History and Political Science: Terrorism and Economic Underdevelopment - Essay Example

?History and Political Science Question In order to understand the potentials of nation s to address critical issues, such as terrorism and economic underdevelopment, reference should be made to the characteristics of nation states, as of their current form. In addition, the performance of nation states in similar problems in the past should be evaluated. Of course, existing measures taken by nation states in regard to such problems would be reviewed in order to decide whether nation states have the willingness and the power to resolve critical problems that their populations have to face. Most nation states tend to set specific priorities when developing strategies that will be applied nationwide. However, differences seem to exist between independent and non-independent nation states as of the priorities used by each one when developing strategies that will be used in managing national resources and industries. For example, independent nation states tend to emphasize to the development of the country’s industries so that the dependency on foreign suppliers to be decreased’ (Kitching 10). Also, an independent nation state is expected to invest high amounts on the continuous update of its military industries, so that emergent military needs of the state can be covered, if required (Kitching 10). A non-independent nation state is expected to follow a different strategy; the government of such nation state would primarily consider the interests of those who control the nation’s industries, which are usually those who hold the control of the local market (Kitching 10). In certain cases, it is possible for a nation state to be depended not on entrepreneurs or firms but on other states (Kitching 2010). This is the case of a nation state that has a critical value in terms of its national resources or for a nation state that has critical geo-political position, being able to influence the development of the economy of neighboring countries. Among the two types of nation state described above, the independent nation state is considered as the most capable of addressing critical problems of the nation, such as the underdevelopment or terrorism. In practice, it has been proved that the ability of a nation state to cover its needs in terms of economy or security can be high. The above view is based on the study of Kitching where the following example is provided: a research has been made as to whether the improvement of the economy of a state is possible simply by emphasizing on agriculture. It has been proved that such target can be achieved, even if agriculture is the only sector available for the support of the economy (Kitching). The above findings have been related to the efforts of a nation state to improve the performance of its economy without having other sectors to employ apart from agriculture. On the other hand, in countries where the independency of a nation state cannot be secured, the use of non-governmental or international organizations seems to be the best solution for addressing emergent nation needs, such as underdevelopment, terrorism and civil wards. The specific view could be based on the example provided through the study of Akinyeye. In the particular study reference is made to the challenges that Nigerian government has to face in regard to underdevelopment. Moreover, the measures taken by the government for controlling the expansion of the above problem have been proved inadequate. A governmental organization, the Regional Economic Commissions (REC), has been established for helping the country to face underdevelopment (Akinyeye 221). The Commission’s branches across the country have been proved particular valuable in confronting underdevelopment (Akinyeye 221). Still, the following problem has appeared: the communication between the Commission’s branches is poor; in this context, a series of processes is duplicated (Akinyeye 221). A non-governmental organization, the Africa Economic Community, with branches across Africa, has been introduced for helping Nigeria and other African countries to cover their underdevelopment needs (Akinyeye 221). The introduction of this organization denotes that underdevelopment of nation states can be effectively controlled through non-governmental organizations under the terms that their activities will be closely monitored as of their effectiveness in supporting a nation state to cover its needs. Question 2 The efforts of governments to fight error have led to the development of several laws and security measures worldwide. The introduction of these laws and measures has been characterized as the war on terror, a term first used by the US government to justify its decisions in regard to security measures that should be applied after the events of the September the 11th. Because of the above events, the fight against terrorism has become a key priority for governments around the world. The problem that has appeared is the following: can the policies developed in the context of the war on terror effective as long as the belief systems continue to be quite powerful? The answer seems to be negative. In fact, it seems that terrorism has been based on the conflicts developed between belief systems worldwide, a phenomenon that continues to be intensive despite the efforts made by governments to limit the power of these systems. (Gardner 2005) At this point, reference should be made to the characteristics of belief systems. In their common forms, belief systems are ideological frameworks that are related to various sectors, such as politics, religion, racial characteristics or, even, athletics (Gardner 2005). Because of their expansion, belief systems are often difficult to be controlled, depending on their area of influence (Gardner 2005). The key characteristic of a belief system is the following: the members of such systems need to follow strictly the rules applied within their group (Gardner 2005). Because of the violence related to their activities, belief systems tend to lose members; in every belief system the need for new members is continuous and ensures the viability of a belief system in the long term (Gardner 2005). The specific characteristic of belief systems has been considered as the one that prevents the efforts of governments to end the operation of these systems: since members are replaced in case of losses, the belief systems can continue their activities without their power to be limited. A practice used by the belief systems for securing their power on their members is the following: belief systems tend to emphasize on the use of ideas that are innovative that which do not seem, at least from a first