Synopses & Reviews
September 11 marked the beginning of a new era--an age of terror in which counter-terrorism will be one of the highest priorities of national governments and international institutions. How we proceed in this new war depends in large measure on the answer to a prior question: what exactly happened here and why? In The Age of Terror, eight leading historians and policymakers address this question and examine the considerations and objectives of policy decisions in post-September 11 America. Co-published with the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
Synopsis
Momentous events have a way of connecting individuals both to history and to one another. So it was on September 11. Even before more than 4000 people died in less than two hours, there were farewell messages from the sky. In their last minutes, doomed passengers used cell phones to reach loved ones. A short time later, office workers trapped high in the burning towers called spouses, children, parents. Never had so many had the means to say good-bye. During the hours afterward, the survivors scrambled to make contact with family and friends. "Are you all right?" they asked. As the enormity of it all began to sink in, the question hanging in the air was, Were we all right? Since September 11, many have noted a humbling irony: the more time we'd spent in the old world and the better we thought we understood its organizing principles, the less ready we were for the new one. Suddenly, familiar terms and concepts were inadequate, starting with the word terrorism itself. The dictionary defines it as violence, particularly against civilians, carried out for a political purpose. September 11 certainly qualified. But American's earlier encounters with terrorism neither anticipated nor encompassed this new manifestation. Commentators instantly evoked Pearl Harbor, that other bolt-from-the-blue raid, sixty years before, as the closest thing to a precedent. But there really was none. This was something new under the sun.
Synopsis
An agenda-setting team of experts looks at how terrorism can be understood, contained, and ultimately defeated
About the Author
Nayan Chanda is the director of publications at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and the former editor of Far East Economic Review.
Strobe Talbott is the Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and a former foreign-affairs columnist for Time magazine. He was Deputy Secretary of State under Bill Clinton.
Table of Contents
Introduction /Strobe TalbottandNayan Chanda --ch. 1.And now this : lessons from the old era for the new one /John Lewis Gaddis --ch. 2.Empowered through violence : the reinventing of Islamic extremism /Abbas Amanat --ch. 3.Maintaining American power : from injury to recovery /Paul Kennedy --ch. 4. AHerculean task : the myth and reality of Arab terrorism /Charles Hill --ch. 5.Clashing civilizations or mad mullahs : the United States between informal and formal empire /Niall Ferguson --ch. 6.Preserving American values : the challenge at home and abroad /Harold Hongju Koh --ch. 7.Rethinking the unthinkable : new priorities for new national security /Paul Bracken --ch. 8. Thechallenge to science : how to mobilize American ingenuity /Maxine Singer --Index.