Crenshaw and LaFree examine "how we have dealt with the terror threat over the years. They [explore] why it is so difficult to create policy to counter terrorism. The foes are multiple and often amorphous, the study of the field dogged by disagreement on basic definitional and methodological issues, and the creation of policy hobbled by an exacting standard: the counterterrorist must succeed all the time; the terrorist only once"--Amazon.com.