The two prominent scholars in the field of terrorism studies, Martha Crenshaw and Gary LaFree have tried to argue in their book Countering Terrorism that why it is so difficult to create a policy to counter terrorism. Martha Crenshaw is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, as well as Professor of political science, by courtesy, at Stanford University. Gary LaFree is Professor of criminology and criminal justice and Director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland.
In the book, Crenshaw and Lafree provide a very detailed account of global acts of terrorism. The questions raised in the book are very relevant to the subject covered. What makes counter terrorism so challenging? Why is it so hard for the governments to formulate an effective counter terrorism policy? What are the obstacles that experts face and in what ways can terrorism best be defined, classified, studied and understood in order to design the best possible policies to counter it? The authors have answered the above questions into well-written, clear and understandable chapters.
