Drawing on the conclusions of a book he is currently editing (Making Sense of Suicide Missions, Oxford University Press, March 2005), Professor Diego Gambetta will describe the key features of the suicide missions that have occurred in several parts of the world since the anarchist movements of the early 20th century. He will discuss the process of diffusion that the tactic of suicide missions has undergone and the role of religion in its more recent emergence, and he will compare suicide missions with acts of both heroism and peaceful self-immolations in conflict.