Lone Wolf Terror and the Rise of Leaderless Resistance

Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2012. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. ix, [1], 254 pages. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index. Format is approximately 7.25 inches by 10.25 inches. Corners of several pages bent or creased. George Joseph Michael (born January 30, 1961) is an American professor at the criminal justice faculty of Westfield State University in Massachusetts, and previously served as associate professor of nuclear counterproliferation and deterrence at the Air War College and as associate professor of political science and administration of justice at The University of Virginia's College at Wise. He studies extremism, including the relationship between militant Islam and the far right, and is the author of Confronting Right- Wing Extremism and Terrorism in the USA, The Enemy of My Enemy: The Alarming Convergence of Militant Islam and the Extreme Right, Willis Carto and the American Far Right, Theology of Hate: A History of the World Church of the Creator, Lone Wolf Terror and the Rise of Leaderless Resistance, and Extremism in America (editor). On July 22, 2011, Anders Behring Breivik detonated a car bomb in downtown Oslo, Norway. He then ambushed a youth camp while the rest of Norway was distracted by his earlier attack. The evidence suggests a startling truth: that this was the work of one man, pursuing a mission he was convinced was just. Timothy McVeigh bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City based on his own motivations. Ted Kaczynski was revealed to be the Unabomber. Michael demonstrates in "Lone Wolf Terror and the Rise of Leaderless Resistance,"that they represent the new way warfare. "Lone Wolf Terror" investigates the motivations of numerous political and ideological elements, such as right-wing individuals, ecoextremists, and foreign jihadists. Those carrying out destructive acts operate as "lone wolves" with little or no connection to formal organizations. Michael suggests that leaderless resistance has become the most common tactical approach of political terrorists in the West and elsewhere.