A. reviews: general

WARFARE IN THE LATIN EAST, 1192–1291. By CHRISTOPHER MARSHALL. (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, fourth series, 17.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992. xiv, 290pp. 7 figures, 9 plates.

MINORITES RELIGIEUSES DANS L'ESPAGNE MEDIEVALE [ = Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Méditerranée, 63–4]. Aix‐en‐Provence, Edisud, 1992. 292 pp. 150FF.

THE TRANSMISSION OF KNOWLEDGE IN MEDIEVAL CAIRO. By JONATHAN BERKEY. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1992. x, 238pp. $39.50.

PRAGMATISM IN THE AGE OF JIHAD: THE PRECOLONIAL STATE OF BUNDU. By MICHAEL A. GOMEZ. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992. xiii, 252 pp. £35.00.

THE CHURCH OF THE EAST AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. A HISTORY OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY'S ASSYRIAN MISSION. By J.F. COAKLEY. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992. £45.00.

WOMEN, ISLAM AND THE STATE. By DENIZ KANDIYOTI. London, Macmillan, 1991. 271pp. + index.

MARRIAGE ON TRIAL: A STUDY OF ISLAMIC FAMILY LAW. By ZIBA MIRHOSSEINI. (Society and Culture in Modern Middle East Series.) London, I.B. Tauris, 1993. 200 pp. + notes and index.

WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE EAST: PERCEPTIONS, REALITIES AND STRUGGLES FOR LIBERATION. Edited by HALEH AFSHAR and MARY MAYNARD. Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1993. xiv, 250pp.

WRITING WOMEN'S WORLDS: BEDOUIN STORIES. By LILA ABU‐LUGHOD. Berkeley, Los Angeles and Oxford, University of California Press, 1993. xxiii, 266 pp., bibliography. $30.00 (hb), $12.00 (pb).

NASSER'S BLESSED MOVEMENT: EGYPT'S FREE OFFICERS AND THE JULY REVOLUTION. By JOEL GORDON. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1992. vii, 254 pp.

WAR AND PEACE IN ISRAELI POLITICS: LABOR PARTY POSITIONS ON NATIONAL SECURITY. By EFRAIM INBAR. Boulder and London, Lynne Rien‐ner, 1991. 184pp., appendices. £21.95.

TURKEY AND THE WEST: CHANGING POLITICAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITIES. Edited by METIN HEPER, AYSE ÖNCÜ and HEINZ KRAMER. London/New York, Tauris, 1993. xiv, 289 pp.

TURKEY'S NEW GEOPOLITICS: FROM THE BALKANS TO WESTERN CHINA. By GRAHAM E. FULLER and IAN O. LESSER, with PAUL B. HENZE and J.F. BROWN. Boulder and Oxford, Westview Press, 1993. xv, 197pp.

THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT IN TURKEY, 1960–1980. By IGOR P. LIPOVSKY. Leiden, Brill, 1992. ix, 190pp. $48.75.

ISLAM IN MODERN TURKEY: RELIGION, POLITICS AND LITERATURE IN A SECULAR STATE. Edited by RICHARD TAPPER. London/New York: Tauris, 1991. v, 314 pp.

SIBAWAYH THE PHONOLOGIST: A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE PHONETIC AND PHONOLOGICAL THEORY OF SIBAWAYH AS PRESENTED IN HIS TREATISE AL‐KITAB. By A.A. AL‐NASSIR. London and New York, Kegan Paul International, 1993. xx, 130 pp.

AL‐MADKHAL ILā TAQWīM AL‐LISāN WA‐TA'LīM AL‐BAYāN. By IBN HISHāM AL‐LAKHMī. Edited by JOSÉ PÉREZ LÁZARO. (Fuentes Arábico‐Hispanas, no. 6.) Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas & Insti‐tuto de Cooperatión con el Mundo Árabe, 1990. 2 vols. 219; 599pp.     

Making Palestinian “Martyrdom Operations”/“Suicide Attacks”: Interviews With Would-Be Perpetrators and Organizers

Knowledge about the ways in which suicide attacks are recruited and prepared and on the motivation of suicide bombers and the factors that influence the decisions of organizers of suicide attacks has so far been sketchy and sporadic, derived mostly from media sources. In this study, 15 Palestinian would-be suicides and 14 organizers of suicide attacks participated in semi-structured interviews designed to fill this lacuna. The paper focuses on the self-reported feelings and behavior of the suicide bombers from recruitment to dispatching, as well as on the organizers' self-reported views and decisions concerning suicide attacks.     

