Read more
Force of Words is a groundbreaking examination of the role of threats in terrorist strategies that explains the broader purpose and meaning of terrorist propaganda. Joseph M. Brown explains how terrorist groups tailor their threats so that the desired political message is sent.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Threats: A Theoretical Framework
2. The Provisional IRA: A Full Spectrum of Threats
3. ETA and the Tamil Tigers: Comparable Threats for Social Control and Negotiation; Contrasting Threats for Legitimacy, Disruption, and Advantage
4. The MRTA and the Shining Path: Common Enemy; Virtually No Threat in Common
5. The Taliban, ISIL, and Boko Haram: Comparable Threats for Social Control; Contrasting Threats for Legitimacy, Negotiation, Aggrandizement, and Advantage
6. Quantitative Analysis: When to Expect Truthful Warnings
Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Joseph M. Brown is assistant professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Summary
Terrorist groups attain notoriety through acts of violence, but threats of future violence are just as important in attaining their political goals. Force of Words is a groundbreaking examination of the role of threats in terrorist strategies. Joseph M. Brown shows how terrorists use threats, true and false, to achieve key outcomes such as social control, economic attrition, and policy concessions. Brown demonstrates that threats are integral to terrorism on a tactical level as well, distracting security forces, drawing police into traps, and warning civilians out of harm’s way when terrorists seek to limit casualties.
Force of Words reorients the field of terrorism studies, prioritizing the symbolic, psychological dimension that makes this form of conflict distinctive. It expands the study of terrorist propaganda by detailing how militants tailor their threats to send the desired political message. Drawing on rich interview data, quantitative evidence, and case studies of the IRA, ETA, the Tamil Tigers, Shining Path, the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, Boko Haram, the Afghan Taliban, and ISIL, the book offers practical guidance for interpreting terrorists’ threats and assessing their credibility. Force of Words is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the logic of terrorism.
Additional text
In conclusion, Force of Words represents a major achievement. It is unquestionably the most sophisticated assessment of terrorist threats to date. The book also stands as a leading work in the area of terrorist signaling—an important but often overlooked aspect of extremist violence. At its core, Force of Words is not simply a book about terrorist tactics and targeting. Rather, it is a discerning examination of extremist groups’ specific goals that demonstrates how radical organizations use violence and threats of violence to try to influence civilians and governments. For these reasons, the book is a must-read for anyone interested in non-state terrorism.
