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What is the answer to global terrorism? The fundamental point about terrorism is present in its very name: it is violence designed to achieve political gain by spreading terror. Terrorism is essentially asymmetric and works by cowing people into submission. Which is precisely why it can be answered; after all, who wants to be bullied in to submission? In fact, the fight against terror does not only take place in the dusty hills of Afghanistan, Africa or Asia: it takes place in our own minds.In this book, world expert Paul Wilkinson answers several frequently asked questions about terrorism. What do terroists really want? What can be done to defeat them? What is the future of terrorism? There is no "one size fits all" solution, instead it is a multi-headed beast constantly mutating and adapting to changes in the political and strategic environment.

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Terrorism

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Publié par	MarshallCavendish
Date de parution	01 août 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9789814398886
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0320€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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THE ANSWERS:
TERRORISM
By Paul Wilkinson
Jeremy Kourdi is the Series Editor of The Answers series. He is a former vice-president of The Economist Group and is the author of 25 business books.
Cover design: Cover Kitchen
Copyright 2012 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Ltd Published in 2012 by Marshall Cavendish Editions
An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International 1 New Industrial Road, Singapore 536196 genrefsales@sg.marshallcavendish.com www.marshallcavendish.com/genref
Other Marshall Cavendish offices: Marshall Cavendish Corporation. 99 White Plains Road, Tarrytown NY 10591-9001, USA Marshall Cavendish International (Thailand) Co Ltd. 253 Asoke, 12th Flr, Sukhumvit 21 Road, Klongtoey Nua, Wattana, Bangkok 10110, Thailand Marshall Cavendish (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd. Times Subang, Lot 46, Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park, Batu Tiga, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Marshall Cavendish is a trademark of Times Publishing Limited
The right of Paul Wilkinson to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Requests for permission should be addressed to the publisher. The author and publisher have used their best efforts in preparing this book and disclaim liability arising directly and indirectly from the use and application of this book. All reasonable efforts have been made to obtain necessary copyright permissions. Any omissions or errors are unintentional and will, if brought to the attention of the publisher, be corrected in future printings.
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
eISBN 978 981 4398 88 6
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Mackays
For the men and women who have risked their lives to protect the innocent from the scourge of terrorism.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
1 The Challenge and Context
2 How Might Things Be Improved?
3 The Future
Appendix: Terrorism Statistics
Select Bibliography
About the Author
Acknowledgements
The author gratefully acknowledges the encouragement he has received from his academic colleagues at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews and from members of the security professions. He also wishes to acknowledge the invaluable work of the Secretary of CSTPV, Gillian Duncan, for her speed and efficiency in typing the MSS.
Needless to say, the author is responsible for any errors.
Paul Wilkinson St Andrews
Preface
The aim of this short book is to provide some answers to frequently asked questions about terrorism. There is no one size fits all solution to this scourge. It is a hydra-headed phenomenon, constantly mutating and adapting to changes in the political and strategic environment. In a world where Kant s vision of a perpetual peace seems as unattainable as ever, it is unrealistic to hope for the total eradication of terrorism. The first part examines the nature of the challenge and its implications for the democracies and for international peace and security. In the second part, I examine ways in which the prevention and countering of terrorism could be improved, with particular emphasis on how the threat from the Al Qaeda network might be considerably reduced without endangering the Rule of Law and the protection of human rights in the process. The third part is inevitably speculative as it discusses the future of terrorism. What is the prognosis for President Bush s War on Terror? What innovations in terrorist tactics and weaponry are we likely to see?
The threat from terrorism should be placed in proper perspective. It is not the worst threat to peace and security, but in its most dangerous form it carries serious implications for the stability of nation-states, and can provoke both internal and international wars. Hence, it is just as foolish to ignore the problem or to pretend it does not exist as it is to exaggerate it and overreact. My hope is that this brief overview might help to promote more careful thought about the best way forward in dealing with a problem that is likely to challenge the international community for all our lifetimes and beyond. I have included a Select Bibliography for those wishing to explore further.
Paul Wilkinson St Andrews
WHAT IS TERRORISM?
