Ludlum carefully researches the backgrounds of his novels, a practice evident in The Icarus Agenda by the use of Arabic words and phrases and the geographical details of the coast of Oman. Such background detail gives his adventure story a tone of authenticity. Ludlum further enhances the credibility by taking one of the novel's important themes — terrorism — from the headlines of the 1980s.

The terrorists are mostly Palestinians who consider themselves heroic warriors fighting the enemies of their people. For Ludlum, however, they abuse and murder civilians; he portrays them as thoroughly vile, hypocritical, and stupid. As the novel begins, the terrorists have seized the American embassy in Oman; they have periodically dumped corpses from the embassy windows while the crowds outside cheer. Although the terrorists are mostly religious fanatics, they are funded by a businessman whose interest is in gaining a monopoly on...