The Nature of Terrorism - Term Paper Example

The Nature of Terrorism in a Post 9/11 World Name Institution Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 The Nature of Terrorism in a Post 9/11 World 3 Thesis statement 3 Introduction 3 Terror trend during post 9/11 era 4 The Major Terror Groups in the World 7 Role of the Media During Post 9/11 Terror Era 8 Impacts of Post 9/11 Terror Attack 9 Strategies Set to Counter Terrorism Globally 11 Major terrorism zones in the world 13 Conclusion 13 References 14 The Nature of Terrorism in a Post 9/11 World Thesis statement Terrorism is a great threat to the economy of the world. Regardless of the present trend, there is a greater probability of higher prevalence since terror groups continue to counter the new surveillance mechanisms developed by different governments. Further action is essential to curb the current terror status entirely. Introduction The level of security is one of the factors determining the economic growth of a country. The United States is one of the countries that experienced several attacks from the terrorists due to their firm stand on fight against any terror group. Since September 11 of 2001, the country has been on the forefront in outlining strict security measures to prevent experiencing such an attack that claimed the lives many innocent citizens. From the attack, most Americans believed that none of them was safe depending on the magnitude of destruction that the attack caused. Most studies conducted in relation to the effect of 9/11 attack clearly showed how the act shaped the entire nation both geographically and politically especially on those residing towards Northeast of the state. Moreover, the attack shaped the lives of the millennial generation and they consider it a tragic event. The attack was able to shape the entire generation and orientation. Before the attack, these millennials had shelters, trusted the government, and exhibited high propensity towards community development activities. They showed strong political engagement and support in a bid to strengthen economic growth of the country but the attack deprived them of the joy (Franco and Schuler, 2004). The attack exhibited the level of vulnerability among the people to terror attacks. Most of the affected were the millennials in grade schools who had great future and strong will to live but the attack demoralized their spirits and induced negative perceptions into their minds regarding the world and places people live in. Most the people who lost their loved ones have been on the forefront supporting the initiatives by the government to counter the terrorist attacks in the country. It is the responsibility of the government to offer adequate security to the citizens, however, the parents play important role in ensuring the safety of their children. Since the occurrence of the attack, most parents doubled their efforts in ensuring the safety of their school-going children in a bid to protect them from the wicked world. Terror trend during post 9/11 era The nature of terrorism changed over time since the 9/11 occurrence. The degree and areas affected greatly increased within the period of one year with most countries in the world recording threats of terror. According to The Global Terrorism Index, an estimated 61% increase in the rate of terrorism is evident globally since the 9/11 effect (Bail, 2012). Unfortunately, the trend continues to escalate with other countries, which have been peaceful showing the signs of emergence of such threats from different groups. The terror groups either live within the countries in which such terrorism acts occur or are sometimes citizens from other countries. The main aim of the terrorists is to destabilize the economic, social, political, and religious status of the countries they attack. Upon such destabilization, they take control over the country’s major towns and therefore sometimes fully control the governance decision making in the region. One of the trends in terrorism that is presently common is religious terror. Currently, reports of increased attack to a congregation of worshippers increased with a large margin. The war on religion believes remains the greatest threats and sometimes has left most people unable to make valid decisions on specific religion. The fight between Christians and Muslims is evident in many regions of the world with the Muslim organizations planning for cold wars against Christians. In Afghanistan, for example, their Muslim counterparts constantly evict the most Africans who live and work in the country from their localities (Duyvesteyn, 2004). The trend is also observable in other countries especially those dominated by the Islamic religion. Subsequently, within Christianity there has been increase in differences regarding the biblical teaching especially on marriage causing terror attacks towards a certain group of believers. For instance, continued fights are evident in the United States especially California among those supporting same sex marriage and those of different sexes marriage. The differences continue to pose greater fears for attack from the different groups especially the same sex partners who feel alienated and coerced by the other group. Therefore, to counter they organize attacks on the former to gain popularity. Presently, terror is most evident in learning with knowledgeable individuals recruited into various groups and trained. Conversely, most governments in the world do not provide adequate security within institutions and therefore most of them acts as hotspots for terror. The continued kidnapping common in schools continues to worry terror surveillance groups (Duyvesteyn, 2004). A good example is the Boko Haram recent kidnapping activity in Nigeria that lasted for several days affecting the social of the victims and their families. Similar incidences are also evident in other parts of the world and control of such terror attack has become difficult due to the high population in our learning institutions. As the generation that the attack greatly influenced, the millennials were able to identify themselves politically. Moreover, they are able to likely to identify the liberal citizens than the