"Terrorist campaigns may seem endless, but they always end," observes Cronin (strategy, US National War College), who examines the closing phases of terrorist campaigns in order to identify recurrent patterns, common elements, and crucial points leading to their demise and thereby clarify how best to construct countermeasures. Examining cases of all ideological types of terrorism as well as all types of organizational structures in different political settings, he identifies six patterns in the decline and ending of campaigns: capture or killing the group's leader, entry of the group into a legitimate political process, achievement of the group's aims, implosion or loss of the group's public support, defeat and elimination by brute force, and transition from terrorism into other forms of violence. He addresses each of these in turn with reference to the triadic relations between terrorist group, the state, and the audience (this third being a neglected actor in traditional accounts of terrorism, according to Cronin) and in his concluding chapters applies the lessons to the threat posed by al-Qaeda. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)