ABSTRACT
Interest in counterterrorism has waxed and waned significantly throughout modern history. That pattern has partly reflected the rise and demise of different types of terrorist threat, such as the anarchism of the 1890s or the leftist violence that beset Europe in the 1980s. It has also reflected the political mood and milieu in individual countries. Terrorist attacks were occurring in the USA in the mid-1970s, for example, at a pace that would cause public alarm if replicated there today. But because the American public then – having just lived through the wrenching Watergate affair – was more concerned about excesses and abuses by its own government, the attacks did not stimulate major new counterterrorist initiatives (Jenkins 2003). Understanding counterterrorism requires awareness of such swings in public mood and attention, but it also requires focusing on the essential elements and issues of counterterrorism that are present regardless of the political environment.
