Dying to win : the strategic logic of suicide terrorism

Political scientist Robert Pape has created the first comprehensive database of every suicide terrorist attack in the world from 1980 until today. Here he provides a groundbreaking demographic profile of modern suicide terrorist attackers--and his findings offer a powerful counterpoint to conventional assumptions. He also examines the early practitioners of this guerrilla tactic, including the ancient Jewish Zealots, who in A.D. 66 wished to liberate themselves from Roman occupation; the Ismaili Assassins, a Shi'ite Muslim sect in northern Iran in the eleventh and twelfth centuries; World War II's Japanese kamikaze pilots, three thousand of whom crashed into U.S. naval vessels; and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a secular, Marxist-Leninist organization responsible for more suicide terrorist attacks than any other group in history. This is a work of analysis grounded in fact, not politics, that recommends concrete ways for states to fight and prevent terrorist attacks now.--From publisher description.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member sirfurboy

This is a very thorough and insightful analysis of the strategic logic of suicide terrorism that turns many myths on their head. Here is academic research that shows why people kill themselves for political aims, and also tells us what we can do about it.

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LibraryThing member nmele

This book examines the known facts about suicide terrorism, using data about suicide bombers ages, social class, education and motivation. Pape offers convincing evidence that suicide bombers are not, as a rule, motivated by desperate personal circumstances but by military or economic occupation or

domination of their territory. An excellent read, and a must-read book if we want to truly deal with terrorism.

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LibraryThing member dono421846

Looks primarily at suicide terrorism from perspective of group strategy. Although he does touch on individual motivations somewhat, it is still through the prism of group dynamics rather than personal psychology. This is a weakness in the overall structure of the book's arguments, but there to the

extent group-level analysis is your focus this has a lot to offer. The primary theme is that, contrary to the neocon's characterization of the post-9/11 actions, suicide terrorism is not about radical Islam, but primarily about US military insertions. Suicide terrorism is about nationalist striking at an invading occupier, not a religious war against an infidel. That makes perfect sense, and that it is supported by the actual data of who and where suicide terrorism occurs makes the presentation (which for some readers might strike as a tad academic) all the more convincing. This book covers data through 2003; he has a second book from 2010, Cutting the Fuse; I'll be curious to see how the new data modifies his conclusions. I might have given him more stars, but his concluding pages have him beating the gong for building Trump's wall, before Trump even thought it was a good idea.

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