Terrorism and Globalization
What do terrorist leaders want?
- disproportionate reactions by a state which disaffects public or international opinion and increases support for their cause -others seek immediate impact, to demonstrate the weakness of their opponent and by extension the group's power and reach by generating fear through media coverage.
Why is terrorism so weak?
-terrorist groups rarely possess the broader support of the population Terrorists groups often lack broader support for their objectives because they are radical They must provoke drastic responses
Three factors led to the brith of transnational terrorism in 1968
A) the expansion of commercial air travel B) The availability of televised news coverage C) broad political ideological interest among extremists that intersected around a common cause
Mobility
Allows terrorists to move rapidly within and between borders, complicating efforts to track them. The globalization of commerce has also improved terrorist mobility. The expansion in the volume of air travel and goods that pass through ports has increased exponentially through globalization. Between states measures have been taken to ease the flow of goods in less restrictive fashion to improve efficiency and reduce costs. .... like the European Schengen Agreement in which border security measures between EU member states have been relaxed to speed up deliveries.
Economic Explanations for terrorism
Although globalization provides access to a world market for goods and service,s the net result has also been perceived as a form of Western economic imperialism. The US and industrial states of Western Europe form the global North, or economic "core" which dominates international economic institutions such as the World Bank and sets exchange rates and determines fiscal policies. These policies can be unfavourable to the global South and that perpetuate the periphery gap. Why does political decision by the leaders of underdeveloped countries to deregulate or privatize industries be competitive globally lead to significant social and economic upheaval ( page 362)
JIHAD terrorism
Believe in global jihad view the ruelrs of "isalmic" countries such as pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or iraq as apostates who have compromised their values in the pursuit and maintenance of secular, state-based power. The only possible response is to fight against such influences through jihad. Jihad is understood by most islamic scholars and imams to mean the internal struggle for purity spiritually, although it has also been interpreted historically as a method to establish the basis for just war. For jihadists there can be no compromise with either infidels or apostates....
Interesting story about mobility
Customs officials cannot inspect all of the vehicles or containers passing through the border points or ports. to illustrate the scale of the problem, the United States recieves 10 million containers per year and one port, Los Angeles, processes the equivalent of 12,000 twenty-foot containers daily. Western government official fear that terrorist groups will use containers a s convenient and cheap means to ship WMD.
Media battle
For the hearts and minds of people as well as using media to move propoganda around much easier. Media is so accessible and so are idea sharing and individual empowerment of these small groups
How has Al Qaeda developed in accoradance with this new technology?
Instead of a hierarchical organization with fixed training bases, it has developed into a virtual global militant Islamic "community of practice" characterized by individuals exchanging information and discussing the best ways to coordinate and conduct attacks. Cells form around individuals sympathetic to militant islamic goals, accessible via webcast or online jihadi discussion forums.
Secular vs Nonsecular terrorism
Nonsecular-- religious terroists will kill themselves and others to secure rewards in the afterlife. Differences in value structures make the deterrence of religious terrorism difficult if not impossible as secular states cannot credibly threaten materially that which the terrorists value spiritually. Secular Terrorism: has had as its goal the pursuit of power in order to correct flaws in society but retain the overarching system WHILE religious terrorists do not seek to modify but rather REPLACE the normative structure of society. It's also harder to negotiate with religious terrorists because they may be unable or unwilling to compromise on what they see as a "sacred value"
Lethality
People are concerned about terrorist use of WMD. Militant Islamic statements have mentioned the use of many means, including, WMD to kill as many infidels and apostates as possible. LOL GLOBALIZED MEDIA MAY PLAY ROLE INS HAPING TERRORIST PLANS A S AL QAEDA LEADERS HAVE ALLEGELDY BEEN INSPIRED BY SPECTUACULAR SPECIAL EFFECTS OF HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER MOVIES. ahahah
Coordination
Terrorists used to conduct individual attacks from a single base BUT NOW they an use technology to coordinate attacks in different countries.... A hallmark of militant islamic groups is their ability to conduct multiple attacks in different locations such as the synchronized detonation of ten of thirteen bombs on pack commuter trains in madrid in march 2004 eg. 9/11 ATTACK facilitated by cheap and readily available prepaid phone cards to communicated between cell leaders and senior leadership Also digital videos suggest that terrorists are already conducting distance learning through a "virtual jihad academy" In which prospective terrorists study everything form conducting ambush attacks to making use IEDs to increase their effectiveness and lethality
Security
The cells and leaders in preserving security in a number of ways, including distributing elements in a coordinated network, remaining mobile, and using clandestine and encrypted communications Terrorist groups have been able to leverage technological developments designed to shield a user's identity from unauthorized commercial or private exploitation.