older generations. The incident portrayed a reinforced heroic nature of the citizens as they worked together to control the situation irrespective of whether one belongs to police force, firemen or members of the defense forces. Most people realized that the world is full of enemies with hatred who aim at hurting people directly. Currently, most people view terrorism as a violent activity that aims causing death of others. Since the attack, terrorism is a common term from almost all the social media that provokes different reactions from people depending on how people perceive it (Boyle, 2012). To some extent, people think that terrorism is act that causes death and destruction but in actual sense, terrorism is a war that causes death. Most Americans viewed terrorism as an act of violence since the state government uses the term while referring to attack that occurs in military camps and foreign military forces within the state. Furthermore, people overused the word terrorism and classified it as an aggression act on the country’s allies. One of the factor that distinct terrorism from war is that t triggers fear among the citizens since most attacks do not have distinct places or fight grounds. Another factor that contributed to the escalation of terrorism attack is political differences among people as countries stood firm on issues relating negotiations with terrorist. For example, America is a county that does not negotiate with terrorists. Moreover, the country often shows strong support to countries experiencing terrorism attacks (Lefebvre, 2004). The attack was able to change the way people viewed all aspects relating to terrorism since it caused much trauma among the Americans. Before the attack, the word terrorism was not a familiar term among the people but after the occurrence, the term became common due to increased levels of attacks. Different countries have varied probabilities to terror attack. However, countries that violate the human rights remain prone to the emergence of such attacks. Therefore, these countries have ongoing conflicts among the government and the human rights activists recording frequent demonstrations and other status that contribute to the emergence of war. Bail (2012) outlines that through such practices, different organizations join to form a parallel scheme of leadership recruiting members of the same opinion to fight the government. Such continued scramble for leadership paves way for the emergence of the terror groups posing a great attack from the terrorist groups. In the event of such political disturbances, different terror groups show interest in overcoming the vices of the government; therefore, they join in the war causing massive terror attacks. Terrorism continues to spread in the world over with the attacks on New York that occurred on September 11, 2001 marking the great turn into the trend of terrorism (Abadie & Gardeazabal, 2008). More casualties succumbed to death; destruction of property was also evident. The effect significantly had an economic impact affecting the lives of many individuals. The effect caused heightened channels to counter terror with international and national organizations regrouping through a training scheme to reduce the rising terror attack. According to Boulden (2009), terrorism affects the economic and social agenda of the affected nations and individuals. Therefore, most organizations continue to regroup to fight mechanisms of limiting the terror attacks while protecting its people from harm. Implementation of practicable solutions ensures that the catastrophic terrorism reduces through governmental and international aids to counter terrorism. The Major Terror Groups in the World Terrorism groups comprise different categories of attackers; however, there are four main terror groups holding the responsibility of the increasing destructions in different regions. These groups include Taliban, Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS. According to Franks (2009), the binding factor of these terror groups is their belief in the Islamic religion since most of them comprise of Muslims. Moreover, upon joining the groups, one of the training received is the mastery of the Quran knowing the fundamental beliefs of such actions. Duyvesteyn (2004) posits that supportive evidence showing that the groups are of Islamic origin is their continued attack on the Christian countries and other believers. In addition, most of the cases reported involve Muslims. They train in restricted regions, which mostly is unknown to a great population of people with their team leader giving directions on which countries to attack. The different terror groups are believed to be from the same origin since they have common financiers especially from the Islamic community. The groups are very active, however, ISIS group recorded reduced actions of terror towards the end of 2013, but their restructure later on contributed to their reemergence. In 2013, the great homicide that marked the death of 437, 000 people remains the highest attack so far and no any other terror attack exceeds such earlier effects (Franks, 2009). Even though United States residents are safe from terror attacks, they face frequent homicides through explosives. According to Abadie & Gardeazabal (2008), many people believed that the killing of Osama would limit the operations of Al-Qaeda. However, over time the Al-Qaeda group restructured into even larger organization having a rigid structure gaining support from different people from their local areas. The operations of the terror organization, as presently known, continue to meet its goals through coherent strategies. Though the organization has not achieved its goals for some period, it still has massive support through local initiatives. In fact, Al-Qaeda is growing to become a full-grown insurgency (Boaz, 2005). Limiting the funding of Al-Qaeda remains the big challenge to the government of the United States since most of their money flow to the offshore banks, which are not easily accessible. Moreover, Al-Qaeda militants and financiers are great drug barons whose flow of income remains constant and high throughout the region. Such limitations are barriers