From Environmental Action to Ecoterrorism? Towards a Process Theory of Environmental and Animal Rights Oriented Political Violence

This book scrutinizes the growth of the ecoterrorism movement operating on a global scale, focusing on the main groups and their more radical offshoots, both historically and currently active. These include Earth First!, the Earth Liberation Front, the Animal Liberation Front and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Gerry Nagtzaam critically examines how these groups formed and how they have evolved, their key personnel, their strategies and tactics, principles, motivating philosophies and attitudes to violence.

Specifically, this book seeks to understand whether groups such as these inevitably evolve from activists to militants to terrorists who gravitate towards political violence on behalf of the environment. Particular attention is paid to the future of such groups, predicting whether they will become more prominent as more people become ecologically aware and as global environmental conditions deteriorate, or whether groups like these have peaked as a force for environmental change. Gerry Nagtzaam compares and contrasts the selected ecoterrorist groups, highlighting their similarities and differences as regards to their use of political violence and pathways of radicalization.

This book will be of interest to a number of different audiences, including scholars, teachers and students of law enforcement, terrorism, environmental politics, environmental law, international relations theory, geography, environmental science, sociology and development studies. It will also be relevant for activists and environmental NGOs.