support."

Netanyahu, Benjamin, ed.

1. International Terrorism: Challenge and Response. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1982.

2. Terrorism: How the West Can Win. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1986.

Jenkins, I&NS 3.1, has nothing good to say for this edited volume by the future Israeli Prime Minister: "As a work of scholarship or objective analysis, it is a thorough failure.... Much better, then, to take it for what it is, a polemic representing a number of specific interest groups.... Terrorism is a manifesto for a particular brand of ultra-conservative policies, in the guise of scholarship."

Ratner, Margaret. "The Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism: New Threat to Civil Liberties." Covert Action Information Bulletin 12 (Apr. 1981): 32-34.

Petersen: "New Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee said to revive McCarthyism."

Segaller, Stephan. Invisible Armies: Terrorism into the 1990s. Rev. ed. London: Sphere, 1987.

Sofaer, Abraham D. "Terrorism, the Law and the National Defense." Special Warfare 2 (Fall 1989): 12-28.

Sterling, Claire. The Terror Network: The Secret War of International Terrorism. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1981. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1981.

Rocca and Dziak: "Sterling's work stirred international controversy because of her linkage of Soviet/East European security services to various worldwide terrorist organizations and operations."

Sterling, Claire. The Time of the Assassins: Anatomy of an Investigation. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1983. New ed. 1985. [pb]

According to Rocca and Dziak, Sterling (as does Henze in The Plot to Kill the Pope) points to "Bulgarian-Soviet complicity in the attempted assassination of John Paul II. Half her book ... delves into what she sees as the hesitancy and incredulity of Western governments when faced with the evidence and implications of the failed assassination."

Jenkins, I&NS 1.3, has little to say positive about Sterling's book, arguing that the author "is wrong in all her major contentions" and has produced "a fatally flawed and inaccurate book." That judgment might go down more easily had the reviewer not tried to replace Sterling's analysis with his own even more bizarre and contrived conspiracy fantasies.

Taylor, Robert W. "Terrorism and Intelligence." Defense Analysis 3, no. 2 (Jun. 1987): 165-176.

Thompson, Leroy. The Rescuers: The World's Top Anti-Terrorist Units. Boulber, CO: Paladin, 1986. [Wilcox]

Wannall, W. Raymond. 1984 -- Year of the Terrorist? Washington, DC: Nathan Hale Institute, n.d.

Petersen: "Former head of the FBI Intelligence Division."

Webster, William H. "The FBI and the War Against Terrorism and Espionage." ABA Standing Committee Intelligence Report 7, no. 12 (1985): 1, 7. [Petersen]

Webster was FBI Director at the time of this article.

Wilkinson, Paul. Terror and the Liberal State. London: Macmillan, 1977. 2d ed. New York: New York University Press, 1986.

Miller, IJI&C 1.4, calls this the "best single book that I have read on the subject." It "says everything that needs to be said, and does it cogently and with style." The author "emphasizes the importance of the peculiar problems that terrorism presents to liberal states.... [S]uperb."

Wolf, John B. Fear of Fear. New York: Plenum, 1981.

http://www.cloakanddagger.com/dagger: "A survey of terrorist operations and controls in open societies. A comprehensive look with significant focus on antiterrorism."

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