Unmodern Men in the Modern World: Radical Islam, Terrorism, and the War on Modernity

A sense of malaise and uncertainty surrounds the so-called war on terror. This volume offers a bold rethinking of the central challenge in that conflict: the rise of radical Islamism. Mazarr argues that this movement represents the latest in a series of anti-modern political and philosophical rebellions: in its causes, the shape of its ideology, and its social consequences, the movement shares much in common with German fascism, Russian revolutionary doctrines, and Japanese imperialist nationalism. The book builds a model of how anti-modern movements arise and suggests broader truths about the changing character of world politics and the psychological basis of national security in a globalized world. It concludes with a critique of the war on terror as currently pursued and a wide-ranging proposal for a strikingly different approach to the challenge of this latest challenge to modernity.

Table of Contents:
1. The argument; 2. Modernization's price; 3. The existentialist diagnosis; 4. Stages in the trajectory of anti-modernism; 5. The anti-modern ideology; 6. The leaders and the recruits; 7. What to do.

About the Author :
Michael Mazarr is professor if national security strategy at the U.S. National War College in Washington, D.C., and an adjunct professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He holds AB and MA degrees from the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs. He has been president of the Henry L. Stimson Center, senior vice president for strategic planning and development at the Electronic Industries Alliance, and legislative assistant for foreign affairs and chief writer in the office of Representative Dave McCurdy. He spent eleven years at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., first as a researcher and senior fellow in international security studies and later as editor of the Washington Quarterly and director of the New Millennium Project. He has authored ten books, including North Korea and the Bomb (1995) and Global Trends 2005 (1999).

Review :
"Michael Mazarr's Unmodern Men in the Modern World represents a valuable integration of the scholarship on the political and intellectual origins of anti-modernist extremist movements in Germany, Russia and Japan of the twentieth century with that regarding the origins and nature of radical Islamism in recent decades. Mazarr has read widely and thought clearly. Even for readers who dissent from Mazarr's policy prescriptions, Unmodern Men contains insights of value for policy makers, scholars, analysts, students and interested citizens. It is also evidence of a welcome and important phenomenon, namely the closing of a gap between the world of serious scholarship in the humanities and social sciences and that of policy debate in Washington, DC." Jeffrey Herf, author of Reactionary Modernism: Technology, Culture and Politics in Weimar and the Third Reich, and Professor of History, University of Maryland, College Park "Michael Mazarr provides a penetrating insight into the nature of jihadism by showing how it is the latest in a long line of extreme reactions to modernization. He separates valid lessons of history from invalid ones in assessing how liberal democracies can best respond. In so doing, he persuasively demonstrates how the 'war on terror' in its current form is misdirected and counterproductive." Paul R. Pillar, Visiting Professor, Security Studies Program, Georgetown University "This book tackles the big issues underlying the war on terrorism. It rightly sees the ideological core of the global jihadi movement as a critique of modernity--of American and European versions of the nation-state--and a contest over the future of global politics. Insightful, clear and controversial, this is a thesis that will be much discussed." Mark Juergensmeyer, Director, Arfalea Center for Global & International Studies, University of California-Santa Barbara. Author of Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence "[Unmodern Men in the Modern World] is one of the best diagnoses of the resentment by Islamist forces toward modernity, which has led them to utilize terrorism to retaliate against the effects of modernity on traditional life in their respective societies." The Washington Times, Joshua Sinai, Analysis Corp. "Radical Islam is the latest in a line of anti-modern movements including Russian socialism, Japanese militarism and - inevitably - Nazi Germany, all of whom rejected Western liberal democracy. This is a well-argued and elegant essay, which makes the incredibly valuable point that Islamist movements are not nearly so exotic or unfathomable as they are usually portrayed." Peter Hart, The Globe and Mail