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The deadly lethality of al-Qaeda’s terrorist attacks in recent years understandably has focused attention on Islamist terrorism. For many new to the field or only now paying attention to it, it is as if a completely new phenomenon has sprung full-blown into the world. Of course, this is not the case, but there are many who lack the historical perspective to recognize this and to realize that much of what we face has been with us for some time. One can argue about how this was permitted, but more useful is to understand the nature of terrorism and how the past has been prologue. Then it becomes possible to effectively deal with the problem.

It has long been an accepted axiom that knowing one’s enemy is an important pre-requisite to defeating him. While terrorism is the type of problem that is nearly impossible to completely vanquish, knowing why people choose this tactic is necessary in order to deal with it. Jerrold Post, a long-time and knowledgeable observer and analyst of terrorism and terrorists, has done that in The Mind of the Terrorist. Drawing upon his extensive experience, Post has given us a psychological bridge from the past into the present–examining the motivations of terrorists over the past 40 years. Using interviews with and statements of the terrorists themselves, Post shows that contrary to a widespread belief, most terrorists are not “abnormal.” Rather, many have developed “hatred [that] has been bred in the bone” which has been utilized for political reasons by terrorist leaders for various reasons. Post gives readers a comprehensive look at the psychology of terrorism that helps to explain present-day events.

The Mind of the Terrorist would be valuable reading if it stopped there. But Post goes on to suggest five elements for “an integrated strategic information operations program” designed to reverse over time the mind set that fosters terrorism. These elements–“inhibiting potential terrorists from joining terrorist groups in the first place; producing dissension within the group; facilitating [terrorists’] exit from the group; reducing support for the group and its leaders; [and] insulating the target audience, the public, from the intended goals of the terrorist to terrorize”–are the foundation of a “strategic psychological operations program that must be conducted over decades” to reduce terrorism from the current national and international preoccupation we have allowed it to be to the relatively minor irritant that it can become. In the book’s final chapter, Post explains how this might be accomplished.

The Mind of the Terrorist is important reading for everyone involved in dealing with terrorism, from students to government officials to corporate security and other executives.