Patterns of Global Terrorism 1985-2005: U. S. Department of State Reports with Supplementary Documents and Statistics

The State Department published “Patterns of Global Terrorism” annually beginning in 1985, but announced in April 2005 that it would do so no longer; instead, the National Counterterrorist Center will publish annual Country Reports. This two-volume set offers a great service to policy makers, journalists, researchers, and the general public by publishing 20-years worth of Patterns in a thoughtfully prepared format. For this highly worthy project Sabasteanski (she’s editor of the Terrorism Central database and newsletter, among other qualifications) has not only collated the material but provides context, coherence, and thorough access. Part 1 comprises a consideration and synthesis of documents about counterterrorism; Part 2 presents Patterns reports, revised and updated, on major global terrorist organizations. Subsequent sections present the annual regional and country reports; a chronology of significant terrorist incidents 1961-2005; 20 tables and 20 maps of terrorist incidents by country and group 1985-2004; and 40 graphs of trends over time (incidents, casualties, targets, and tactics). Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)