[Book Review: Alan M. Dershowitz, Why Terrorism Works – Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge; Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2002, 271 p.] The current debate over how best to fight international terrorism reflects different points of view and approaches throughout the world. One of the most controversial contributions to this debate is Harvard Law School Professor Alan M. Dershowitz's book entitled How Terrorism Works. Dershowitz wrote this in the aftermath of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, in New York and Washington, D.C. Debate over how to handle "ticking bomb" scenarios, however, extends beyond the United States of America, (1) as is evidenced by controversy surrounding the threat of torture employed by the deputy police chief of Frankfurt/Main, Germany, in February 2003. (2) Dershowitz's specific proposal for such scenarios, though not apparent from his book's title, is application of torturous methods, and it warrants careful scrutiny. (3) Before analyzing the arguments put forth by Dershowitz, however, it is worthwhile to review the book's basic structure and Dershowitz's underlying assumptions. After introductory remarks, (4) Dershowitz goes to considerable lengths in Chapters 1 and 2 to show how the actions of European governments and the United Nations made the September 11 attacks inevitable. Chapter 3 addresses how a society with no moral, ethical, or legal constraints – one under the leadership of a "dictator" or a "czar" – would be capable of fighting terrorism. (5) Next comes the book's centerpiece, in which Dershowitz describes the choices and trade-offs between liberty and security that must be made and examines how torture can be justified while maintaining a "free society." His basic tenets can be summed up as follows. First, the "greatest danger facing the world today comes from religiously inspired terrorist groups – often...