The Middle East is the world’s prime generator of terrorism, global and local. But experts on the Middle East have avoided the study of terrorism, and terrorism experts often lack a grounding in the region’s history, culture, and languages. These studies seek to bridge the gap:

• Sacrifice and ‘Self-Martyrdom’ in Shiite Lebanon probes the origins of suicide bombings in Lebanon in the 1980s.
• Islam and the West (including Manhattan), published in 1993, examined the context of the first World Trade Center bombing. It contains some prescient passages.
• The War on Terror, an address delivered shortly after 9/11, is an analysis of the motives of Al Qaeda.
• Suicide Terrorism: Origins and Response is Martin Kramer’s side of a debate with Robert Pape, author of the influential Dying to Win.