Book
Book “Terrorisme”: discussing core questions about terrorism
Recently, Europe was again shaken by some attacks. This ‘Elementair Deeltje’ places terrorism in a historical perspective and gives an up-to-date overview of this form of political violence.
- Author
- Edwin Bakker and Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn
- Date
- 30 August 2016
The Summer of 2016 is nearing its end. The threat of terrorism has been one of the main themes in Europe in this period with two attacks in France (Nice - July 14 & Saint-Étienne-du Rouvray – July 26) and three in Germany (Würzburg - July 18, Munich - July 23 & Ansbach - July 24). In other parts of the world, terrorists have also managed to take the lives of many. On July 3, around 300 people died in Iraq when a suicide truck exploded in a busy shopping district in Baghdad.
This has raised the questions “is terrorism getting worse?” and “how different is today’s terrorism from what we have seen in the past? The book “Terrorisme” (in Dutch) written by Edwin Bakker and Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn addresses these and other questions. The book, published in May 2016, is part of the series “Elementaire Deeltjes” of Amsterdam University Press. It aims to put terrorism in a broad, historical perspective as well as provide a timely overview of this form of political violence and how it is being countered.
The book also discusses the definition of terrorism, the goals of terrorists and who these terrorists are. The authors address the long history of terrorism, as well as terrorism in Dutch history. Finally, it discusses how we should cope with terrorism and how we could mitigate the impact of attacks and the fear that terrorists aim to spread.