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1 The “new” terrorism in warfare What role will terrorism play in twenty-first century warfare? While there is evidence that wars are changing, the reasons for and consequences of these changes remain largely unknown. This study represents an effort to better understand changes in the conduct of wars and implications of these changes. In the pages that follow, the first task involves specifying the meanings of terms such as “terrorism” and “insurgency.” The chapter continues with a discussion of changes in the uses of terrorism over time, not only with regard to
Eurasian security governance has received increasing attention since 1989. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the institution that best served the security interests of the West in its competition with the Soviet Union, is now relatively ill-equipped resolve the threats emanating from Eurasia to the Atlantic system of security governance. This book investigates the important role played by identity politics in the shaping of the Eurasian security environment. It investigates both the state in post-Soviet Eurasia as the primary site of institutionalisation and the state's concerted international action in the sphere of security. This investigation requires a major caveat: state-centric approaches to security impose analytical costs by obscuring substate and transnational actors and processes. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon marked the maturation of what had been described as the 'new terrorism'. Jervis has argued that the western system of security governance produced a security community that was contingent upon five necessary and sufficient conditions. The United States has made an effort to integrate China, Russia into the Atlantic security system via the Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. The Black Sea Economic Cooperation has become engaged in disseminating security concerns in fields such as environment, energy and economy. If the end of the Cold War left America triumphant, Russia's new geopolitical hand seemed a terrible demotion. Successfully rebalancing the West and building a collaborative system with Russia, China, Europe and America probably requires more wisdom and skill from the world's leaders.
2504Chap4 7/4/03 12:39 pm Page 69 4 Eurasia and the transnational terrorist threats to Atlantic security Phil Williams The terrorist attacks of September 11 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were not only the most audacious and successful terrorist attacks the world has yet seen, but also marked the maturation of what had been described as the ‘new terrorism’. It was a maturation in several senses. In the first place it revealed that trends identified by astute specialists such as Walter Laqueur, Bruce Hoffman and Ian Lesser were, in fact, well
Introduction This chapter maps the development of global security architecture in the context of the “new terrorism” security paradigm, and the impact this is having on civil society – creating challenges for community integration, securitizing political dissent, and potentially advancing fundamental social and economic inequalities
Since September 11, 2001 (9/11), the so-called “new terrorism” security architecture created immense challenges for community integration, securitizing political dissent, and potentially advancing fundamental social and economic inequalities. The emergence of this new security architecture in the context of terrorism is also intricately linked to what has been referred to as the “age of counter-terrorism.” This chapter examines the development of global security architectures in the context of counter-terrorism (CT) in light of the development of the “new terrorism” security paradigm, and the impact this is having on civil society. It charts the foundation of these cross-national CT security structures – the overt security responses that took form between 2001 and 2006, which have since given way to a greater focus on preventative countermeasures – and explores the supporting discourses that have sprung up around this, before exploring how these bodies and discourses are changing and challenging contemporary politics in new and unexpected ways. This chapter further examines state-level CT as a set of military, discursive, physical, and economic structures.
This book explores the evolving African security paradigm in light of the multitude of diverse threats facing the continent and the international community today and in the decades ahead. It challenges current thinking and traditional security constructs as woefully inadequate to meet the real security concerns and needs of African governments in a globalized world. The continent has becoming increasingly integrated into an international security architecture, whereby Africans are just as vulnerable to threats emanating from outside the continent as they are from home-grown ones. Thus, Africa and what happens there, matters more than ever. Through an in-depth examination and analysis of the continent’s most pressing traditional and non-traditional security challenges—from failing states and identity and resource conflict to terrorism, health, and the environment—it provides a solid intellectual foundation, as well as practical examples of the complexities of the modern African security environment. Not only does it assess current progress at the local, regional, and international level in meeting these challenges, it also explores new strategies and tools for more effectively engaging Africans and the global community through the human security approach.
threat of terrorism was assumed to be ‘global in scope’, to pose ‘a growing strategic threat’ and to have links to ‘violent religious extremism’. This type of ‘new’ terrorism was considered to be ‘dynamic’, with the discourse making possible concerted European action through the claim that ‘left alone, terrorist networks will become ever more dangerous’. The document also linked this ‘new’ form of terrorism to the threat posed by WMD, again articulating the imagined threat of the future terrorist attack. It stated that ‘we are now, however, entering a new and dangerous
the temptation to overreact’ (Mueller 2005 : 497). Despite its longevity, this definitional debate was reanimated in the early twenty-first century by those positing a recent profound qualitative change in the nature of terrorism. This potential transition between ‘old’ and ‘new’ terrorism was widely debated (for an overview, see, inter alia , Duyvesteyn 2004 ; Neumann
attack civilians on a scale not seen before (Home Office, 2006 : 7). Finally, they are driven by a ‘particular and distorted form of Islam’, which terrorists argue legitimates this violence (Home Office, 2006 : 7). This analysis draws on a body of literature within Terrorism Studies that identified a so-called ‘New Terrorism’. Theorists arguing for the application of this term (see, for key examples, Laqueur, 1999 or Benjamin and Simon, 2002 ) stress that recent terrorist groups could be characterised by their
stops for Abu Nidhal and President Gaddafi along the way. The transfer began to take place much earlier than is commonly understood, during the mid-1980s as Soviet power declined and political Islam asserted itself against Western and Israeli interests, first in Iran (against the American-sponsored Shah) and later in Lebanon (against Israeli, U.S. and French military forces buttressing the Christian regime in power in that country). In a book for the Institute for the Study of Conflict, entitled The New Terrorism and published as early as 1986, the terrorism expert