WINNING BACK THE SKY, A TACTICAL ANALYSIS OF TERRORISM by David G. Hubbard MD (Saybrook: $14.95).

This short book by a psychiatrist who heads the Behavioral Research Center, a facility for the psychological study of terrorists, was written in the immediate aftermath of last year’s hijacking of the TWA plane to Beirut. In the dedication, the author remarks that he was asked for it posthaste. But unfortunately, subsequent hijackings and the terrorist attacks on the Rome and Vienna airports mean that parts of his analysis are already outdated. For instance, Hubbard says passengers on hijacked craft can usually afford to sit back and let matters take their course in firm assurance that they will eventually be released. Just since he wrote, hijackings have turned decidedly more deadly, making such assurances obsolete. Nonetheless, much of Hubbard’s analysis is thought-provoking. He has, over a period of several years, interviewed many imprisoned terrorists, and his psychological profiles and analyses of their attitudes are occasionally fascinating, although not always consistent. This book indeed shows evidence of being written hurriedly.