To What Extent Can Realism Help to Understand International Terrorism - Coursework Example

Realism and international terrorism Terrorism is the process of launching an attack on innocent civilians of a given nation with theaim of making them lose trust and support for their political leaders. Terrorism affects all states of the world including the super power nations and has, therefore, become an international issue. Through realism, terrorism is viewed as a non-state issue with regard to international ties. Realist approach to terrorism argues that terrorism arises when nations fight for power and try to protect their own national security especially the major powers of the world. This therefore makes realism the best approach in understanding international terrorism. Realist argument is backed by some of the major reasons believed to be the major causes of terrorism which include: diplomatic and political interferences, revenge, to instill fear into a population of a particular nation, to force a reaction from the affected government and at times it is just a process of obeying a religious obligation. Many at times have made the mistake of treating terrorists as simple criminals forgetting that they are well trained and most have been in militaries. Realism has been used to analyze political phenomena ever since the periods of cold war when nations battled for power through two groups, the democratic group headed by the United States of America and the communist group headed by the Soviet Union (Booth 2009, p34). International relations has lost meaning a great deal since participants which are nations only seek to satisfy their own interests of acquiring more power and improving their ranking in the world. With more power, these nations believe they gain more control over the others who are below them. Power is the main thing participants of international relations target. These participants who are governments, struggle to ensure their states are ranked higher, and in a bid to achieve the same, they try to make sure other states do not climb above them (Booth 2009, p76). If a single nation emerges superior to the others, the relatively inferior nations tend to come together to keep the superior nation on check. This clearly illustrates how the hatred among some nations gets its roots and eventually develops to attacks against each other. Most nations generally prioritize their national interests ahead of international matters including security (Booth 2010, p89). However, realism has been criticized by some people to ignore other factors that also tamper with the security of a nation more directly due to too much attention it pays to states struggling for power among them. Realism further illustrates that the super power states tend to enact policies that protect their own interests across the world irrespective of the impacts of these policies. These policies often affect the inferior nations adversely who are likely to retaliate in protest and fight back in quest for justice. The process of weaker nations trying to retaliate and fight social injustice induced on them by the greater nations may create some form of terrorism. Leaders across the world have claimed that war against terrorism can be won by concentrating more on positive interactions and social actions among the states especially between the greater nations and the weaker nations. However, this is target may take much longer to be achieved since no government is willing to concentrate more on international relations at the expense of its national interests (Shimko 2010, p113). This situation is evident in the case of United States of America and its invasion of Iraq. While other leaders of the world argued that terrorism could only be reduced by setting up some rules of law which seek to fight terrorism, the United Stated resorted to war by sending their military to attack Iraq. Though the United States tried to justify its actions, it was clearly evident that they were only out to protect their national interest. Realist approach portrays terrorism as a form of social conflict with greater magnitude and uses this argument to justify its support for use of military approach to combat terrorism. Under realism, terrorism is viewed to trace its origin from social, political, economical and psychological factors. These factors form a huge part in the sources of controversies among states that seek supremacy. These factors create a form of terrorism known as socio-psychological and are greatly propelled by governments operating in the realists approach. International terrorism would not exist if it was not getting the support of sovereign countries whose regimes have contributed significantly in the spread of terrorism (Jackson 2009, p98). Realist theory undermines the efforts of international relations terming them as a platform where countries seek to acquire political supremacy and defend their own self interest with very little concern about the wellbeing of other nations or the relationship among them. It goes ahead to state that the initial step of fighting terrorism should be getting the states to understand that their fight to gain power and protect their national interest is a great stimulator of international terrorism. Realist approach further seeks to make various states understand that terrorists cannot survive without the support of a government and should therefore be treated as agents of a country that is in favour and support of the survival of terrorism (Jackson 2009, p143). The fight for natural resources which are of great value has also contributed significantly to the spread of international terrorism. For instance, it is believed that the western countries have been in conflict with countries from the middle in fight for oil. Oil is a highly valuable substance and the country with the biggest share is believed to gain economic control globally. If a country produces most oil it acquires monopolistic powers over the rest of the world and can manage to hoard oil leading to an increase in its prices hence the country acquires financial gains. Another valuable natural resource that can lead to controversy between countries is precious minerals such gold and diamond. If these minerals are discovered close to the border, the involved countries may disagree on the extent of their borders and this may create hatred between the two countries which constitutes international terrorism. In