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Inside Terrorism remains the seminal work for understanding the historical evolution of terrorism and the terrorist mindset. In his newly revised edition, Global Fellow Bruce Hoffman tracks terrorism鈥檚 trajectory from ancient origins to today鈥檚 dynamics, discussing the repercussions of a post-caliphate ISIS, the potential resurgence of al-Qaeda, radicalization online, and terrorism in years ahead. The book also examines the rise of violent, anti-government militants, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists in the United States.

The author discussed his work and the complexities of the topic at a special 浪花直播 Center event.

Key Quotes

Jane Harman

鈥淭he third edition of [Bruce Hoffman鈥檚 book]鈥� will surely be used as a textbook in classrooms around the country. It now includes the creation and rise of ISIS as well as the origins of terror from the 19^th century. It specifically explores the demographics of terrorists and the reasons behind the continued tactic of suicide terrorism.鈥�

Robert Litwak

鈥淭errorists are, by definition, immoderate鈥� and their very lack of moderation is actually something that creates a vulnerability or a vector for us to develop a counterterrorism strategy.鈥�

Bruce Hoffman

鈥淏efore [social media], terrorist propaganda [for] recruitment was almost like throwing the proverbial bottle with a message in it into the ocean and if someone grabbed it or it washed up ashore, the terrorists struck gold and had a recruit. What we鈥檝e really seen with ISIS in recent years鈥� is what we might call鈥� narrow-casting, which is the ability to use social media to very specifically target and home in on an individual and animate, motivate, inspire them to engage in violence.鈥�

鈥淯nfortunately, the Arab Spring and especially the events in Syria breathe new life into Al-Qaeda. It gave it a purpose, it gave it a relevance, it resulted in the split that created ISIS 鈥� but that didn鈥檛 mean that Al-Qaeda went away. As I argue in the book, Al-Qaeda has been playing the long game compared to ISIS鈥檚 much more short-term, promiscuous attempt to burst onto the scene... I would say that ISIS is the id and Al-Qaeda is kind of the ego.鈥�

鈥淚 think, alarmingly, ISIS has been able to have it both ways: On the one hand, they鈥檙e very effective at inspiring, motivating, animating 鈥榣one wolves鈥� or lone actors... But at the same time, they鈥檝e also been very good at creating an infrastructure 鈥� a network to support terrorist attacks.鈥�

鈥淚 think the problem we face now is that we made tremendous progress at various intervals in the war on terrorism, but if I had to diagnose where we鈥檝e gone wrong, it鈥檚 [that] we precipitously declared victory... We have to understand that success against terrorism isn鈥檛 only in weakening or even defeating the terrorist organizations, but it鈥檚 recalibrating the environment that gives rise to terrorism.鈥�

鈥淭he fact that Hezbollah has far more missiles that they can target Israel or the rest of the region with than they do, probably, suicide bombers, I think is the best exemplar of how the phenomenon of terrorism has changed so profoundly and mixes and matches both traditional terrorist tactics with those we associate with established nation states and standing militaries.鈥