Book Review: The New Terrorism by Walter Laqueur

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THE NEW TERRORISM BY WALTER LAQUEUR

Walter Laqueur’s book, “The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction”, is empowering readers with the entire spectrum of terrorism. The reasons behind terrorism are not easy to understand, but Laqueur goes into great detail to try and bring the reader to an understanding of what the terrorist is thinking in order to justify the means to the end.

Laqueur sheds enlightenment into a new arena for terrorism: Arms of Mass Destruction. The chemical and biological weapons of yesterday are available and relatively cheap on today’s open market. Mr. Laqueur goes into depth on previous usages by terrorist organizations using these types of weapons as well as the possibility of further use. One frightening point that Laqueur makes is that the use of nuclear devices could very well have a possible future in terrorism.

With nuclear devices as a possible method for inflicting terrorism, there will be no safe place for any citizen of any nation. The United States has recently been the object of terrorist harassment and more than likely the will continue to be a target of the new form of terrorism greatly threatening American security.

The author’s main thesis focuses around this new type of nuclear terrorism, and he gives many different types of examples of groups that have already used biological and chemical methods to achieve favorable resul...

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