protection of national interest, the super power nations may end up behaving as terrorists. They have a tendency to assassinate other world leaders whom they claim are a threat to the safety of the entire world but in real sense their goal is always to protect their national interest and preserve their dominance. The leaders assassinated are believed to have been in protest over the supremacy of the power houses and have always defied their orders but the world is always made to believe that these are bad people who support terrorism and have been involved in the production of crude weapons such as nuclear weapons. In reaction to this, many people especially from these countries whose leaders are assassinated became so enraged that they are willing to sacrifice their lives in an attempt to revenge to these super powers. Using military attacks and use of a lot of force to revenge against other nations is clearly a form of terrorism but the perpetrators often term it as an act of self defense. This creates enmity between states and this leads to some states supporting terrorists whom they use to launch revenge attacks against their enemy states (Shimko 2010, p135). The attacked state may seek to attack back and hence the start of terrorism which may escalate to higher levels of international terrorism hence creating tension across the world. Realist approach generally bases its argument on the idea that international relations have been used as a platform to scramble for power among nations. The states that emerge more powerful end up using their power to intimidate the weaker nations and try to exploit the resources from these countries. This constitutes the key root of international terrorism. The greater nations have often given consent to acts of injustice in the name of promoting international democracy and national interest. This translates to terrorism and the weaker nations are the usual targets. The move has been attributed to putting too much focus on national security hence undermining the whole process of international relation. A lot of questions have been raised about the need to use military approach and excessive force by the powerful states and realist approach has come in handy in an attempt to justify the whole process. They claim that the terrorist threat faced by the world are based within states hence must be handled by military force. The idea of realists linking terrorism to states is vital as it creates an international challenge on how the matter should be handled (Jackson 2010, p178). The realists challenge those questioning the use of military approach to give an alternative solution on how to deal with terrorism if they think it is not the best approach. The realist have gone ahead to justify the need to view terrorists as states; they argue with the case of Al-Qaeda saying that if it were not for Afghanistan where the Al-Qaeda are based, it would be impossible to attack them. According to them if the enemy is stateless then it would be impossible to fight terrorism. But questions were raised about the real purpose of the United States of America launching attacks on Iraq even though their dictator was totally not part of the Al-Qaeda group. This clearly indicated that the powerful nations did not just attack the relatively weaker states in fight against terrorism but also had their own national interests to achieve. The power houses link the weaker states with terrorism even when it is clear they are not part of it. This is always a tactic to justify the attacks they launch on these nations. The terrorist groups often set their attacks on the specific enemy mostly a superpower nation but the world power houses often attack a group of countries they associate with enemy hence creating more enemies across the world. This in turn helps to spread the rate of terrorism further. From this we notice that these terrorist groups do not actually start but respond when attacked by the governments of the great nations. Terrorism is a very wrong method of addressing international issues and national interests but the super power countries have no option but to fight back after they are attacked. This leads to a conclusion that any theory seeking to address the issue of terrorism must develop an effective system of handling international relations. This system should not only consist of states but also the non state players. These non state players do not have any rigid foreign policies adhere to; neither do they have any national interests to achieve. This makes them act as neutral players in the international relations issues hence would be very vital for the process as they would not create any enemies fighting for power. This is not to say that the non state players have no interest in dominance, security or even security but it would be sensible to assume that they would not act in the same way as states. However, the theory of realism gives some valuable information by stating that the use of military approach is the best way a country can be sure of its security and attain national prosperity. On the hand realism can be blamed for international terrorism due to social injustices and disobedience of the law practiced powerful nations on the international stage (Booth 2009, p102). This is often viewed by most of the weaker nations as a form mockery hence creating bad blood between the weaker nations and the stronger nations. This hatred itself creates an environment that is suitable for terrorist actions. The powerful countries are also seen to attack weaker nations in search of terrorists whom they believe dwell in those countries. In the process they end up hurting even innocent citizens of that particular state including women and children; and this translates to state terrorism. The weaker nations may be tempted to fight back and creates the cycle of international terrorism. Therefore terrorism on the international level can be control if the powerful countries started acting more ethically on the international scene. References Booth, K. (2010). Realism and International Relations. London: Taylor & Francis. Booth, K. (2009). Realism and World Politics. london: Taylor & Francis. Robert H. Jackson, G. S. (2009). Introduction to International Relations: Theories And Approaches. New York: Oxford University Press. Shimko, K. L. (2010). International Relations: Perspectives and Controversies. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Read More