Print

Preface Almost 30 years have gone by since I wrote my first book. Published at the end of the Cold War, British Counterinsurgency, 1919–1960 (London: Macmillan, 1990) was well received as an historical work. However, many experts questioned its relevance to the contemporary world. Insurgency and terrorism, they insisted, belonged to a dead colonial past. Unfortu- nately, the collapse of the Soviet Union did not herald an era of peace, as many had hoped and some expected, but rather a new period of uncer- tainty. The power vacuum caused by the withdrawal of the United States and Soviet Union from many areas led to a series of brutal civil conflicts. The failure of the Somali state, the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the Rwan- dan genocide occurred in rapid succession. Then came the shock of the Oklahoma City bombing, attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tan- zania, and, of course, 9/11. The United States has been at war since the end of 2001. We live in an era of continuous, low-level conflict with no end in sight. The world has given me plenty to write about over the past three decades. This book, like several of its predecessors, has a simple purpose: to situate a pervasive threat in a healthy context, replacing ignorance and fear with understanding. Although it avoids political opining, it does challenge the fearmongering done by some politicians. I argue that terrorism is a persis- tent problem but not an existential threat and that domestic extremism is more worrisome than international terrorism. Many politicians and com- mentators tend to exaggerate the former and downplay or even ignore the latter. The book concludes with suggestions on how to counter the threat of extremism, particularly the ideology that fuels it.