David Rapoport
David C. Rapoport is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is one of the earliest terrorologists and a founding co-editor of the journal Terrorism and Political Violence and a member of the Editorial Board of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.
Contents
Career
Rapoport studied a PhD in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley in the late 1950s. His thesis, ‘Praetorianism government without consensus’, was published in June 1960. [1] From 1959 he lectured at Barnard College in New York before joining University of California in 1962. [2] Rapoport gives the following account of how he become involved in terrorology:
My initial commitment was to political theory, particularly the concept of corruption or decay, and I had an interest in military institutions and violence. In 1970 I was invited to give six lectures on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The subject was assassination but I ran out of material in the 4th lecture and slipped into terrorism and could never get out. [3]
In the early 1970s Rapoport was – according to Alex Schmid – one of “only a handful of academic researchers who took ‘terrorism’ seriously”. [4] The other notable figures were George Bouthoul in Paris, Eugene Walter in Boston, Brian Jenkins at RAND and Martha Crenshaw. [5] Another key figure in this period was Yonah Alexander who Rapoport struck up a working relationship with and the two became regular co-authors.
By the mid 1980s, the New York Times could report that: “Professors of politics and experts in terrorism estimate that more than a dozen colleges and universities now offer classes in international terrorism, in contrast to only a few in the late 1970's.” [6] One was Rapoport who according to the article “built his [UCLA] course on terrorism on the memoirs of terrorists”. [7]
Publications
- David C Rapoport, Assassination & Terrorism 1971 (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1971)
- David C Rapoport and Yonah Alexander The Rationalization of Terrorism (1972)
- David C Rapoport and Yonah Alexander, The Morality of Terrorism: Religious Origins and Ethnic Implications (New York: Pergamon Press, 1982)
- David C Rapoport, and Yonah Alexander The Morality of Terrorism: Religious and Secular Justifications (Columbia University Press, 1989)
- David C Rapoport and Leonard Weinberg (eds.), The Democratic Experience and Political Violence (Cass Series on Political Violence, 9) (co-author) 2001
- David C Rapoport, Inside Terrorist Organizations (Cass Series on Political Violence) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988)
- David C Rapoport, Terrorism: Critical Concepts in Political Science (four-volume set; Critical Concepts in Political Science) (Routledge, 2006)
Contact
- Address:
- UCLA International Institute
- 11248 Bunche Hall, Box 951487
- Los Angeles, CA 90095-1487
- USA
- Tel: +1 310-825-4811
- Fax: +1 310-206-3555
- Email: rapoport@polisci.ucla.edu
Notes
- ↑ ’Praetorianism government without consensus’ by David C Rapoport. Thesis (Ph. D. in Political Science)--University of California, Berkeley, June 1960
- ↑ Profile from former website of the ECPR Standing Group on Extremism & Democracy (accessed 21 November 2008)
- ↑ Profile from former website of the ECPR Standing Group on Extremism & Democracy (accessed 21 November 2008)
- ↑ Speech given by Professor Alex P. Schmid on the occasion of Paul’s retrial. Accessed from URL <http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~cstpv/about/staffprofiles/pwretiral101007.pdf> on 28 June 2008, 13:47:59
- ↑ Speech given by Professor Alex P. Schmid on the occasion of Paul’s retrial. Accessed from URL <http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~cstpv/about/staffprofiles/pwretiral101007.pdf> on 28 June 2008, 13:47:59
- ↑ ‘Education: Colleges Courses Study Terrorism’, New York Times, 18 February 1986
- ↑ ‘Education: Colleges Courses Study Terrorism’, New York Times, 18 February 1986
