Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland's Dissident Terrorists

John Horgan

Jan 2013 · Oxford University Press

About this ebook

Terrorism has returned to the streets of Northern Ireland. In the years after the 1998 Real IRA bombing of Omagh, which killed 29 people, violent dissident Republican groups have re-emerged as a major security threat to a region that has been denied peace, stability, and prosperity for too long. Those responsible have many names. They are breakaways, splinter factions, spoilers, and "residual" terrorists. The Real IRA, Continuity IRA, and ?glaigh na h?ireann are only some of the groups now responsible for a growing wave of bombings, shootings, threats, and intimidation across Northern Ireland. Commonly known as "the dissidents," these are the rejectionists for whom there seems to be no negotiated settlement, no peace deal, no consensus solution that will convince them to accept the will of the majority of the people on the island of Ireland. IDivided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology of Ireland's Dissident Terrorists/I presents the results of meticulous research conducted by the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at the Pennsylvania State University. Since 2007, John Horgan, Director of the center, has led a research project to monitor the activities of Ireland's new terrorists. Drawing on one of the largest open-source militant databases ever assembled, IDivided We Stand/I describes the activities, histories, motivations, psychology, and strategy of the small, dynamic, and rapidly evolving splinter groups that continue to erode peace, stability, and normalization in Northern Ireland.

About the author

John Horgan is Director of the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at the Pennsylvania State University, where he is also Associate Professor of Psychology. He is a leading expert on terrorism, and his books include IThe Psychology of Terrorism/I (2005), IThe Future of Terrorism/I (2000, with Max Taylor), and IWalking Away from Terrorism: Accounts of Disengagement from Radical and Extremist Movements/I (2009). He is a member of the editorial boards of multiple journals, including ITerrorism and Political Violence/I, IStudies in Conflict and Terrorism/I, IJournal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling/I, IBehavioral Science of Terrorism and Political Aggression/I, and IDynamics of Asymmetric Conflict/I. Dr. Horgan is a member of the Research Advisory Board of the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC). He has a PhD and BA in Applied Psychology from University College, Cork, and currently lives in State College, Pennsylvania.