Terror

J.L. Granatstein is a history professor at York University and author of
War and Peacekeeping and For Better or For Worse.

The Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies has been in operation now for more than a decade, arguing in its publications and conferences for better defence for Canada and for more study of military problems. This book, the papers and discussion at a 1986 conference on terrorism, is yet another step toward this goal.

The subject of terrorism is important enough, as incidents around the world — and in Canada — demonstrate. But the book is less successful than it might be because the editor, for some inexplicable reason, includes the introductions of the speakers, the thank-yous, and some insipid questions from the floor. The papers are a mixed bag, some scholarly and well researched, others virtually impromptu performances by busy men (none of the papers or questions from the audience were by women) who evidently had no time to prepare. Not surprisingly, some of the speakers verge on the extreme in their condemnation; for example, of the peace movement, which could at worst be accused of naivete, and of aerial bombing in World War II as terrorism, an astonishing way to describe an effort in which 20 000 Canadians lost their lives. Even so, this is a good beginning point for Canadian responses and reactions to terrorism in the 1980’s.