Marc Sageman

"...Marc Sageman says al Qaeda is a loose network, small groups of guys hanging out, not in the pursuit of an objective or a political goal but just satisfying the demands of their small social network, even if that includes carrying out acts of terror.

Sageman offers an explanation for individual motivations for terrorism. He looked at 400 European members of terrorist organisations and asked them the questions you’d expect – about poverty, lack of opportunities, lack of education. The show more responses showed that the terrorists had more education than was average, belonged to a higher socio-economic class and had more opportunities, not less. That is the revolutionary thing about Sageman’s work...." (reviewed by Mary Habeck in FiveBooks).



The full interview is available here: http://fivebooks.com/interviews/mary-habeck-on-terrorism show less