Terror: From Tyrannicide to Terrorism.

• Author: Bendle, Mervyn F.
• Pages: 68(5)

TERROR:

From Tyrannicide to Terrorism

edited by Michael T. Davis and Brett Bowden

(Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2008)

Paperback: 408 pages

Rec. price: $45.00

"Know one's enemy" applies to the war on terror as to everywhere else, and fortunately the basic shape of the history of terrorism has been clear for some time. For example, it is common to use the model devised by the political scientist, David C. Rapoport, according to which modern terrorism developed through four waves:

1) 1879-1914: Anarchist/Nationalist Terrorism--e.g., The People's Will in Tsarist Russia.

2) 1920s-1960s: Anti-Colonialist Terrorism--e.g., in Ireland, Algeria.

3) 1960s-1980s: International Terrorism--e.g., the Red Army, Red Brigades, PLO.

4) 1979> Religious Terrorism--e.g., al-Qaeda, Aum Shinrikyo, Hamas.

Since 9/11, the detail and texture of this overall picture has become significantly richer as a result of increased research and we now have a much greater understanding of how terrorism has evolved and mutated over the years in response to various events in global history. Given the abundance of this material, it is a great pity that the book under review reflects so little of this established knowledge or recent advances, and has chosen instead to offer a fragmentary, tendentious, and polemical collection of essays.

Regrettably, it appears that the book has the following objectives:

1) To depict Europe as the original home and principal location of modern terrorism.

2) To locate the United Kingdom at the centre of this allegedly Western tradition.

3) To defend Islamist terrorists by claiming that they are only following British and European examples and have been falsely labelled as terrorists.

4) To further deflect attention from these groups by emphasising the state terrorism of European totalitarian regimes.

5) To promote the idea that the real problem the world faces at the moment is "Islamophobia" and not terrorism, which the book claims is largely an ideological ploy manipulated by Western governments, politicians, and others.

This ideological and apologetic perspective is reflected in the book's structure. Of the 16 chapters, three provide pedestrian accounts of theoretical and conceptual issues; five are concerned with state terror; and two briefly review the history of terrorism prior to the Great War and in Western Europe between 1950 and 2000, thereby omitting half a century in the history of terrorism and most of the world. This leaves six chapters that provide specific case studies, and all six focus on the United Kingdom (including two that also discuss Spain and Ireland), explicitly supporting the claim that this is the true home of modern terrorism.

This Eurocentric bias becomes even more obvious when the reader looks for any significant discussion of Islamist...