What motivates suicide bombers in Iraq and around the world? Can winning the hearts and minds of local populations stop them? Will the phenomenon spread to the United States? These vital questions are at the heart of this important book. Mia Bloom examines the use, strategies, successes, and failures of suicide bombing in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe and assesses the effectiveness of government responses. She argues that in many instances the efforts of Israel, Russia, and the United States in Iraq have failed to deter terrorism and suicide bombings. Bloom also considers how terrorist groups learn from one another, how they respond to counterterror tactics, the financing of terrorism, and the role of suicide attacks against the backdrop of larger ethnic and political conflicts. Dying to Kill begins with a review of the long history of terrorism, from ancient times to modernity, from the Japanese Kamikazes during World War II, to the Palestinian, Tamil, Iraqi, and Chechen terrorists of today. Bloom explores how suicide terror is used to achieve the goals of terrorist groups: to instill public fear, attract international news coverage, gain support for their cause, and create solidarity or competition between disparate terrorist organizations. She contends that it is often social and political motivations rather than inherently religious ones that inspire suicide bombers. In her chapter focusing on the increasing number of women suicide bombers and terrorists, Bloom examines Sri Lanka, where 33 percent of bombers have been women; Turkey, where the PKK used women feigning pregnancy as bombers; and the role of the Black Widows in the Chechen struggle against Moscow. The motives of individuals, whether religious or nationalist, are important but the larger question is, what external factors make it possible for suicide terrorism to flourish? Bloom describes these conditions and develops a theory of why terrorist tactics work in some instances and fail in others.
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. An "explanation of the unexplainable," this lucid and comprehensive study of the historical roots and contemporary motivations of suicide terror is a major study. Bloom's historical range is formidable; the first eight chapters are a marvel of historical compression, moving from the Zealots of first-century Judea to the Japanese kamikaze of WWII within a few bleak but instructive pages. Bloom stresses that suicide bombings can only thrive with the implied consent of an aggrieved population, which can be withdrawn: the Omagh bombing of 1998, for example, was a disaster for the IRA. Over and over again—from Chechnya to the West Bank—history teaches that harsh counterterror tactics become part of the cycle, or, as University of Cincinnati political scientist Bloom terms it, part of the contagion of violence. She sees hopeful signs in Turkey's recent measured and partially successful response to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The book also includes a fascinating chapter on suicide terror as practiced by women, especially in Chechnya and Sri Lanka, and how it is viewed, ironically, as a source of female empowerment. The last chapter is a clear-eyed consideration of the possible occurrence of suicide bombing on U.S. territory. A generous appendix contains charts and usefully annotated list of sources. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
This lucid and comprehensive study of the historical roots and contemporary motivations of suicide terror is a major study. Publishers Weekly 5/9/05 Ms. Bloom...who has done extensive field research...[is] able to present a more nuanced and better informed analysis of suicide terror. -- Joshua Sinai Washington Times 6/19/05 [Bloom] sheds interesting light on a phenomenon often mistakenly believed to be restricted to the Middle East. Washington Post Book World 7/24/05 An insightful investigation into the internal workings of terrorist groups. -- Karl Helicher ForeWord Sept. / Oct. Pertinent for western countries... It's a great introduction for students and those wishing to know more about the complex motivations of suicide bombers. -- Katherine Boothroyd Altar Magazine 9/19/05 Bloom offers valuable insights into the rational calculus of terrorist groups. -- Peter Pham The National Interest 9/7/05 The book is both well written and very informative... In troubled times such as these the book is worth reading. -- Stefan Isaksson UFO.SE 11/23/05 A detailed study of suicide terror. -- Ira Smolensky Salem Press 2006 [Bloom] makes a convincing case. -- Mayer Nudell Security Management 2/2006 Bloom offers valuable insights into the rational calculus of terrorist groups. -- J. Peter Pham Current 12/1/2005 A welcome addition to a rapidly growing field of research. -- Ignacio Sanchez-Cuenca Political Science Quarterly Spring 2006 Dying to Kill leaves us with a better understanding of the effects of oppression on populations, and the rationale behind the adoption of suicide bombing as a strategy by both groups and individuals. -- Aharon Horowitz Azure Summer 2006 Anyone who wishes to really attempt to understand the history and motivations, Mia Bloom's tome is the way to go. American Jewish Life Vol. 7 Issue 5
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3.8 out of 5 stars
24 reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dying to Read
Dec 19 2005
By Security Nerd
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This was the best book on the subject I have read in a very long time. The books presents interviews with failed bombers and the group leaders that send them. Amazing... the book gives you a glimpse inside the groups and also the mentality of the people who are drawn into this cult of martyrdom. I had no idea that there were more bombings in Sri Lanka than anywhere else but certainly, the recent growth of Islamic bombers seems to show that secular groups are not the most dangerous post 9/11. My instinct is to agree. The terrorists in Sri Lanka are not ramming planes into buildings here in this country and many people do not even consider them terrorists.
Methodologically the book appears to be a most dissimilar case comparison in which the author shows the linkages among groups and individual motivations. Instead of presenting the groups that suicide bomb as either religious or secular, the author presents a spectum along which most groups fall.
Super interesting especially the author's discussion of women bombers and how they are motivated.
I enjoyed this book immensely. I am sure you will too.
Methodologically the book appears to be a most dissimilar case comparison in which the author shows the linkages among groups and individual motivations. Instead of presenting the groups that suicide bomb as either religious or secular, the author presents a spectum along which most groups fall.
Super interesting especially the author's discussion of women bombers and how they are motivated.
I enjoyed this book immensely. I am sure you will too.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dying to Kill
Dec 16 2005
By Mary book worm
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Read the book after seeing the author on TV talking about women suicide bombers. Some of the people who have read the book completely misunderstood what she was saying (I read the reviews and wondered whether we had read the same book?). She is not blaming victims but analyzing what kinds of counter terrorism tactics work best. She also has an interesting counter point to this book by Robert A. Pape that suicide bombing is a response to foreign occupation. Oh by the way, who is occupying Bangladesh which has been in the news this week with attacks? So I found Dying to Kill more nuanced and based on real world information including interviews with real life terrorists to be heads and tails above some of the so called experts. She is also on point about Iraq, even rightly predicting that there is no way to impose democracy from above and identified that most of the bombers are foreigners like Saudis. This book will definitely not disappoint.
13 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic insider view on terrorism
May 8 2005
By Terror Expert
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I read this book with great interest. The author discusses why suicide bombers and the organizations that send them got so popular all over the world. Further, she has included interviews with failed bombers and the leaders that send them so there is a lot of new information from an insider's perspective.
The book examines suicide bombing from all over the world, and I learned for instance, that not all groups using suicide terrorism are radical Muslims like those in Al Qaeda ... the author went to Sri Lanka and interviewed the Tigers, who committed the most suicide attacks of all the groups put together and they are Hindus. The book also examines why women become bombers, something I really did not know much about and contrasts Chechnya and Israel/Palestine and explains what went wrong in Iraq. This book was really fantastic. I recommend it enthusiastically.
The book examines suicide bombing from all over the world, and I learned for instance, that not all groups using suicide terrorism are radical Muslims like those in Al Qaeda ... the author went to Sri Lanka and interviewed the Tigers, who committed the most suicide attacks of all the groups put together and they are Hindus. The book also examines why women become bombers, something I really did not know much about and contrasts Chechnya and Israel/Palestine and explains what went wrong in Iraq. This book was really fantastic. I recommend it enthusiastically.
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3.8 out of 5 stars
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