Terrorism is one of the driving geopolitical tendencies of our period. Spectacular occasions are recognized by their dates-for example, the 9/11 episodes in New York and Washington as well as the 7/7 London bombings. It was a terrorist assault that drew america into a battle in the higher Middle East which has lasted over fifteen years. A great many other episodes, including those in non-Western countries, receive much less attention despite the fact that they might be more frequent and cumulatively trigger more casualties.

In about Terrorism: What Everyone Needs to Understand Terrorism: What Everyone Needs to Understand®, Todd Sandler, one of America’s leading scholars on this issue, provides a broad and example-rich summary of this perennially important issue. After obviously defining terrorism, then discusses terrorism’s causes, the nature of terrorist groupings, how governments seek to counter terrorism, its financial consequences, and the future of terrorism. He concentrates, in particular, within the level to which specific motivations (nationalism/separatism, still left and right extremism, and spiritual fundamentalism) and general circumstances (poverty, globalization, and routine type) impact the frequency and costs of terrorism. As he explains, researchers haven’t established a connection between poverty and terrorism or between globalization and terrorism. He also recognizes many other widely-held misconceptions.