Center for Strategic Communication

by Steven R. Corman

As predicted in an earlier post,  Hoffman’s counter-tat to Sageman’s response to Hoffman’s panning of Sageman’s book has appeared at Foreign Affairs (below Sageman’s reply).  It contains little in the way of new information.

I’m a little surprised that Foreign Affairs published this.  Normally in the academic world the custom is that when a critique of an author’s work is published, s/he gets a rejoinder and that’s it.  It’s sort of an incentive for the critic to be careful.  By that standard Sageman’s reply should have been the end.  Now how are they going to conclude this?  Surely neither man will be content with the second-to-last word.  Pistols at 20 paces, perhaps?