Standoff detection of explosives is a subject of great interests in active terrorism. Laser spectroscopy techniques seem to be the most promising approaches for standoff detection and unique identification of explosives, and attract wide attention in these years. This article elaborates the principles, characteristics, and the current development situations of Raman Spectroscopy(RS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy(LIBS). Based on the analysis, the application prospects of standoff laser spectroscopy for explosives detection are described.