Handbook of Terrorist and Insurgent Groups: A Global Survey of Threats, Tactics, and Characteristics examines the most current and significant terrorist and insurgent groups around the world. The purpose is to create a descriptive mosaic of what is a pointedly global security challenge.
The volume brings together conceptual approaches to terrorism, insurgency, and cyberterrorism with substantive and empirical analyses of individual groups, organisations, and networks. By doing so, not only does the coverage highlight the past, present, and future orientations of the most prominent groups, but it also examines and illustrates their key characteristics and how they operate, including key leaders and ideologues. Highlighting specific, individual groups, the chapters collectively present a robust and comprehensive outlook on the current geography of terrorism and insurgency groups operating in the world today.
This comprehensive volume brings the collective expertise and knowledge of more than 50 academics, intelligence and security officials, and professionals together, all of whom are considered subject experts in their respective areas of research and practice. The volume is based on both desk-based and fieldwork conducted by experts in these areas, incorporating analyses of secondary literature but also the use of primary data including first-hand interviews on the various groups’ regions of operation, their tactics, and how their ideologies motivate their actions.
"I. Conceptual Matters 1. Conceptualizing Insurgency 2. The Architecture of Counterinsurgency: From Classical to Quantum and Beyond 3. A Typology of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency 4. Western Counterinsurgency Theoretical Development in the 20th and 21st Centuries 5. Terrorism: Looking Though the Definitional Kaleidoscope 6. Epistemological Foundations of Terrorism 7. Religion as a Source of Terrorism 8. Correlations Between Terrorism, Extremism, and Fundamentalism 9. Wars for Limited Political Aims – Not ""Limited War"" 10. Examining the Roots of Modern Urban Terrorism: M19 and Shining Path in the Western Hemisphere 11. Blending Counterinsurgency to Defeat Hybrid Threats 12. The Crime-Terror Nexus 13. State Sponsored Terrorism: Perspectives on its Practice, Evolution, and Impacts 14. The Terror of War: Ever Present and Always in Error? 15. From Nation State Terrorism to Market State Terrorism 16. Homegrown Terrorism 17. The Rise in Lone Wolf Attacks: Myth or Reality 18. Non-State Armed Group Transition to Party Politics 19. Jihadist Governance in the Middle East 20. The Anatomy of Terror: The Agents and Audiences of Political Terror 21. Franchising Terrorism and Insurgencies: From Al-Qaeda, ISIS, to Boko Haram 22. High Value Targeting and International Society’s ""Warfare Trap"" 23. Disengaging from Armed Conflict: Cameroon’s Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration of Former Boko Haram Militants and Anglophone Separatists 24. From ""Black Widows"" to ""ISIS Brides:"" Female Recruitment Practices of Islamist Terrorist Networks 25. Cyber-Terrorism: A Concept in Flux 26. Turning to Terror Online: Social Media, Recruitment, and Radicalization 27. Cyber Counter-Terrorism: States, Security Services, and Investigations in a Digital Age 28. The Importance of Security Awareness in Healthcare: Threat Vectors, Environmental Specifics, and Mitigation Opportunities Part II. The Cases. Africa. 29. Jihad in the Horn of Africa: Somalia’s Al-Shabaab Islamist Insurgency 30. The Role of the Amniyat in Aiding Al-Shabaab’s Leadership Motivations (Somalia) 31. Boko Haram 32. Ansar al-Dine: ""Defenders of the Faith"" and State Fragility in Mali 33. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) 34. National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) 35. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) Insurgency in Uganda. The Americas. 36. Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo, FARC–EP) 37. Understanding Sendero Luminoso’s Peruvian Terrorism 38. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation’s (EZLN) Revolutionary Struggle 39. A History of Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) 40. Camarena as Context: Mexico, Drug Cartels, and Structures of Insecurity. Europe. 41. Terrorists as Defenders: The Irish Republican Army 42. The Fighting People’s Revolutionary Powers 43. Chechen Terrorism: From Modest Nationalist Claims to the Caucasus Emirate 44. Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). Near and Middle East. 45. The Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK): Origins, History and Strategic Transformation 46. The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (SMB) 47. Hezbollah 48. Hezbollah in Turkey: İlim 49. Harakat Al-Mukavvama Al-Islamiyah – Hamas Filiz Katman 50. ISIS: The Dramatic Rise and Decline of an Al-Qaeda Offshoot 51. Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra 52. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) 53. Ansar Allah (Houthi Rebels) 54. Military Dimension of Palestinian Religious Nationalism: Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades 55. Jaish al-Mahdi (The Mahdi Army). Central Asia. 56. Al-Qaeda Central in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Past, Present and Future 57. Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) in Pakistan 58. Terrorism, Insurgency, and Peace: The Afghan Taliban and Composite Factions 59. The Haqqani Network 60. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) 61. Islamic State-Khorasan Group (ISK): Dominating Jihad in Afghanistan and Pakistan (2015-2022) 62. The Balochistan Insurgency. South Asia. 63. Hizbul-Mujahideen (Kashmir) 64. Indian Mujahedeen: Homegrown Jihadist of India 65. The Indian Maoists: Naxalbari, Lalgarh, Dantewada, and Beyond 66. The Wave of Global Maoism and the Maoists of Nepal 67. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) 68. Jaish-e-Mohammad (The ""Army of Mohammed"") 69. Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) 70. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) 71. Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh: Core and Offshoots 72. United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific. 73. Tibetan Resistance and Insurgency 74. Between Criminality and Terrorist Violence: The Abu Sayyaf Group in the Philippines 75. The Evolution of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front: From Armed Conflict Actor to Peace Agreement Signatory with the Philippines 76. Leaving a Wake of Death and Destruction: The Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front 77. Ethnic Divide and Armed Insurgent Groups in Myanmar 78. Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army: Spearheading Myanmar’s Islamic Insurgency 79. Islamic Insurgency in Southern Thailand: The Mara Patani and Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) 80. Jema’ah Islamiyah in Indonesia 81. From Rebels to Terrorists: The Future of the Maoist Insurgency in the Philippines"
Scott N. Romaniuk is a research fellow at the Corvinus Centre for Contemporary Asia Studies (CAS) within the Corvinus Institute for Advanced Studies (CIAS) at Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, and a senior research affiliate with the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society (TSAS). Animesh Roul is the executive director of the New Delhi-based policy research group Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict and a contributing analyst for The Jamestown Foundation. Amparo Pamela Fabe is a visiting fellow at the International Centre for Policing and Security at the University of South Wales and a 2023 fellow of the Irregular Warfare Initiative with the Modern War Institute of the United States Military Academy. János Besenyő is a professor at Óbuda University, Donát Bánki Faculty of Mechanical and Safety Engineering, and head of the Africa Research Institute. He served as a professional soldier for 31 years and participated in several peace operations in Africa and Afghanistan.