to weaken the group completely. Role of the Media During Post 9/11 Terror Era Almost all the media platforms have been focusing on issues relating terror attacks thus greatly contributing to the spread of the use. United States considers most countries in the Middle East as threat to global security levels. Some of the countries zeroed in are Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan, which in most cases harbors these terrorists (Rasmussen, 2009). Moreover, the state considers Iran as a grave threat to both regional and international security demonstrating the level of distrust between the two countries. Just after that attack, the state began developing interest in Middle Eastern countries since it determined the global security. Besides being the region threatening the global security, these countries drastically showed increment in the number of students joining terrorism classes from the local and international states. Since the attack, several terror groups like the Al Qaeda came into existence with their popularity increasing on daily basis. Al Qaeda gained popularity due to their nature of claiming responsibility behind the attack thus thrusting them into spotlight. These terror groups claimed attacks in order to gain the attention of various governments and international security agencies, which in the end they acquired. Other terror groups that gained popularity are the Taliban and Hamas commonly referred to as Middle Eastern Islamic terrorists. 9/11 attack is the major event that shook the country’s security system and most citizens felt vulnerable to the terror groups especially the one that attacked them. The media were responsible for construction of the turning point that marked the country’s shift from pre-9/11 to post-9/11. It is from this point that post-9/11 began to pop up. Most of the media uses post-9/11 to regard any terror activity but to the United States, the term reminds them of negative effect experienced by the Americans. In addition, the term creates a mindset among the people to fear any activity relating to terrorism and to some extend treat it with hatred. Since the attach that claimed the lives of many people, the country declared war on any terror activity internationally. United States considers war against terrorism as its responsibility through combating terror groups threatening the safety of the people (Marks, 2010). In order to achieve this mission, the country vowed to begin with fighting these groups within its borders before extending the fought to other nations since it is the responsibility of the state to offer security to its citizens before considering extension of services outside the border. Before the attack, most Americans stereotyped the definition of terrorist. They perceived that a terrorist is any person from either Arab or Middle Eastern countries. To some extent, they defined a terrorist as a suicide bomber. Currently, most people find it difficult to define terrorism as some conceptualize it as war without any defined battlefield. Impacts of Post 9/11 Terror Attack According to Malan (2002), terrorism especially the post 9/11 events created a great impact in the global economy affecting the international harmony as most people live in panic over loss of jobs, deaths and displacement. Therefore, the lives of people are predetermined by the fact that terror groups pose great threats to the people. The New York attack, for instance, contributed to an approximated loss of 200, 000 jobs with different people leaving their working places empty-handed. Moreover, the destruction of property amounted to $14 billion (Boulden, 2009). Both the private, state and local business operators within the region incurred great losses reducing their economic status to zero. This is the core reason why the increasing trend in terrorism remains a threat worldwide. Regardless of the set mechanisms to counter terrorism, the latter continue to thrive reaching even more nations, however, in United States the rate of terror attack continue to reduce. The event of New York City further incurred losses to the global tourism sectors, financial markets, and airline industries amounting to $ 40 billion. The attack affected the global economy with the dollar depreciating greatly and most of the United States citizens suffered unemployment cases affecting the whole US economy. The recovery from such ordeal ensured that US stabilized in its security and terror personnel in preparation for repetition of the same in the future (Mahler, 2008). The death of Osama bin Laden was a great step to the restructuring of one of the terror organizations in the world-the Al-Qaida. The operational trend of the Afghanistan based group greatly reduced the occurrences of wars. Later, leadership wrangles hit the group with several people showing interest to succeed Laden. As outlined by Boaz (2005), President Barack Obama managed to trace and kill other senior officials of the group with some of its members quitting the organization to surrender them to the authority. This formed the first formidable step into the control of the increasing incidences experienced globally. Other emerging groups especially in Algeria, Iraq and Yemen adopted the name Al-Qaeda upon the death of Osama and this continue to create drift among the terror groups leading to the increasing disagreements among them limiting oneness in decision making to create threats that are more intensive. Strategies Set to Counter Terrorism Globally America is also experiencing crossroads in war against terrorism. Debates have been underway on whether to develop policies relating to counterterrorism or counterinsurgency in the Middle Eastern countries to act as contemporary driver of discoursing security with the United States. The Al Qaeda developed adaptive strategy in Afghanistan making the fight more complicated than initially projected by the state. America vowed to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat these terror groups in areas they consider their strongholds like Afghanistan and Pakistan. Besides completely wiping the out, the state also aims preventing them to return in the country in the coming future (Rineheart, 2010). Counterterrorism