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President Obama has declared that the greatest terrorist threat which America faces is attacks by lone wolf terrorists. This volume expands the lone wolf rubric to include autonomous cells: small groups of terrorists who cooperate, but operate independently. The challenge presented by lone wolves and autonomous cells, unlike the threat emanating from established terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, has proven intractable because of the difficulty of gathering intelligence on these actors or effectively countering their actions. Lone wolves operate under the radar, staging deadly attacks such as that at the Boston Marathon, and the 2011 attacks in Norway. This volume includes Theory and Policy Studies, individual case studies and the technological impacts of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons as well as the impact of social media in the process of recruitment and radicalization.
This book was originally published as a special issue of Terrorism & Political Violence.
List of contents
1. Introduction Theory and Policy Studies 2. On Tribalism: Auxiliaries, Affiliates, and Aspirational Political Violence 3. Counterinsurgency and Lone Wolf Terrorism 4. Law Enforcement Tactics and their Effectiveness in dealing with American Terrorism: Organizations, Autonomous Cells, and Lone Wolves 5. Toward a profile of lone-wolf terrorists: What moves an individual from radical opinion to radical action Case Studies 6. The Pre-1914 Anarchist "Lone Wolf" Terrorist and Governmental Responses 7. Men in Black: Dynamics, Violence, and Lone Wolf Potential 8. Lone Wolf Islamic Terrorism: Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad (Carlos Bledsoe) Case Study 9. Crusader Dreams: Oslo 22/7, Islamophobia, and the Quest for a Monocultural Europe 10. Hatred of the System: Menacing Loners and Autonomous Cells in the Netherlands 11. Political Elements in Post-Columbine School Shootings in Europe and North America Technological Impacts 12. Lone Wolf Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Examination of Capabilities and Countermeasures 13. An Army of One: Assessing CBRN Pursuit and Use by Lone Wolves and Autonomous Cells 14. Detecting Linguistic Markers for Radical Violence in Social Media
About the author
Jeffrey Kaplan is based in the Department of Religious Studies and Anthropology; and Institute for the Study of Religion, Violence, and Memory at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, USA.
Heléne Lööw is based in the Department of History at Uppsala University, Sweden.
Leena Malkki is based at the Network for European Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
Summary
This book examines the nature of lone wolf and autonomous cell terrorism. It focuses in particular on counterterrorism, case studies, weapons of mass destruction, and the role of social media. This book was originally published as a special issue of Terrorism & Political Violence.
