Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago’s Project for Security and Terrorism recently published extensive research which analysed each of the 2,200 cases of suicide bombing that have occurred since 1980. The research builds on Professor Pape’s earlier work published in his 2005 book ‘Dying to Win’. 

The London bombings of the 7th and 21st of July brought terror and fear to the streets of a major European capital. Sadly the threat of future attacks according to most experts and politicians remains high.James Hart,the City of London police commissioner, said that an attack on the financial centre of London was inevitable. The Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, said that it would be foolish to assume that there would not be a third attack in London. Furthermore, the Prime Minister when asked about the threat of such terrorism acknowledged that he could not tell for how long the threat would last. 

The US military is considered the most powerful fighting force in human history. However in launching its ‘War on Terror’, American planners are now facing up to a number of challenges relating to recruitment, morale and the use of its reserve force. However though these present significant problems, America’s real strategic problem is its inability to face the new asymmetric paradigm

Race and minority relations remain high on the political agenda but how should we assess the trends since 9/11? Hassan Choudhury argues the identity politics consistent with the multicultural paradigm has ended and we are in a new liberal phase and assesses what this means for secular society

In order for us to begin to understand what are the actual and the possible future implications of the continued re-working of the Global War on Terror’s security framework, then we need to look no further than two less than eloquent statements presented by George W. Bush. The first that was given during his 2000 election campaign read, ‘it was a dangerous world and we knew exactly who ‘they’ were. It was us versus them and we knew exactly who ‘them’ was. Today we’re not so sure who the ‘they’ are, but we know they’re there’.