AFRICOM Groups of Interest

With a view towards developing more effective measures of prevention and resolution, this book examines political violence in various national and international settings. Providing both conceptual analysis and case studies, it explores historical and sociopolitical contexts of conflicts in order to help readers better understand these themes

Terrorist structures, traditionally consisting of loose-net cells, divisions, and subgroups, are ideally suited for flourishing on the Internet through websites, e-mail, chat rooms, e-groups, forums, virtual message boards, YouTube, Google Earth, and other outlets. Terrorist websites, including social media platforms.

In this age of asymmetric warfare, battles are fought more and more against armed groups of opponents such as terrorists, insurgents, or transnational criminal organizations. This text is the first to categorize armed groups and analyze their characteristics in a systematic way to provide a thorough overview of all types of armed groups and the role they play in today's security environment. Drawing on international case studies and histories, the work analyzes the objectives, strategies, and internal composition of armed groups and the environments that foster them. It demonstrates that armed groups often behave in an "hybrid" fashion, be it the criminal actions terrorists groups take to fund their goals or the role terrorist actions play in criminal organizations. As such dividing lines blur, governments need to figure out how, where, and when these armed groups are operating in zones of conflict or peace, as well as their motivations, structures, and ultimate objectives. This thorough and groundbreaking study will provide students with a strategic view of who armed groups are, how to analyze them, and what geopolitical and geostrategic factors influence their origins and operations.

In contrast to the widely held assumption that terrorists as crazed fanatics, Jerrold Post demonstrates they are psychologically "normal" and that "hatred has been bred in the bone". He reveals the powerful motivations that drive these ordinary people to such extraordinary evil by exploring the different types of terrorists, from national-separatists like the Irish Republican Army to social revolutionary terrorists like the Shining Path, as well as religious extremists like al-Qaeda and AumShinrikyo. InThe Mind of the Terrorist, Post uses his expertise to explain how the terrorist mind works and how this information can help us to combat terrorism more effectively.

Many popular ideas about terrorists and why they seek to harm us are fueled by falsehoods and misinformation. Leading politicians and scholars have argued that poverty and lack of education breed terrorism, despite the wealth of evidence showing that most terrorists come from middle-class, and often college-educated, backgrounds. In What Makes a Terrorist, Alan Krueger argues that if we are to correctly assess the root causes of terrorism and successfully address the threat, we must think more like economists do. He explains why our tactics in the fight against terrorism must be based on more than anecdote and speculation and also closely examines the factors that motivate individuals to participate in terrorism, drawing inferences from terrorists' own backgrounds and the economic, social, and political conditions in the societies from which they come.

This book will analyze seven terrorist and insurgent groups to determine how these groups fund their organizations, the various ways in which funding supports their operational and organizational principles, and how this funding could be disrupted.