Biography:
Louise Richardson is one of the world's experts on international security and terrorism. She brings years of cutting-edge study to What Terrorists Want, an accessible, coherent, and persuasive argument that provocatively overturns the myths surrounding terrorism. Drawing on personal contact with terrorists, she shows how terrorists justify their acts to themselves, their families, and their communities. Weaving together the words of terrorists from Sri Lanka and London to Belfast and Baghdad, she demonstrates how the very human desire for Revenge/Renown/Reaction has driven otherwise normal people to become terrorists. Louise Richardson is the Executive Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and former associate professor of Government at Harvard University. A political scientist by training, her academic focus has been on international security with an emphasis on terrorist movements.