An Intifada in Europe? A Comparative Analysis of Radicalization Processes Among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza versus Muslim Immigrants in Europe

Groups of second- and third-generation Muslim immigrants in Europe are increasingly undergoing radicalization processes that can lead to violent activity. These immigrants find relief for their frustrations in global jihadi ideology and radical Islam. In seeking to understand these radicalization processes within the European context, the author draws lessons from the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza on the eve of the “First Intifada” (popular uprising) in 1987. While these cases have different root causes and implications, the author's comparative analysis demonstrates that the social processes and generational clashes that lead to radicalization are shared by the two arenas.     

State Weakness and “Vacuum of Power” in Lebanon

The conventional wisdom is that weak and failed states are at great risk of becoming havens for transnational terrorist and guerilla groups. The assumption is that lack of enforcement capabilities enables militant organizations to infiltrate and fill the “vacuum of power” that is created in the absence of a strong state. This article argues, though, that this is only one of the ways in which weak states are attractive to militant groups. It explores the various mechanisms through which the vacuum of power translates into opportunities for such groups. These mechanisms include the easiness of acquiring support and recruitment within refugees or marginalized populations; the ability of the violent non-state transnational organization to establish a “surrogate state” in supplying institutions and services that enhance its public appeal; the relations between civil or communal conflict and the success of such groups; and the use of transnational violent groups as proxies for other states. Using the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hezbollah in Lebanon as the primary cases, as well as two mini-cases from Central America and Africa, the paper illustrates the working of these mechanisms and contributes to our understanding of the relations between state weakness and transnational violent non-state organizations.     

Terrorist Organization Typologies and the Probability of a Boomerang Effect

Since the 1970s, many researchers have proposed typologies to sort the phenomenon of terror into different categories and to divide terror organizations into groups based on various characteristics of their activities. These typologies were designed to facilitate understanding of the phenomenon of terror and of terror organizations’ processes, structures and operative methods. They relied on a variety of diagnostic criteria such as: motives for using terror, targets of the attacks, terrorists’ demands, organizational structure; arenas of operation; and more. This article surveys major typologies of terror, notes the differences between them, presents a model to combine the different classifications of the typologies into a single typology, and proposes a new typology that sorts terror organizations by the variables that limit their activities. The proposed typology makes it possible to analyze terror organizations’ behavior and even to forecast their reactions to a situation in which they are attacked by the enemy state—the boomerang effect.     

Perceived altruism: a neglected factor in initial intervention

Perceived altruism, an attitude that clients may attribute to those who work with them, was examined in a qualitative and quantitative study about the impact of volunteers in drop-in centers for youth at risk in Israel. Data were collected by interviews, observations, case studies, and questionnaires. The results show that the volunteers' unique contribution affected the service as a whole. The beneficiaries knew that volunteers were servicing them, perceived volunteers as true altruists, were satisfied to the degree of preferring their services over that of paid workers, and were positively affected by the encounter with volunteering. A significant impact was that volunteers set a living example of the possibility of human goodness via personal encounters and demonstrated the existence of a responsive society with mutual, unconditional caring. These results exhibit practical implications for innovative interventions with youth at risk and illustrate the significance of the psychology of goodness.     

Triadic Deterrence: Coercing Strength,Beaten by Weakness

Triadic deterrence is the situation when one state uses threats and/or punishments against another state to coerce it to prevent non-state actors from conducting attacks from its territory. Under what conditions is triadic deterrence successful? Some attribute outcomes to the balance of power between states. By contrast, we argue that the complex asymmetrical structure of this conflict requires attention to the targeted regime's relationship to its own society. The stronger the targeted regime, the more likely deterrent action will prove effective. Moving against non-state actors requires institutional capacity, domestic legitimacy, and territorial control, which only strong regimes are able to furnish. Whereas strong regimes can act to uphold raison d’état, weak regimes lack the political tools and incentives to undertake controversial decisions and enforce them. We illustrate this argument through analysis of between- and within-case variation in Israel's attempts to deter Palestinian groups operating from Egypt between 1949 and 1979, and from Syria since 1963.     

The Infiltration of Terrorist Organizations Into the Pharmaceutical Industry: Hezbollah as a Case Study

Criminal syndicates and terrorist organizations are inherently different, one motivated by profit and the other by political goals. Yet their difference enables them to cooperate for their mutual benefit. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the drug trade; from harvesting and trafficking in illegal substances, it has been an easy transition to counterfeiting and disseminating medications. Hezbollah, in particular, has become involved in the production, smuggling and distribution of counterfeit medications in North America, Africa and the Middle East as a means of raising immense sums of money to finance its terrorist activities. Hezbollah's infiltration into the pharmaceuticals industry illustrates the danger posed by the marriage of terrorism and crime, which arises both from enhanced resources for terrorism, and from the corruption of a legitimate and necessary industry. Understanding the nature and extent of this danger is the first step in preparing to meet it.