73
b o o k e x c e r p t
Second Quarter 2010
*Reprinted with permission of the MIT Press. All rights reserved.
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Economists aren't shy about pontificating
on all manner of subjects. And while their
pronouncements sometimes seem like
they're coming from the brain of Star Trek's Mr. Spock, the economic way of thinking
can provide breakthrough insights on issues that, on first reflec-
tion, seem to have nothing to do with the dismal science. Case in
point: Eli Berman's striking new book, Radical, Religious and
Violent: The New Economics of Terrorism.* ¶ Berman, an econo-
mist at the University of California (San Diego) and research
director of the UC's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, explains what
makes a successful terrorist in three words: incentives, incentives, incentives. But his
thesis is certainly not reductionist claptrap. At the heart of contemporary, religion-
based terrorism, Berman argues, is what has come to be known to scholars as the
Hamas club model. And the key to containing terrorism is weakening the ties that
make these economic clubs so good at what they do.
-- Peter Passell
by eli berman
Radical
,
Religious
and Violent
The New Economics of Terrorism