Terrorist Recognition Handbook:
A Practitioner’s Manual for Predicting
and Identifying Terrorist Activities,
Second Edition.

By Malcolm W. Nance
– 463 pages - $60 (ASIS members), $66 (nonmembers).

In this indispensable text, author Malcolm Nance goes well beyond what appears in most terrorism manuals, such as rote definitions, chronologies, and weapons lists. While he provides this fundamental information, he places it in the context of how it can be used to predict and thwart terrorism, primarily at the tactical level.

Early on, Nance delivers sage advice on the terrorist threat by giving the reader a balanced dose of respect for the enemy’s capabilities while simultaneously dispelling any notion of terrorists’ invincibility. He offers strategic lessons as well, cautioning against the idea of defeating terrorism in what he calls a “Grand War”. He recommends a measured, and thus sustainable, approach.

The book’s common thread is prediction of terrorist attacks. Nonce provides some examples of incidents in which intelligence helped thwart attacks and others where officials failed to connect the dots. He provides numerous tools that organizations can use to help frame intelligence efforts, to analyse the data collected, and to more clearly understand the threat.

Nance touches on all types of attacks, from small arms to weapons of mass destruction, and he addresses two methods worthy of special note: cyberattacks and suicide terrorism. He devotes an entire chapter to suicide attacks, discussing the issue in detail. The chapter is well done, timely, and merits attention from all security professionals.

This outstanding book is replete with useful charts, case studies, diagrams, and information valuable in every aspect of security or counterterrorism programs from individual training, exercises, and red teaming, to the response to a real-world attack. If you bear any responsibility, direct or indirect, for protecting people and prope3rtry against terrorist attack, you should read this book.

Reviewer: Col. Christopher G. Essig is the inspector general of the U.S. Army installation Management Command (IMCOM) in Arlington, Virginia, which is responsible for antiterrorism and force protection at Army installations worldwide. He is a 25-year member of ASIS International.

Security Management – March 2009.

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