Others states are less willing to go do the war on terror The Law Enforcement Appraoch to Terrorism
They think that it could lead to more terrorism. Terrorism is a crime best dealt with through law enforcement methods. By dealing with terrorism as a police problem, sates uphold the rule of law, maintain the moral high ground, preserve democratic principles, and prevent the establishment of martial law. Military force should only be used in extreme circumstances and even then its use may have negative consequences. iT IS BEST dealth through cooperative internatioanl law enforcement and inside state borders... arresting suspects.
An example of the US's war of terrorism as enabled by globalization technologies
They used the Global Hawk, Predator, and Reaper drones to conduct surveillance and strikes against terrorist targets. The drones are flown remotely from bases thousands of miles away, their video feeds are disseminated to operation centres and user locally, regionally, and globally, and attacks are authorized, conducted, and monitored without US forces having to engage in direct combat, leading to claim of "extrajudicial" or "targeted" killing by others.
The best approach to dealing with terrorism according to chapter authro:
To pool our resources together in a coalition of the willing. The global North improving the capabilities of much of the global south. The end result will be the development of a Global Counter Terrorism Network of states able to detect, track, and dominate terrorist threats while non-military efforts address the root cases of terrorism.
Terrorism after the cold war
Transnational Marxist-Lenninist grousp discovered that their source of support diassapeared... ETA and IRA sought negotiations but still used terrorist attacks as a bargaining ploy and to remain visible domestically until eventually giving up armed struggle entirely. BUT while these terrorist groups were dwindling, we instead go to see groups like Al Qaeda who were more militant and were enabled their growth through globalization.
Al Qaeda and Culture
Violence is the only method of preserving traditions and values against a cultural tsunami of Western products and materialism. Once sought after as an entry method to economic prosperity, Western secular, materialist values are increasingly rejected by those seeking to regain or preserve their own unique cultural identity. The social changes associated w/ globalization and the spread of free market capitalism appear to overwhelm the identity or values of groups who perceive themselves as the losers in the new international system.
How do people explain terrorism as based on economics
Wealth is linked to personal security and violence. With rising standards of living and greater access to educational opportunities associated with globalization, it may lead to increased individual expectation and if those expectations are unmet, individuals can turn to extreme political views against the "system" that denies them the opportunity to realize these ambitions. interestingly within militant islamic groups, most leaders and senior operatives attended graduate schools around the globes from engineering to theology and were neither poor nor downtrodden. OTHERS theorize -- like Franz Fanon-- that people use political violence to right economic wrongs. He suggested that struggle would exist until the economic and power imbalances were removed. Terrorist violence is motivated by inequality of the global economy. The attacks against the World Trade CENTER IN 1993 AND 2001 WERE NOT REACTIONS AGAINST THE POLICIES OF THE us, BUT RATHER ABNLOW AGAINST AN ICON OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM.
In the absence of WMD, globalization ahs facilitated
access to weapons, resources, and the proficiency required to conduct smaller but more lethal attacks. Terrorists groups from Chenchnya to Pakistan have shared their expertise in the manufacturing of lethal bombs triggered by increasingly sophisticated globally available remote control devices.
What were Combating terrorism things?
anti-terrorism laws, taking preventative security measures at airports, creating special operations counter-terrorism forces also. A normative approach to tackling the problem founded on the principles of international law and collective action was less successful. Attempts ot define and proscribe transnational terrorism in teh UN bogged down in the GA over semantics, but other cooperative initiatives were successfully implemented. These included the conventions adopted through the International Civil Aviation organization to improve information sharing and legal cooperating such as the Hague Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful seizure of Aircraft..... Another collective response was to improve information sharing and collaborative action was the creation of the public Safety and Terrorism Sub0Directorate in Interpol in 1985. However most initiatives and responses throughout this decade were largely unilateral, regional, or ad hoc in nature.
