Rise of Red Terror: The Ethics and Effectiveness of Maoist Violence in India

Abstract

Sangeeta Mahapatra is a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral and Professional Research Fellow. As a visiting scholar at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, she is currently working on a comparative study of counterterrorism strategies of India, Israel and the United States. As Mahapatra argues, the core of counterterrorism is capability. While states may set for themselves certain goals, how far they are able to deliver on them determines the strengths and weaknesses of their counterterrorism strategy. The aim of the study is to expand the scope of counterterrorism decision-making by studying how the three countries use their political, legal, civilian and economic structures to deal with an outlier event. The question is not about expending a lot of resources on a "high risk-low probability" threat but about responding to it in timely, cost-efficient and effective manner. Mahapatra is the author of Pacification of the Irreconcilable: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Kolkata, 2005) and Miasma: A Collection of Short Stories (Chowringhee Prakashini Press, Kolkata, 1999). She has also published various journal articles including "Economic Globalization: Understanding the Process beyond the Politics," in Globalization in India: New Frontiers, Emerging Challenges, ed. by Swapan Kumar Pramanick and Ramanuj Ganguly (Prentice Hall of India, 2009) and "Human Rights in Pakistan: A Heuristic of Hope and Despair," in Human Rights in South Asia, ed. by Joseph Benjamin (Nagpur University, 2009).