過激化するテロの問題は、2001年9月11日の忘れがたい同時多発テロを契機にニュースと政治の最前線に躍り出ました。ジョージ・W・ブッシュが「なぜ彼らは我々を憎むのか」と問うたのは有名ですが、この演説は何百万人もの米国人が感じた混乱、怒り、恐怖を代弁すると同時に、政治化された言説をつくりだしました。
それ以来、私たちは数々の攻撃や脅威を経験し、国際テロをテレビやコンピュータ画面で遠くから眺めてきました。「テロリストは狂っているのか」「テロリストになる潜在的な可能性のある人物は特定できるのか」「テロが過激化することは食い止められないのか」など、過激化する暴力に対する不安は、近年繰り返され続けてきた疑問によく表れています。幸いなことに、9.11以降の20年間にその答えを導き出すのに役立つ重要な研究結果が出てきています。
本書では、個人、グループ、大衆を政治的無関心からテロへの共感や支持へ向かわせる12の心理メカニズムについて説明しています。ホームグロウン・テロを含む新たな事件が起きるたびに湧き出す数々の疑問に答えるべく、既存の研究に加え、著者たちの研究も織り込んで答えます。絶え間なく続くテロがどのようにして起こるのか、それにどう対処するのが最善か、最新の研究を踏まえた見識を提供します。
   

• Comprehensively summarizes the vast research on radicalization and terrorism in an understandable and engaging format
• Draws on numerous case studies, some of them from original research by the authors and never-before-published outside of government briefings
• Offers a data-driven perspective on radicalization and terrorism that scales down the scope of the problem to dangerous but rare and manageable
• Addresses mass radicalization in the United States and emerging right-wing terrorism threats

   
Terrorism and radicalization came to the forefront of news and politics in the US after the unforgettable attacks of September 11th, 2001. When George W. Bush famously asked "Why do they hate us?," the President echoed the confusion, anger and fear felt by millions of Americans, while also creating a politicized discourse that has come to characterize and obscure discussions of both phenomena in the media.
  
Since then the American public has lived through a number of domestic attacks and threats, and watched international terrorist attacks from afar on television sets and computer screens. The anxiety and misinformation surrounding terrorism and radicalization are perhaps best detected in questions that have continued to recur in the last decade: "Are terrorists crazy?"; "Is there a profile of individuals likely to become terrorists?"; "Is it possible to prevent radicalization to terrorism?" Fortunately, in the two decades since 9/11, a significant body of research has emerged that can help provide definitive answers.
  
As experts in the psychology of radicalization, Sophia Moskalenko and Clark McCauley propose twelve mechanisms that can move individuals, groups, and mass publics from political indifference to sympathy and support for terrorist violence. Radicalization to Terrorism: What Everyone Needs to Know synthesizes original and existing research to answer the questions raised after each new attack, including those committed by radicalized Americans. It offers a rigorously informed overview of the insight that will enable readers to see beyond the relentless news cycle to understand where terrorism comes from and how best to respond to it.