The papers collectec in this volume are published by the Johns Hopkins Foreign Insitute (FPI) in order to increase public understanding of the sources and purposes of terrorism. Each paper presents a case study of terrorism in a specific state or region and examines the varied purposes which terrorist methods have been made to serve, as a whole, the collection is concerned  with examining the motives and effectiveness of the state and non-state actors who utilize terror as a means of achieving specific political ends.

In presenting terror as a method of choice, the authors debunk popular misconceptions about the soucers of terrorism and help explain why, depite terrorism´s limited effectiveness as a political tool, it is likely to remain a harrowing feature of the political landscape for some time to come.
“The politics of Terrorism: Terror as a State and Revolutionary Strategy” is the first of a series of studies focusing on different aspects of international terrorism. Future volumens will examine, among other issues, the range and effectiveness of different policy responses and the potential impact of the new technologies on the terrorism threat.