Counterterrorism between the Wars: An International History, 1919–1937

The 11 September 2001 attacks in the US changed the course of world history and made Al-Qaeda a state-like actor in international affairs, thereby confounding a core Realist idea. The event also increased interest in terrorism studies, creating two competing schools of thought within it, the classical and the critical school. The debates between these two broad perspectives have led to many fruitful advances and insights concerning the motivations, methods, and impact of both terrorism and counter-terrorism. Nevertheless, the field has lacked a solid foundation in the use of historical examples, save for a few books and articles. Twentieth-century terrorism, particularly the terrorism of the inter-War years, remains a forgotten phenomenon in understanding the contemporary phenomenon of international terrorism. As Hannah Arendt wrote, violence is a companion of existence,1 so it behoves scholars to look at that period of time closely as well. Mary Barton’s Counterterrorism between the Wars is designed to address this apparent gap in the literature.