Understanding Suicide Terrorism : Psychosocial Dynamics

The book is a comprehensive compilation of articles by experts in the field of suicide terrorism from across the world and across disciplines with a focus on suicide missions. It provides an insightful perspective on suicide terror as a phenomenon and as a process, and suggests psychosocial pathways for understanding the enigma that suicide terror poses. Understanding Suicide Terrorism delves upon the enigmatic issue of suicide terrorism. The book is an interdisciplinary multi-faceted venture that brings together scholarly work from across the world, across cultures and societies on the issue of suicide terror. The common thread weaving through all the articles is the notion of suicide terror as a complex phenomenon that defies easy explanation, prediction or controllability. Informed by theoretical stances of not only psychological sciences, but other social sciences like political science, criminology, military and sociology the book is an insightful reading. --Provided by publisher Cover 1 Contents 8 Foreword 12 Preface 13 Section 1 Suicide Terrorism: A Phenomenon 22 1 Suicide Terrorism:Delineating the Construct 24 2 Suicide Terrorism Explained:A Psychosocial Approach 39 3 Evolutionary Psychological Scienceof Suicide Terrorism 63 4 Suicide Terrorism as Social Noise:A Communicative Perspective 81 5 ‘Mumbai Style’:Exploration of a Concept 97 6 Suicide Bombings: Homicidal 114 Section 2 Suicide Terrorism: A Process 136 8 The Militant Jihadi Ideology ofMartyrdom as Short-livedPsychological First Aid forTrauma and Loss 168 9 Are Suicide Terrorists Suicidal? 194 10 The Role of Military Psychologistsand Psychiatrists in UnderstandingSuicide Terrorism 213 11 The Use and Abuse of Children/Youth in Terrorismand Suicide Bombing 234 12 Deterring Suicide Terrorism 252 About the Editors and Contributors 278 Author Index 289 Subject Index 295