Dipak Gupta Explains The Cycle of Terrorism

KPBS | By KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 3, 2008 at 9:50 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Terrorism is something we all fear, yet understand little. SDSU scholar Dipak Gupta has spent many years studying terrorism. In fact, he was a member of a violent, radical group when he was a college

Tom Fudge: Terrorism. It's a word that's has some real meaning. But since the attacks of 911, it's been reduced to the status of cliche. It's a word, so fraught with connotation and so embedded in our political rhetoric, that it's become difficult to use in any intelligent conversation.

Dipak Gupta is one of the people who take the word seriously. A scholar and professor at San Diego State, he's written a lot about political violence and what causes it. He has a new book now called Understanding Terrorism and Political Violence: The Life Cycle of Birth, Growth, Transformation, and Demise .

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Guest

Dipak Gupta , Fred J. Hanson professor of Peace Studies and program chair of International Security and Conflict Resolution at San Diego State , where he is a distinguished professor in political science.