The Political Studies Review has just published my review of the book Understanding Suicide Terrorism in Europe: Drugs, Jihad and the Pursuit of Martyrdom (Routledge). It is a well-documented work thanks to a significant amount of primary data concerning human impact, target, method and connection to terrorist organisations. One of its most interesting aspect is the fact that it offers invaluable data on terrorists who carried out martyrdom operations in Europe from 2001 to 2018. The book offers a comprehensive examination of men (not a single woman has carried out martyrdom operation in Europe) who have pursued martyrdom terrorism in Europe. From this analysis, three variables stand out from the control group: criminality, psychopathology and substance abuse. The research presents very useful primary data in addition to a view of the two different waves of martyrdom operations in Europe with distinctive differences and it may be of interest to scholars with different research agenda: from experts in terrorism in Europe, also with a different geopolitical focus, to experts on radicalization and de-radicalizations process.