look, to harm human values. In this way, the members of these systems often do not have any idea that their involvement in these systems is an action that threatens social values and security. Of course, there are certain belief systems, such as anarchism, that are based on the elimination of systems of governance worldwide, being clearly opposed to existing laws and social order. Moreover, the conflict between belief systems has often resulted to events characterized by the use of extreme violence (Wills 2004). A few decades ago, the attacks against black people were one of the most common problems of USA; the attacks were related to social groups that were opposed to the existence of people of different color in America (Wills 2004). Today, the mode of operation of these systems is slightly differentiated. Indeed, in the past the members of belief systems used to state their opposition to various political or social ideas, as differentiated from the system’s rules and values, without concerns in regard to their punishment (Wills 2004). Today, this trend has been limited, mostly under the influence of the measures taken worldwide for setting limits to the activities of beliefs systems. Still, the power of these systems to promote violence and terrorism remains strong. For example, in many football matches the conflicts between the supporters of teams often end up with severe damages on personal and on public property (Wills 2004). This form of violence should be considered as a mode of terrorism at the level it is based on the use of violence without focusing on a particular target; rather violence against anyone that would appear in a particular place or anything that would be related to specific event/ idea could be developed with no concerning for the consequences on humans and on property (Wills 2004). According to the above, belief systems tend to be continuously expanded; Question 3 The fields covered by the term security are differentiated depending on the description of the term using a narrow or a broad definition. According to its narrow definition security can be described by referring ‘to the political violence within states’ (Collins 113). In other words, the narrow definition of security, as related to states, is depended on the existence of political forces that promote the use of violence. Moreover, security in its narrow definition could have another aspect. It could show the level at which social peace exists across the country or whether severe oppositions, based on violence, towards the decisions of the government have been developed. On the other hand, the broad definition of security refers to various areas, such as safety of individuals, effectiveness in the enforcement of laws, economic development and human rights (Lukarelli 2013). The use of the narrow definition of security should be avoided because of the following reason: if such definition is chosen, then the introduction of measures for facing problems that are out of the narrow definition of security but which are incorporated in security in its broad term would be problematic. In fact, in all states security cannot refer only to the violence related to each country’s political life. In such case, even the measures for ensuring the security of a state’s borders would not be justified as such measures would not refer to the state’s politics but to its national identity and independency as a member of the international community. Another implication of adopting a narrow definition of security is the following: security is often used for justifying the initiatives taken at national level in regard to various sectors. These initiatives are treated differently from the other governmental plans: by referring to national security these initiatives are given a notion of emergency, being promoted ahead of other plans also introduced by the government. Therefore, if no reference is made to national security for a series of critical governmental orders, then these orders will not be treated as emergent, leading to delays that can have severe consequences for the country’s economy, for the safety of a region’s residents or for other critical issue. In other words, the broad definition of security should be preferred since it could ensure that governmental orders are followed with no delay, a fact that could prevent human losses or damages in regard to national economy or to non-monetary sectors, such as the environment. On the other hand, the acceptance of a broad definition of security would also have certain implications: a) there could be cases in which there would be no time for checking the emergent character of a governmental order; for example, the order for the payment of the costs related to the transfer of food and other material in a governmental department is not related to security; however, if the department would distribute this material to people that have suffered severe damages on their houses because of a recent earthquake, then the governmental order for the payment of this material becomes part of security, as related to human safety and life, a right that the state need to secure for its citizens, b) security is a term broadly used for justifying governmental measures that violate human rights; the potential of such measures to violate these rights has been explored in the literature. It seems that security, as a term, is often used to justify governmental policies that could be not tolerated by the public in a different case. For example, introducing extremely severe measures in regard to the checking of persons entering in a state’s public buildings, could be considered as a violation of human rights under the terms that the personal data of each person are respected by law while the obligation of a person to pass security measures cannot be above the limits that human rights set. The above examples verify the risks related to the use of a broad term of security. Works Cited Akinyeye, Yomi. Nation-states and the Challenges of Regional Integration in West Africa: The Case of Nigeria. Paris: KARTHALA Editions, 2010. Collins, Alan. Contemporary Security Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Gardner, Hall. American Global Strategy and the "war on Terrorism". Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2005. Kitching, Gavin. Development and Underdevelopment in Historical Perspective: Populism, Nationalism and Industrialisation. London: Routledge, 2012. Lucarelli, Sonia, Langenhove, Luk Van and Wouters, Jan. The EU and Multilateral Security Governance. London: Routledge, 2013. Wills, David. The First War on Terrorism: Counter-terrorism Policy during the Reagan Administration. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004. Read More