Book Review: Sebastian Wojciechowski, The Hybridity of Terrorism, Logos, Berlin 2013, pp. 216

In: Polish Political Science Yearbook, Band 42, Heft 1, S. 363-366

Abstract

The issue of modern terrorism is a significant subject of academic research. For decades the representatives of many branches of science, ranging from psychology and sociology, through history, law and political science to criminology, in particular, have been trying to find basic answers to a number of fundamental questions concerning the nature, manifestations, evolution of terrorism, and combating it. A definite majority of studies that have been around are fragmentary, selective or descriptive, and they do not make a significant contribution to the state of knowledge. There are very few studies that discuss the matter in question in a comprehensive, in-depth and original manner. This cognitive gap has clearly been to some extent filled by the latest publication by Professor Sebastian Wojciechowski, entitled The Hybridity of Terrorism. While the title may seem somewhat general, it actually points to a crucial feature (or a set of features) of the phenomenon it analyzes. In the simplest terms, dealing with terrorism we come across a cluster of elements, and relations between them, that sometimes are independent from one another, sometimes coexist side by side, and most frequently complement each other, constituting terrorism and influencing its evolution.