Dr. Bloom provides an "explanation of the unexplainable," a comprehensive overview of the historical roots and contemporary motivations of suicide terror and the deliberate use of rape during war, a practice termed “Gendercide.” Bloom's historical range is formidable; moving from the Zealots of first-century Judea to the Japanese kamikaze of WWII, Bloom stresses that suicide bombings can only thrive with the implied consent of an aggrieved population, which can be withdrawn: the Omagh bombing of 1998, for example, was a disaster for the IRA. Over and over again—from Chechnya to the West Bank—history teaches that harsh counterterror tactics become part of the cycle, or, part of the contagion of violence. She sees hopeful signs in Turkey's recent measured and partially successful response to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Also, touching upon suicide terror as practiced by women, especially in Chechnya and Sri Lanka, and how it is viewed, ironically, as a source of female empowerment. Wrapping up with consideration of the possible occurrence of suicide bombing on U.S. territory.
Mia Bloom is the acclaimed author of Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror, a critically acclaimed study on suicide terrorism. She is currently an associate professor of women's studies and international studies at the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, PA and a fellow at the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Penn State. Previously she was an assistant professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia.
With research specialties in ethnic conflicts, rape in war, and child soldiers, Bloom was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations from 2003-2008.
Bloom has a PhD in political science from Columbia University, a Masters in Arab Studies from Georgetown University and a Bachelors from McGill University in Russian and Middle East Studies. She completed a year in the overseas program at Tel Aviv University and a semester at the Arab Language Institute (ALI) at the American University of Cairo. She has held research or teaching appointments at Rutgers, Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, and McGill Universities and speaks eight languages. She regularly appears on Fox News, CNN, CSPAN, CBC and CTV and has been interviewed by Jim Lehrer for PBS, Ted Koppel for Nightline, and Jesse Pearson for MTV.
She is completing articles on child terrorists, the radicalization of Muslims in Europe, and the 1990 "proxy bombing" campaign in Northern Ireland. Her new book entitled, "Bombshell: The Many Faces of Women Terrorists" will be published by Penguin. Bloom is currently writing a book on the deliberate use of Rape during War tentatively called "Gendercide: the Strategic Logic of Rape During War."