The Oxford English Reference Dictionary provides an admirably succinct and adequate definition of terrorism:
... the systematic use of violence and intimidation to coerce a government or community, especially into acceding to specific political demands.
The term systematic in this context means conceived according to a plan. In other words it is part of a deliberate policy adopted by the perpetrators. Extreme fear or terror can of course be caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Terrorist atrocities such as suicide bombings in public places cause particular outrage because they are planned and carried out by fellow human beings.
One of the more obtuse objections to the use of the terms terrorism and terrorists is that they are pejorative terms. One man s terrorist is another man s freedom fighter is the clich often used to support this view. This is a clear example of the logic of the excluded middle. Of course many who commit or support acts of extreme violence against civilians often describe themselves as soldiers of nation liberation or holy warriors , but if they seek to create terror by such actions they are also accurately described as terrorists .
Terrorist groups and their members aim to create a climate of fear among a wider target than the immediate victims of the violence. Terrorism involves attacks, often completely indiscriminate, against civilians and also including targets such as embassies and parliament buildings and even places of worship and religious shrines.
The Oxford English Reference Dictionary is correct in stating that a frequent aim of terrorists is: ... to coerce a government or community... into acceding to specific political demands . However, there are often other aims, such as causing severe economic damage and disruption to a designated enemy state, to avenge some alleged injustice, to force a government to release terrorist prisoners, to obtain ransoms, to express hatred for an enemy government or community, to boost the morale of their members and supporters, or a combination of these motives.
Terrorist tactics are also sometimes used by criminal gangs to control their own communities, gang members and their families and to intimidate and coerce members of the police and judiciary and jurors. Terrorism is a weapon that has also been used by extremist religious groups and cults, such as the Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese cult responsible for the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo underground in March 1995. However, in other cases, for example Al Qaeda and its affiliates, there is a core political agenda despite the religious language and concepts used in the movement s ideology.
HOW IS TERRORISM DIFFERENT FROM CONVENTIONAL WAR, GUERRILLA WAR AND INSURGENCY?
The concept of terrorism is clearly distinguishable from the concepts of conventional war, guerrilla war and insurgency. Indeed very often one of the reasons why groups adopt terrorism is that they lack the recruits, fighters and weaponry to conduct an insurgency or wage a full-scale war. This is the main reason why so many terrorist campaigns never progress beyond the terrorism stage. However, most modern insurgencies and civil wars have seen a combination of terrorist attacks, especially in the cities and towns with a wider guerrilla or, in some cases, conventional war. A clear contemporary example is the way in which the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is being increasingly accompanied by suicide bombings and other forms of terrorist attack against Afghan civilians as well as members of the security forces and the government.
It is also the case that many rebel and guerrilla leaders have been reluctant to encourage the use of terrorist attacks against civilian populations for fear of losing the vital battle for hearts and minds . Conventional war is fought with conventional weapons and involves the control of territory, airspace and coastal waters. In theory the armed forces of states waging conventional war should abide by the Geneva Conventions and Protocols that explicitly prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians and non-combatants. In reality many interstate wars have been accompanied by acts of terrorism, often by both sides. Trends in warfare since the end of the Cold War show an increase in what have been termed terror wars . The inter-ethnic wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s provide a clear example: militias and paramilitary forces were deployed; there were no clear front lines; the laws of war as codified in the Geneva Conventions were treated with contempt; and ethnic cleansing often took the form of forcing civilians out of their villages, mass rapes and massacres of civilians. Some inter-ethnic wars, for example in Africa, have led to atrocities on a genocidal scale. One of the most powerful reasons why the United Nations (UN) and other international organizations continue to work hard to prevent terrorism is that this form of violence is often the key contributory cause of wider terror wars, and once these bigger conflicts are under way, the repeated mass killings through terror attacks on civilians make it far harder to obtain ceasefires and to establish conditions where post-war reconstruction and reconciliation are possible.
CAN STATES BE TERRORISTS?
Yes, of course: regimes have used terror to subdue internal opposition and as a weapon to suppress resistance in countri