Introduction: Radical Islam and international security: challenges and responses

Radical Islam poses a political challenge in the modern world like no other radical religious movement. A cursory comparison with other religions shows that though Hindu radicalism generates violence, it is overwhelmingly circumscribed to the Indian subcontinent if not to India itself. Jewish radicalism lacks mass, while Christian fundamentalism, with arguably global reach due mostly to its impact on United States politics and more tenuously on the makings of US foreign policy, is hardly involved in terror and violence or actively pursues extreme political solutions.