In Celebration of Walter Laqueur's 90th Birthday: Reflections on His Contributions to the Study of Terrorism and Guerrilla Warfare

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgments Presentation delivered at the “Conference in Honor of the 90th Birthday of Walter Laqueur,” The Joseph & Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 8 March 2011; and at “Celebrating Walter Laqueur,” Center for Peace and Security Studies, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 2 May 2011. Notes 1. See, for instance, the acknowledgments page in Judith Tydor Baumel, The “Bergson Boys” and the Origins of Contemporary Zionist Militancy (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005), p. xxvii, where the first person recognized, not surprisingly, is Walter—“whose patience and advice,” this author wrote, “know no bounds.” 2. Quote from the Sunday Times (London) book jacket, Walter Laqueur, Terrorism (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977). 3. Walter Laqueur, Guerrilla: A Historical and Critical Study (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown, 1976). 4. Ibid., pp. 393–404. 5. Walter Laqueur, Best Of Times, Worst Of Times: Memoirs of a Political Education (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2009), p. 176. 6. Ibid., p. 187. 7. Laqueur, Terrorism, p. 7; idem, The Age of Terrorism (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown, 1987), pp. 11, 142–156. See also, idem, Best Of Times, Worst Of Times, p. 189. 8. Alex P. Schmid, Albert J. Jongman, et al., Political Terrorism: A Research Guide (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1984), pp. 3–6. See also, Laqueur, Best Of Times, Worst Of Times, p. 189. 9. See Laqueur, The Age of Terrorism, p. 7; and, idem, The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 8. 10. See, for instance, Scott Atran, “Who Wants to Be a Martyr,” New York Times, 5 May 2003; BBC News, “Poverty ‘Fuelling Terrorism.’” bbc.co.uk, 22 March 2002. Available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1886617.stm; and Nicholas D. Kristof, “Behind The Terrorists,” New York Times, 7 May 2002. Available at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE1DA1730F934A35756C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 11. Saadia Khalid, “Illiteracy Root Cause of Terrorism, Extremism: PM,” The International News, 21 February 2009. Available at http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=163751 12. Peter Baker, “Obama Says Al Qaeda in Yemen Planned Bombing Plot, and He Vows Retribution,” New York Times, 2 January 2010. 13. Nicholas D. Kristof, “Pakistan and Times Square,” New York Times, 12 May 2010. 14. Laqueur, Terrorism, p. 222; idem, The Age of Terrorism, p. 4; idem, The New Terrorism, p. 80; idem, No End To War: Terrorism In The Twenty-First Century (New York and London: Continuum, 2003), pp. 15–18; and, idem, Best Of Times, Worst Of Times, pp. 181–182 and 185. 15. Laqueur, No End To War, p. 15. 16. Ibid., p. 17. 17. Walter Laqueur, “Postmodern Terrorism,” Foreign Affairs 75(5) (September-October 1996), pp. 24–36. See also, idem, “Left, Right, and Beyond—The Changing Face of Terror,” in James F. Hoge Jr. and Gideon Rose (eds.), How Did This Happen? Terrorism And The New War (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), pp. 71–82. See also, Laqueur, Best Of Times, Worst of Times, p. 182. 18. Idem, Best of Times, Worst of Times, p. 192. 19. See Ted Koppel, “Nine Years after 9/11, Let's Stop Playing into bin Laden's Hands,” Washington Post, 12 September 2010; and, Fareed Zakaria, “Post-9/11, We’re Safer than We Think,” Washington Post, 13 September 2010. 20. Laqueur, Best of Times, Worst of Times, pp. 190–191. 21. Ibid., p. 199.