Dying to Win
Why Suicide Terrorists Do It
Published on 7. September 2006
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-1-903933-78-7 (ISBN)
Description
In "Dying to Win Robert", Pape presents the findings of the first comprehensive database of every suicide terrorist attack in the world from 1980 until today. Discrediting widely-held misconceptions on suicide terrorism, he creates for the first time a clear psychological, sociological and strategic profile for combating suicide attacks. His thesis - initially based on the 354 attacks throughout the world up to 2003 - has been remarkably born out by the ones that have followed (the 192 attacks from 2004 up to May 2006 are included in Dying to Win). Pape 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.
Reviews / Votes
"'One of the most important books on suicide terrorism.' New York Review of Books"More details
Person
Robert A. Pape is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago and a director of the Chicago Project Suicide Terrorists. He frequently writes for The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Content
introduction 1 The Growing Threat 2 Explaining Suicide Terrorism part i: the strategic logic of suicide terrorism 3 A Strategy for Weak Actors 4 Targeting Democracies 5 Learning Terrorism Pays part ii: the social logic of suicide terrorism 6 Occupation and Religious Difference 7 Demystifying al-Qaeda 8 Suicide Terrorist Organizations Around the Globe part iii: the individual logic of suicide terrorism 9 Altruism and Terrorism 10 The Demographic Profile of Suicide Terrorists 11 Portraits of Three Suicide Terrorists conclusion 12 A New Strategy for Victory Appendix I: Suicide Terrorist Campaigns, 1980-2003 Appendix II: Occupations by Democratic States, 1980-2003 Appendix III: Salafism in Major Sunni Muslim Majority Countries Notes Index