What is the purpose of terrorism?
as with other forms of irregular warfare, terrorism is designed to achieve political change for the purposes of obtaining power in order to right a perceived wrong. Terrorism is the weakest for of irregular warfare with which to alter the political landscape.
Globalization and Terrorism main idea:
changed the scope but not the fundamental principles guiding it
Stakes in the long war
consist of the basic preservations freedoms and way of life. pg 369
Al Qaeda or "The Base"
got recognition because of its attacks in New York and Washington on 11 September 2001. it is a global terrorist group that threatens Western civilization an values, a sub0state financial and resource provider to like-minded terrorist groups, and a purveyor of an extremist set of beliefs that justified political violence to fulfil militant Islamic myths. Al Qaeda is more of a global movement that markets and exploits its own form of militant Islam in a loose network of "franchised" cells and groups... We can explain Al Qaeda's power by looking at : culture, economics, and religion
IEDs
in Iraq and Afghanistan insurgent and terrorist groups have built inprovised explosive devices... they vary in lethality and complexity (page 368)
The Decade of Terrorism 1980 to 1990
included incidents such as suicide bombings ( Lebanon 1983), and hijackings (TWA Flight 847 in 1985).... During this decade 3 disturbing trends emerged: 1. Fewer attacks ( that were more deadly and indiscriminate 2. The increasing sophistication of attacks 3. a greater willingness to perform suicide attacks
Infidel (literally "unfaithful") ..
is a pejorative term used in certain religions for those who do not believe the central tenets of one's own religion, are members of another religion, or are not religious
Terrorism
is a weapon of the weak conducted by a minority who promotes an extremist ideology and often fails to create political change -involves the use of violence -often indiscriminately targets non-combatants
The relationship between globalization and terrorism
is best understood as the next step in the evolution of political violence since terrorism became a transnataionl phenomenon in the 1960s. The technologies associated with globalization have been used to improve the effectiveness and reach of terrorist groups.
Osama Bin Laden
killed in May 2011
What is effective in combating terrorism?
state law enforcement and paramilitary forces were increasingly effective in combating terrorism
Scholars disagree on the ultimate political purpose of religiously inspired suicide violence
such purposes can include A) competing with other terrorist groups for popular support in a process of "outbidding" B) self-determination C) to convince foreign occupiers to withdraw to their forces A common theme among jihadi statements is another political purpose: overthrowing apostate regimes and assuming political power
Huntington suggests ( culture)
that a major fault-line exists between the liberal Western civilization and an islamic one "humiliated and resentful of the West's military presence in the Persian Gulf, the West's overwhelming military dominance, and... unable to shape their own identity" Critics of Huntington say that he ascribes a degree of homogeneity within the islamic world that simply doe snot exist. Theologically and socially, the Islamic "civilization" contains a number of deep fault-lines that impede the cooperation required to challenge the West. Like the bloody violence between sunni and Shi'a in Iraq. Muslims also distinguish between each other... the non-believers are the infidels ( of different religion) while the apostates ( who do not share their interpretation of the Koran)
Religion provides terrorist groups with a crucial advantage;
the mandate and sanction of the divine to commit otherwise illegal or immoral acts
What do realists think about terrorism?
the political violence used by terrorist groups is illegitimate on the basis that states alone have a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force.
Kiras defines terrorism as
the use of violence by su b0state groups to inspire fear, by attacking civilians and/or symbolic targets, for purposes such as drawing widespread attention to a grievance, provoking a severe response, or wearing down their opponent's moral resolve, to effect political change"
Postmodern or "new" terrorism
was motivated by promises of rewards in the afterlife, some terrorists are driven by religions reason to kill as many non-believers and unfaithful as possible. Although suicide tactics have been observed in Lebanon as early as 1983 militant Islam had previously been viewed as a state-sponsored regional phenomenon The official definition is groups and individuals with millennial and apocalyptic ideologies with system-level goals. Most value destruction for its own sake, unlike more terrorists in the past who had specific goals usually tied to a territory /
