Resources This book is available in Oxford Scholarship Online - view abstracts and keywords at book and chapter level.
Related Categories
|
|
|
Awarded an honourable mentiongy by American Society of Criminology/Division of International Criminology Distinguished Book Award 2006
Making Sense of Suicide Missions
Diego Gambetta
430 pages
|
234x156mm
978-0-19-929797-9
|
Paperback
|
21 September 2006
|
|
This item is printed to order. Items which are printed to order are normally despatched and charged within 5-10 days.
|
|
|
- First major book-length treatment of one of the defining acts of political violence of our day
- Extremely topical subject matter, dealing with the likes of Al Quaeda, the Tamil Tigers, and Palestinian suicide bombers
- Brings together a wealth of original information and ground-breaking analysis from leading experts
- Provides lucid and compelling answers to questions we all ask: Are these the actions of aggressive religious zealots or is there a logic driving those behind them? Are their motivations religious or has Islam provided a language to express essentially political causes? How can the perpetrators remain so lucidly effective in the face of certain death? And do these disparate attacks have something like a common cause?
Suicide attacks have become the defining act of political violence of our age. From New York City to Baghdad, from Sri Lanka to Israel, few can doubt that they are a pervasive and terrifying feature of an increasing number of violent conflicts. Since 1981, approximately thirty organizations throughout the world - some of them secular and others affiliated to radical Islam - have carried out more than 500 suicide missions. Although a tiny fraction of the overall number of guerrilla and terrorist attacks occurring in the same period, the results have proved infinitely more lethal.
This book is the first to shed real light on these extraordinary acts, and provide answers to the questions we all ask. Are these the actions of aggressive
religious zealots and unbridled, irrational radicals or is there a logic driving those behind them? Are their motivations religious or has Islam provided a language to express essentially political causes? How can the perpetrators remain so lucidly effective in the face of certain death? And do these disparate attacks have something like a common cause?
For more than two years, this team of internationally distinguished scholars has pursued an unprejudiced inquiry, investigating organizers and perpetrators alike of this extraordinary social phenomenon. Close comparisons between a whole range of cases raise challenging further questions: If suicide missions are so effective, why are they not more common? If killing is what matters, why not stick to 'ordinary' violent
means? Or, if dying is what matters, why kill in the process?
Making Sense of Suicide Missions contains a wealth of original information and cutting-edge analysis which furthers our understanding of this chilling feature of the contemporary world in radically new and unexpected ways. Readership: Scholars and students of Politics, Sociology, Comparative Politics, and Political Violence, especially those with an interest in suicide missions and terrorism; anyone keen to understand the motivations behind recent suicide bombings
|
|
|
Diego Gambetta, Professor of Sociology and Official Fellow of Nuffield College, University of Oxford Contributors:
Diego Gambetta, Professor of Sociology and Official Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford
Michael Biggs, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Jon Elster, Robert K. Merton Professor of Social and Political Science, Columbia University
Peter Hill, British Academy Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford
Stephen Holmes, Professor of Law and Political Science, New York University
Stephen Hopgood, Lecturer in International
Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Stathis Kalyvas, Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science University of Yale
Luca Ricolfi, Professor of Sociology, University of Turin, Italy
Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca, Associate Professor of Political Science, Centre for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Juan March Institute, Madrid
|
|
|
"... demonstrates the relevance of political science to practical concerns...and the way in which certain kinds of "rational choice" explanations have become prevalent in political science." - The American Political Science Review ( APSR ) "Among the book's many strengths is the broad wealth of methodologies used to offer insights into the genesis of suicide missions." - Political Science Quarterly "The product of this enterprise is a very readable, insightful, and methodologically rigorous volume...the most sophisticated book-length treatment of this burgeoning topic to date." - Political Science Quarterly "Review from previous edition This is an important book, and the best
treatment of the subject I've read...Gambetta brings together a remarkable group of academics from different disciplines and countries who bring a formidable array of research and analysis to their attempt to make sense of suicide missions." - The Financial Times "The book effectively balances qualitative, quantitative, and analytic approaches. The case studies are deeply researched, riveting, and compelling. And each is shaped to engage the basic question: Why? To the degree that is possible, the attempts to answer this question are based on rigorous forms of inference and reasoning. The book is therefore a joy to teach from. It should claim the attention of both academics and policy makers." - Robert H Bates, Eaton Professor of the Science of
Government, Harvard University "Making Sense of Suicide Missions is an enlightening collection of essays, so badly needed in the prevalent mood of misconceptions and half-baked analysis." - The Guardian "This thoughtful and engrossing book underlines the pointlessness of a rage that is truly self-destructive, even if we may have to continue looking warily on the Tube for a while." - The Evening Standard "A stunning essay on al-Qaeda and 11 September 2001 ...challenging and timely book." - New Statesman "...of great use in trying to understand some of the psychological motivations that underpin suicide terrorism... It has significantly aided my clarity of understanding of this complex
subject." - Lieutenant Colonel Robert Seddon "...the contributors to this insightful edited volume attempt to answer questions such as: are these the actions of aggressive religious zealots and irrational extremists, or is there a logic driving their perpetrators?" - Joshua Sinai, Perspectives on Terrorism
|
|
|
Foreword
1: Peter Hill: Kamikaze 1943-5
2: Stephen Hopgood: Tamil Tigers 1987-2002
3: Luca Ricolfi: Palestinians 1981-2003
4: Stephen Holmes: Al Qaeda, September 11, 2001
5: Michael Biggs: Dying Without Killing: Self-Immolations 1963-2002
6: Stathis Kalyvas and Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca: Killing Without Dying: The Absence of Suicide Missions
7: Jon Elster: Motivations and Beliefs in Suicide Missions
8: Diego Gambetta: Can We Make Sense of Suicide Missions?
References
|
|
|
|
The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
|
|
