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The Royal United Services Institute of New South Wales Incorporated
The Trouble with Terror
By: Tamar Meisels (411.1/36030)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521728324
What is terrorism and can it ever be defended? Beginning with its definition, proceeding to its possible justifications, and culminating in proposals for contending with and combating it, this book offers a full theoretical analysis of the issue of terrorism.
Tamar Meisels argues that, regardless of its professed cause, terrorism is diametrically opposed to the requirements of liberal morality and can only be defended at the expense of relinquishing the most basic of liberal commitments. Meisels opposes those who express sympathy and justification for Islamist (particularly Palestinian) terrorism and terrorism allegedly carried out on behalf of developing nations, but, at the same time, also opposes those who would tolerate any reduction in civil liberties in exchange for greater security. Calling wholeheartedly for a unanimous liberal front against terrorism, this is a strong and provocative attempt to address the tension between liberty and security in a time of terror.
Tamar Meisels is a Lecturer in the Political Science Department at Tel-Aviv University. She is the author of Territorial Rights (2005).
February 2009
