More than ever before International Humanitarian Law needs to find new solutions to new types of conflicts. The current state of the fight against terrorism is without doubt one of the new problems facing international society and one of the concerns of International Humanitarian Law. This volume offers reflections on the international legal theory of terrorism, international responsibility, the obligation to prevent terrorist acts, terrorism in armed conflicts, the responses to terrorism by regional international organizations and the legal limits to the fight against terrorism.The contributors consist of academics (and politicians) from Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Israel , as well as from Spain, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and a representative for the Organisation of American States, The book thus contains a wide, multidisciplinary debate, with an emphasis on a Mediterranean perspective. In addition to examining all aspects of international terrorism, the objective of the symposium which gave rise to these essays was to establish some guidelines, in the form of a Declaration, to serve as the basis for the UN's High Level Group for the Alliance of Civilisations on the subject of international terrorism. This overall objective was achieved with the adoption of the "Huelva Declaration for an Alliance of Civilisations against Terrorism", the text of which is included at the end of this book.

The aim of this book is to provide readers with the tools to understand the historical evolution of terrorism and counterterrorism over the past 150 years. In order to appreciate the contemporary challenges posed by terrorism it is necessary to look at its evolution, at the different phases it has gone through, and the transformations it has experienced. The same applies to the solutions that states have come up with to combat terrorism: the nature of terrorism changes but still it is possible to learn from past experiences even though they are not directly applicable to the present. This book provides a fresh look at the history of terrorism by providing in-depth analysis of several important terrorist crises and the reactions to them in the West and beyond. The general framework is laid out in four parts: terrorism prior to the Cold War, the Western experience with terrorism, non-Western experiences with terrorism, and contemporary terrorism and anti-terrorism. The issues covered offer a broad range of historical and current themes, many of which have been neglected in existing scholarship; it also features a chapter on the waves phenomenon of terrorism against its international background. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, political violence, international history, security studies and IR.