Tell me about your first book, Civilian Jihad.

A colleague of mine, Maria Stephan, edited this book. It’s a collection of essays about the Middle East. They reveal different groups’ approaches to their disagreements, including those by the Palestinians. We think of the latter’s protests as violent – and they certainly were during the second Intifada. But there are many heroic examples of Palestinians resisting the separation barrier in a non-violent way, in the face of constant attack.

The book dispels one of the myths about non-violent action: that it only works in liberal democracies. Gandhi could use it against the British because Britain had a developed legal system. Martin Luther King had a voice because the United States is an advanced democracy. And so on. In fact, we have seen that it also works against repressive and authoritarian regimes, as demonstrated in Egypt and Tunisia and in other parts of the world.

So as far as protests are concerned, it’s really about numbers.

Numbers matter tremendously. Historically, much depends on having a mass mobilisation of people. In the 2004 Orange Revolution in Kiev, more than 100,000 people turned up day after day. They showed the authorities that theirs was a movement that would not be suppressed. The military and police were reluctant to use force against such a vast crowd.

Let’s move on to Beebe and Kaldor’s The Ultimate Weapon is No Weapon.

This is a wonderful review of how military doctrine is changing. One of the book’s authors, Shannon Beebe, was a U.S. army colonel. He read some of Mary Kaldor’s earlier books and wrote to her. ‘What you’re saying about the nature of warfare is true,’ he said, ‘because I’m experiencing it.’

In essence, war has changed. Most wars are now civil conflicts. The combatants are civilians by day and insurgents by night. The casualties are civilians. This means that the response cannot simply entail military bombing or heavy artillery. It has to be a measured one and win hearts and minds.

The book analyses incisively the situation in Afghanistan. The theoretical doctrine of the NATO forces is to cooperate with people to improve governance, provide economic opportunity and win people away from the extremists. But in practice, U.S. and NATO forces have focused on combat: searching and destroying, killing insurgents and breaking into homes.

We know from experience, and this book says it so well, that you can’t win these campaigns by just trying to kill the insurgents. A political bargain has to be struck. You have to convince people that there’s a better route than extremism. For that, you need to have better options in terms of governance, economy and education.

I think the ideas in this book are wonderful – if only the world could be like that. What worries me is that I think people want to fight. Young, adrenaline-pumped men aren’t looking for a peaceful solution.

If we can give young men attractive socio-economic and educational opportunities, they are less likely to gravitate towards violent insurgency. There is aggression in many people but there are also cooperative instincts. Part of the challenge for society is to structure the options so that the cooperative impulses get more emphasis.

Let’s turn to Reza Aslan’s No god but God.

For me, this is the best introduction to Islam. I think all of us in the West are trying to learn more about Islamic culture and religion. Aslan writes so beautifully about what Islam represents – its theological, cultural and economic dimensions. It’s the most eye-opening and illuminating book I’ve read on the subject. It gave me a sense of respect for Islamic culture and the great scientific and cultural contributions of its past.

Why is it so important that we increase our understanding of Islam?

Because we have invaded or attempted to occupy Islamic countries and the al Qaeda movement has emerged.