In continuation of my freeloading of Berkeley podcasts I have come across a laudable series of guest lectures for IAS 180: US Foregin Policy after 9/11. The particular lecture I wish to share is given by Robert A. Pape, Professor at the University of Chicago, on the topic of Suicide Terrorism. To give something of an idea of his approach to the subject I refer you to the following excerpt from Wikipedia:
Pape’s Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism controverts many widely held beliefs about suicide terrorism. Based on an analysis of every known case of suicide terrorism from 1980 to 2003 (315 campaigns and 462 individuals), he concludes that there is “little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any one of the world’s religions. . . . Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland” (p. 4). “The taproot of suicide terrorism is nationalism,” he argues; it is “an extreme strategy for national liberation” (pp. 79-80). Pape’s volume is divided in three parts, examining suicide terrorism in its strategic, social, and psychological dimensions.
Below is a streamable version of the lecture. I think it has a lot of important things to say and challenges many preconceptions of suicide terrorism and its ties with religious fundamentalism, and additionally Prof. Pape is a clear and engaging speaker who gives a seemingly fair appraisal of the subject which cuts through much of the partisan rhetoric that has so clouded it. Have a listen: