The West's Road to 9/11

The West's Road to 9/11 offers a detailed explanation of the handling of the challenge of terrorism by the USA, the UK and the West over the last thirty years. David Carlton contends that anti-terrorist rhetoric by the Governments of the West frequently masked indifference to the activities of many practitioners of non-state violence; and that in the case of the United States it did not hesitate even to sponsor those terrorist movements if deemed supportive of its wider geopolitical objectives.

'9/11 generated a proliferation of studies on different aspects of the most devastating terrorist attack in human history. David Carlton, an accomplished chronicler of contemporary political and strategic developments, makes an important contribution to better understand the complex factors that appeased and encouraged modern terrorism since the 1970s. His sober account and analysis should serve as an intellectual wake-up call to the West to seriously ponder future threats, both conventional and unconventional, and craft realistic strategies to combat this unprecedented challenge to the survival of civilization itself.' - Professor Yonah Alexander, Director, Inter-University Centre for Terrorism Studies, USA

Autorentext
DAVID CARLTON is a Senior Lecturer in International Studies at the University of Warwick. He is the author of MacDonald versus Henderson (1970); Anthony Eden: A Biography (1981); Britain and the Suez Crisis (1988); Churchill and the Soviet Union (2000) and numerous academic articles. He has also co-edited twenty-one further books.

Inhalt
PART I Introduction PART II: THE 1970S: APPEASING TERRORISM 1970: The West's First Major Test The 1970s: The West's Collective response to Terrorism following Dawson's Field Rewarding the Palestinians Appeasing Two European Insurgencies Equivocal Responses to 1968-Inspired Terrorism in Europe Appeasing Iran as a Sponsor of Terrorism: The Tehran Embassy Siege PART III: THE 1980S: RESISTING, APPEASING AND SPONSORING TERRORISM The 1980s: The West's Collective Response to Terrorism The 1980s: Resisting Terrorism The 1980s: Appeasing Terrorism The 1980s: Encouraging and Sponsoring Terrorism PART IV: THE 1990S: A SCHIZOPHRENIC DECADE The 1990s: Business-as-Usual: Resisting, Appeasing and Sponsoring Terrorism The 1990s: Business-not-as-Usual: In Awe of Terrorism PART V: CONCLUSION 9/11 As a Catalyst for Consistency? Bibliography