This article looks at the status quo of Indian counterterrorism policy—which largely favours ‘physical’ or ‘hard’ measures—and proposes that the government adopt a more holistic strategy. Termed ‘Countering Violent Extremism’, this would involve measures geared towards long-term prevention, with greater attention paid to the reasons for which people commit terrorism and to the impact of counterterrorism on communities.

Books about the UN, like the politicians who support it, evidently do better when they make little outward mention of that international organisation. While the cover of most editions of this nine-chapter book is adorned with UN blue and those initials are highlighted in the ‘unfinished’ of the title, the United Nations is mentioned nowhere explicitly until a chapter or two in. This is no criticism: the UN is a flawed body that everyone knows but few understand, and smuggling it onto people's reading lists may be one of the few ways to address that.