Terrorism in the Cold War

State Support in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Sphere of Influence

Adrian Hänni, Thomas Riegler, Przemyslaw Gasztold, Adrian Hänni, Thomas Riegler, Przemyslaw Gasztold

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780755636563
• eBook ISBN: 9780755600243
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

Accounts of the relationships between states and terrorist organizations in the Cold War era have long been shaped by speculation, a lack of primary sources and even conspiracy theories. In the last few years, however, things have evolved rapidly. Using a wide range of case studies including the KGB's Abduction Program, Polish Military Intelligence and North Korea's 'Terrorism and Counterterrorism', this book sheds new light on the relations between state and terrorist actors, allowing for a fresh and much more insightful assessment of the contacts, dealings, agreements and collusion with terrorist organizations undertaken by state actors on both sides of the Iron Curtain. This book presents the current state of research and provides an assessment of the nature, motives, effects, and major historical shifts of the relations between individual states and terrorist organizations. The articles collected demonstrate that these state-terrorism relationships were not only much more ambiguous than much of the older literature had suggested but are, in fact, crucial for the understanding of global political history in the Cold War era.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Contents
• Chapter 1 Introduction: State support for terrorist actors in the Cold War – myths and reality (Part 1)
• Chapter 2 The KGB’s abduction programme and the PFLP: On the cusp between intelligence and terrorism
• Chapter 3 Soviet approaches to Muslim extremism and terrorism
• Chapter 4 Palestinian terrorism and the state security of the GDR: Abu Nidal between East Berlin, Moscow and Washington 1973–89
• Chapter 5 Polish military intelligence and its secret relationship with the Abu Nidal Organization
• Chapter 6 Carlos the Jackal in Prague: Communist Czechoslovakia and international terrorism – A case study
• Chapter 7 Hungarian state security and international terrorism in the 1980s
• Chapter 8 Bulgarian state security and international terrorism
• Chapter 9 Yugoslavia, Carlos ‘the Jackal’ and international terrorism during the Cold War
• Chapter 10 North Korea’s ‘terrorism’ and ‘counterterrorism’ in the late 1980s
• About the Authors
• Select Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright