Summary

Part III is titled “Despair and Hope.” Chapter 10 is titled “Terrorism,” and subtitled “Don’t Panic.” As he begins both this chapter and Part III, the author offers three sets of contrasts between terrorism and war. The first, he says, is in intention, with terrorism intending to destabilize a community or culture by generating fear, and war intending to dominate a community or culture by causing substantial loss in autonomy, material possession, or population. The second contrast, he says, is in numbers, with terrorism causing far fewer total deaths than war. The third contrast, he adds, is in actual physical power, with forces of war having both greater power and greater intent to actually destroy, and terrorism having less physical power to destroy than it has psychological power. Terrorists, he adds, “are so weak that they cannot wage war. So they...