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Awarded an honourable mentiongy by American Society of Criminology/Division of International Criminology Distinguished Book Award 2006

Making Sense of Suicide Missions

Diego Gambetta

First major book-length treatment of one of the defining acts of political violence of our day
Extremely topical subject matter, dealing with the likes of Al Quaeda, the Tamil Tigers, and Palestinian suicide bombers
Brings together a wealth of original information and ground-breaking analysis from leading experts
Provides lucid and compelling answers to questions we all ask: Are these the actions of aggressive religious zealots or is there a logic driving those behind them? Are their motivations religious or has Islam provided a language to express essentially political causes? How can the perpetrators remain so lucidly effective in the face of certain death? And do these disparate attacks have something like a common cause?

Awarded an honourable mentiongy by American Society of Criminology/Division of International Criminology Distinguished Book Award 2006

Making Sense of Suicide Missions

Diego Gambetta

Description

Suicide attacks have become the defining act of political violence of our age. From New York City to Baghdad, from Sri Lanka to Israel, few can doubt that they are a pervasive and terrifying feature of an increasing number of violent conflicts. Since 1981, approximately thirty organizations throughout the world - some of them secular and others affiliated to radical Islam - have carried out more than 500 suicide missions. Although a tiny fraction of the overall number of guerrilla and terrorist attacks occurring in the same period, the results have proved infinitely more lethal.

This book is the first to shed real light on these extraordinary acts, and provide answers to the questions we all ask. Are these the actions of aggressive religious zealots and unbridled, irrational radicals or is there a logic driving those behind them? Are their motivations religious or has Islam provided a language to express essentially political causes? How can the perpetrators remain so lucidly effective in the face of certain death? And do these disparate attacks have something like a common cause?

For more than two years, this team of internationally distinguished scholars has pursued an unprejudiced inquiry, investigating organizers and perpetrators alike of this extraordinary social phenomenon. Close comparisons between a whole range of cases raise challenging further questions: If suicide missions are so effective, why are they not more common? If killing is what matters, why not stick to 'ordinary' violent means? Or, if dying is what matters, why kill in the process?

Making Sense of Suicide Missions contains a wealth of original information and cutting-edge analysis which furthers our understanding of this chilling feature of the contemporary world in radically new and unexpected ways.

Awarded an honourable mentiongy by American Society of Criminology/Division of International Criminology Distinguished Book Award 2006

Making Sense of Suicide Missions

Diego Gambetta

Foreword
1:Kamikaze 1943-5, Peter Hill
2:Tamil Tigers 1987-2002, Stephen Hopgood
3:Palestinians 1981-2003, Luca Ricolfi
4:Al Qaeda, September 11, 2001, Stephen Holmes
5:Dying Without Killing: Self-Immolations 1963-2002, Michael Biggs
6:Killing Without Dying: The Absence of Suicide Missions, Stathis Kalyvas and Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca
7:Motivations and Beliefs in Suicide Missions, Jon Elster
8:Can We Make Sense of Suicide Missions?, Diego Gambetta
References

Awarded an honourable mentiongy by American Society of Criminology/Division of International Criminology Distinguished Book Award 2006

Making Sense of Suicide Missions

Diego Gambetta

Author Information

Diego Gambetta, Professor of Sociology and Official Fellow of Nuffield College, University of Oxford

Contributors:

Diego Gambetta, Professor of Sociology and Official Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford
Michael Biggs, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Jon Elster, Robert K. Merton Professor of Social and Political Science, Columbia University
Peter Hill, British Academy Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford
Stephen Holmes, Professor of Law and Political Science, New York University
Stephen Hopgood, Lecturer in International Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Stathis Kalyvas, Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science University of Yale
Luca Ricolfi, Professor of Sociology, University of Turin, Italy
Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca, Associate Professor of Political Science, Centre for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Juan March Institute, Madrid

Awarded an honourable mentiongy by American Society of Criminology/Division of International Criminology Distinguished Book Award 2006

Making Sense of Suicide Missions

Diego Gambetta

Reviews and Awards

"... demonstrates the relevance of political science to practical concerns...and the way in which certain kinds of "rational choice" explanations have become prevalent in political science." - The American Political Science Review ( APSR )

"Among the book's many strengths is the broad wealth of methodologies used to offer insights into the genesis of suicide missions." - Political Science Quarterly

"The product of this enterprise is a very readable, insightful, and methodologically rigorous volume...the most sophisticated book-length treatment of this burgeoning topic to date." - Political Science Quarterly

"Review from previous edition This is an important book, and the best treatment of the subject I've read...Gambetta brings together a remarkable group of academics from different disciplines and countries who bring a formidable array of research and analysis to their attempt to make sense of suicide missions." - The Financial Times

"The book effectively balances qualitative, quantitative, and analytic approaches. The case studies are deeply researched, riveting, and compelling. And each is shaped to engage the basic question: Why? To the degree that is possible, the attempts to answer this question are based on rigorous forms of inference and reasoning. The book is therefore a joy to teach from. It should claim the attention of both academics and policy makers." - Robert H Bates, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government, Harvard University

"Making Sense of Suicide Missions is an enlightening collection of essays, so badly needed in the prevalent mood of misconceptions and half-baked analysis." - The Guardian

"This thoughtful and engrossing book underlines the pointlessness of a rage that is truly self-destructive, even if we may have to continue looking warily on the Tube for a while." - The Evening Standard

"A stunning essay on al-Qaeda and 11 September 2001 ...challenging and timely book." - New Statesman

"...of great use in trying to understand some of the psychological motivations that underpin suicide terrorism... It has significantly aided my clarity of understanding of this complex subject." - Lieutenant Colonel Robert Seddon

"...the contributors to this insightful edited volume attempt to answer questions such as: are these the actions of aggressive religious zealots and irrational extremists, or is there a logic driving their perpetrators?" - Joshua Sinai, Perspectives on Terrorism

Awarded an honourable mentiongy by American Society of Criminology/Division of International Criminology Distinguished Book Award 2006

Making Sense of Suicide Missions

Diego Gambetta

From Our Blog

Self-immolation by Tibetans

By Michael Biggs Since March 2011, over thirty Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest against repression in China. This is the latest manifestation of a resurgence in suicide protest ' where someone kills him or herself for a political cause, without harming anyone else. The most famous recent case is Mohammad Bouazizi in Tunisia, whose self-immolation sparked the Arab spring in 2011, and whose example was followed by many others in North Africa. Less familiar in the West, the campaign for a separate state of Telangana within India (to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh) was accompanied by a wave of self-immolation in 2010-2011.

Posted on April 9, 2012

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