This paper will analyse how the concepts in Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society are influencing the War on Terror. Moreover, it will examine their practical enforcement, the way in which they pose serious threats to the international law system and how this contributes to the shaping a new domestic order in those states where they have being applied.
In this paper I will argue that the idea that there is a New Terrorism, which “requires bold new strategies because of its shadowy character and its incalculable dangers”, should be contested to avoid the possibility of ‘non-knowledge’ being taken as an excuse to justify extreme counter-terrorism policies.
Terrorism did not begin in 2001, nor is it confined to extremists in the Middle East. Often, those who wish to point out the difficulty in defining terrorism like to refer to an old, now-famous quotation: “One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter.” Within the complex international system, the line drawn between the two can regularly become blurred or difficult to see: nonetheless, this line still exists.
This work will point out that although maybe not wholly applicable, the truism that ‘one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter’ is useful in some respect, as it draws attention to important issues that have to be considered when attempting to define the concept of terrorism.
Terrorism in the Islamic Maghreb (lit. “the West”) has been given relatively little attention in the post-9/11 era, in spite of a new journalistic and academic obsession with terrorism spanning nearly a decade. Terrorism in North Africa has been relegated to secondary importance, overshadowed by terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Occupied Territories. Terror in the Maghreb is nonetheless on the rise, and has been shown to have intimate links with violence in other regions of the Islamic world such as Iraq.
How ironic it would be if the most direct consequence of the “war on terror” was the overthrow of a government by Muslim extremists and the destabilization of a nuclear-armed country. With the Taliban gaining full control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan last February and advancing to within 60 miles of Islamabad just a few months ago – moving much faster and over a wider area than in any of their previous incursions – such a catastrophe seems to be looming just over the horizon.
This essay makes a comparative study of al Qaeda and Hezbollah, considering their ideological origins, justifications for terror, and overall objectives and tactics. The author finds that al Qaeda’s ideological groundings strongly influence the global, symbolic nature of the group’s objectives. In contrast, Hezbollah’s origin as a resistance front against Israel has left room for ideological flexibility, resulting in goals that are regional and pragmatic.
The War on Terror has changed the world of international politics greatly. Old traditions and customs such as the respect for state sovereignty and the formal equality of states have been shaken. Humanitarian intervention and concerns for human security have been forced into the background, and the human rights and liberty of citizens of all nations are being threatened by the War on Terror.
This essay examines the ways in which the post-9/11 discourse on terrorism has prioritised certain interpretations of terrorism, and argues that these carefully chosen frameworks serve to legitimate certain conceptions of conflict and insecurity, whilst marginalising others.
In order to guide democracy development efforts in the Middle East, Western policymakers must be guided by a realistic and nuanced view of the region. Militancy and terrorism, especially, have traditionally been viewed in terms of simple dichotomies and broad generalizations. This paper attempts to address this issue by offering a framework for the evaluation of Islamist political parties and their participation in democratic systems.
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