The war on terror’s emphasis on denying sanctuary and safe havens to terrorists has placed a premium on physical territory, from mountain caves and frontier hideouts to the bordered world of modern states. Denial of Sanctuary highlights the limits of conventional thinking on the subject, and suggests new approaches to understanding this complex and misunderstood feature of modern conflict.
Critics of the war on terror have pointed to the futility of waging war on a tactic. Its emphasis on denying sanctuary and safe havens to terrorists, rooted primarily in traditional counterinsurgency theory and poorly conceptualized policy statements, has placed a premium on physical territory, from mountain caves and frontier hideouts to the bordered world of modern states. To fully understand sanctuaries is to uncover the problems and pitfalls of waging war on locations—exposing the secret lives of multiple hidden worlds, filled with extremists, criminals, soldiers, and spies, with the pious and the profane, with dangers that lie below the surface and in the margins. As this volume makes abundantly clear, such a murky underground is far more complex and varied than the conventional wisdom suggests.
Terrorists have hidden in plain sight in modern cities, used advanced communications technology to build virtual refuges, crafted militant enclaves out of the disarray of failed states, flocked to distinctly unsafe insurgent battlespaces, and generally challenged the protective limits of law, citizenship, and state. Denial of Sanctuary brings together top experts in the field to expand the debate; to explore the roots, causes and consequences of the problem; and to clarify our understanding of sanctuary in terrorist thought and practice.
Reviews
"The author has gathered several of the world's top experts to explore the root causes and consequences associated with the use of sanctuaries by terrorists....essential reading for anyone seeking a better understanding of the role that sanctuaries and safe havens play in the strategy of the international terrorist."—Parameters, January 1, 2008
"[D]emonstrates the shortcomings of proposals to attack terrorism at its source when there are so many ways of hiding: in the ungovernable interiors of failed states, in the obscurity of urban London, on the Internet."—Foreign Affairs, January 1, 2007
"Innes presents 11 chapters that challenge conventional understandings of denying terrorists safe havens in the post-September 11th environment that are typically framed in strictly geographical terms. The collection is organized in such a manner as to address the following specific problem-sets of denying terrorists sanctuary: the political geography of sanctuary, the political discourse that has structured our understanding of it, al Qaeda and the state, terrorist exploitation of state failure, border security and urban warfare, transnational crime and terrorist finance, national security law, information warfare and virtual havens, diaspora issues, and problems of state-building and reconstruction."—Reference & Research Book News, August 1, 2007
"Denial of Sanctuary is essential reading for anyone seeking a better understanding of the role of terrorist and insurgent safe havens."—William Rosenau, Ph.D, RAND Corporation Washington Office
"In an age where divisive rhetoric and personal opinion increasingly pass for knowledge and expertise on the nature of terrorism, Michael Innes has assembled what in years to come will be seen as the indispensable contribution to understanding terrorist sanctuary and its implications. In his carefully researched and thought-provoking collection we find terrorism analysis at its very best and essential reading for students, theorists, diplomats and policymakers alike. Simply excellent."—John Horgan, Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews
"Denial of Sanctuary offers the first comprehensive glimpse into those cracks between and within states that provide safe refuge for terrorists. Innes takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the liminal realm that has come to capture the attention of students of geopolitics, transnational violence and the modern state. From reflections on counter-sanctuary discourse to first-person reports from inside Afghani military prisons, this volume challenges our preconceptions of terrorist sanctuaries and offers cutting-edge analyses of their military, legal, financial and virtual implications."—Ron E. Hassner, Assistant professor of political science, UC Berkeley
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