Book description
For decades, a new type of terrorism has been quietly gathering ranks
in the world. America's ability to remain oblivious to these new
movements ended on September 11, 2001. The Islamist fanatics in the
global Salafi jihad (the violent, revivalist social movement of which
al Qaeda is a part) target the West, but their operations mercilessly
slaughter thousands of people of all races and religions throughout
the world. Marc Sageman challenges conventional wisdom about
terrorism, observing that the key to mounting an effective defense
against future attacks is a thorough understanding of the networks
that allow these new terrorists to proliferate.
Based on intensive study of biographical data on 172
participants in the jihad, Understanding Terror Networks gives
us the first social explanation of the global wave of activity.
Sageman traces its roots in Egypt, gestation in Afghanistan during the
Soviet-Afghan war, exile in the Sudan, and growth of branches
worldwide, including detailed accounts of life within the Hamburg and
Montreal cells that planned attacks on the United States.
U. S. government strategies to combat the jihad are based on the
traditional reasons an individual was thought to turn to terrorism:
poverty, trauma, madness, and ignorance. Sageman refutes all these
notions, showing that, for the vast majority of the mujahedin, social
bonds predated ideological commitment, and it was these social
networks that inspired alienated young Muslims to join the jihad.
These men, isolated from the rest of society, were transformed into
fanatics yearning for martyrdom and eager to kill. The tight bonds of
family and friendship, paradoxically enhanced by the tenuous links
between the cell groups (making it difficult for authorities to trace
connections), contributed to the jihad movement's flexibility and
longevity. And although Sageman's systematic analysis highlights the
crucial role the networks played in the terrorists' success, he states
unequivocally that the level of commitment and choice to embrace
violence were entirely their own.
Understanding Terror Networks combines Sageman's scrutiny of
sources, personal acquaintance with Islamic fundamentalists, deep
appreciation of history, and effective application of network theory,
modeling, and forensic psychology. Sageman's unique research allows
him to go beyond available academic studies, which are light on facts,
and journalistic narratives, which are devoid of theory. The result is
a profound contribution to our understanding of the perpetrators of
9/11 that has practical implications for the war on terror.
"The best source of information about modern Islamic
terrorists."-Freeman Dyson, New York Review of Books
Marc Sageman, M. D., Ph. D., is a former foreign service officer who
was based in Islamabad from 1987 to 1989, where he worked closely with
Afghanistan's mujahedin. He has advised various branches of the U. S.
government in the war on terror and is a forensic psychiatrist in
private practice in Washington, D. C. His second book, Leaderless Jihad:
Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century, is also available from the
University of Pennsylvania Press.
