War, Science and Terrorism; From Laboratory to Open Conflict

I picked up this book thinking it was the terrorism version of Jared Diamond's popular nonfiction volume "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" (1999). Disappointingly, Richardson's book was more an extension of Diamond's rather than a terrorism version. That is not to say that the volume isn't use interesting or useful. Richardson divides his treatise into three sections including Part I: Preparation for Conflict; Part II: Warfare and its Management; and Part III: Behind the Action and Wars to Come. Regrettably terrorism is only a cursory topic in the volume which is well placed on the same shelf as "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and specifically next to Maurice Pearton's "Diplomacy, War and Technology since 1830" (1984) – the latter two of which are distinctly European in their outlook. Thus, an excellent opportunity still awaits an enterprising young student (or perhaps even a grizzled older scientist) to survey they technological advances of the terrorism trade and publish a similar volume for the counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, and homeland security communities.