ABSTRACT
WHAT CONCLUSIONS CAN be drawn from the long history of terrorist and counterterrorist campaigns? And what directions does this history suggest for the ongoing international campaign against terrorism? Today's international terrorism has
assumed organisational forms and means of operating that are histori cally new. The shadowy entities labelled 'A1 Qaeda' are different from earlier terrorist movements in the extremism of their aims and in the far-flung, co-ordinated and ruthless character of their operations. No less novel is the contemporary US and international campaign against inter national terrorism. And yet, despite all the unprecedented aspects of this conflict, there are dangers in neglecting the history of terrorism and counterterrorism. These dangers include the repetition of mistakes made in earlier eras. The long and tangled history of terrorism and counterter rorism suggests a number of conclusions about the nature of terrorist and counterterrorist campaigns that need to be taken into account in policy making.