and counterinsurgency policies are becoming to downfall since they only focus on the strengths and weaknesses of their implementation on both short term and long-term basis thus compromising the ability to curb terror attacks from international perspective. Since the country experienced the attack that claimed the lives of many citizens, the country developed several strategies to assist in the prevention of such incidences from reoccurring. However, over the last ten years these terror groups have been shifting their structural methods of executing their attacks (Assaf et al., 2006). Through the death of the Al Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, a new era dawned and created trans-international shift on war against terror. In United States, it created transnational terrorism that hit its pinnacle a decade after the attack September 11. The country has been able control threats originating from these terror groups due to advancement in technology. The new technologies opened up modern model of terrorism. Moreover, technology changed structural of the terror groups from centralized and hierarchical structure to much more reliable and efficient method of diffusing networks within regional terrorist groups. With increasing decentralization of terrorism, there is a greater loss to Al Qaeda in relation operational capabilities. As a result, the terror groups are likely to pull off yet another attack like 9/11. These decentralizations also pose several threats to the people. Decentralization makes it difficult for state agencies responsible for intelligence services to keep track of the efforts by terror groups to ensure they do not execute their plans. The Al Qaeda have also been recruiting people pose as civilians. This is their new ideology to ensure their plans move as planned. The war against terror became the driving force behind any organization or group threatening the security of the people. This is a very important theme in post-9/11 world as it acts like the fuel that propels war against any activity, which threatens access to safer environment. Most media platform conveys information relating to war against terror as the responsibility of the state irrespective of whether other countries offer support or not. The country has been able to put more strategies of combating any terror attacks. Additionally, the Intelligence Service plays a crucial role in identifying all activities considered to threaten the safety of the people and reporting to the relevant authority with enough capacity to counter the attack (Faludi, 2007). The states also have several training camps in countries considered to be harboring these terror groups like in the Middle East with an aim fighting them from the strongholds. Besides the states joining hands in combating terror activities, there have been improvement on matters related to weapon manufacturing and people allowed handle them. Considered as a factor that immensely contributes to terrorism, weapon availability is an issue that most countries monitor to ensure they do not fall within the hands of the wrong people. Two years after the attack, the media focused on the need to improve international relations in order to regulate the policies allowing various states to use nuclear materials. In post-91/11, countries are safeguarding nuclear sites because they are the areas these terrorists aim due the magnitude of effect they pose on people. Since the attack, security became a norm among the Americans as they expect the worst from ever-possible scenario (McCreight, 2009). Major terrorism zones in the world The greatest country that has been a threat to terror in the world is Iraq. Trained terror personnel continue to attack different nations. For the past one year the number of individuals who succumbed to terror estimates to 17, 958. Out of these population, 82% of the affected individuals comprised of victims from five countries, which include Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Syria. These countries remain great threat regions to terror with the ongoing revolution in these countries. Nigeria continues to face terror from a Boko Haram group, which contributes to 66% of total deaths occurrences in the country. out of the countries mentioned above, Iraq acts as the most affected area with a record of 2, 492 terrorist attacks recorded in the year 2013 contributing to the death of 6, 362 individuals. Other countries mentioned above are also a greater contribution to the continued terror attacks in different places of the world, with 162 countries surveyed for terrorism recording approximately 15, 000 fatalities from 2000 to 2014 (Kabir & Bourk, 2012). The trend continues to hike with the emergence of other smaller terror groups, continued recruitment, and improved technology. Conclusion Concisely, terrorism remains a great threat to the global economy and pertinent measures are necessary to curb the rising trend. Over the past decade since 9/11, terror activities increased with most regions of the globe facing kidnappings especially learning institutions. Without such strategies, there is likelihood of the terror groups taking the leadership of the whole world over the next two decades limiting freedoms of humans. Most countries are on alert for countering attacks from different interest terror groups. The international cohesion against terror needs constant strengthening to curb such malpractices. References Abadie, A., & Gardeazabal, J. (2008). Terrorism and the world economy. European Economic Review, 52(1), 1-27. Assaf, M., Bonincontro, C., & Johnsen, S. (2006). Global sourcing & purchasing post 9/11: New logistics compliance requirements and best practices. Fort Lauderdale, FL: J. Ross Pub. Bail, C. A. (2012). The Fringe Effect: Civil Society Organizations and the Evolution of Media Discourse about Islam since the September 11th Attacks. American Sociological Review, 77(6), 855-879. Boaz, C. (2005). War and Peace in the Media. Peace Review, 17(4), 335-339. Boulden, J. (2009). Terrorism and Civil Wars. Civil Wars, 11(1), 5-21. Boyle, M. J. (2012). Progress and Pitfalls in the Study of Political Violence. Terrorism and Political Violence, 32(7), 52-61. Duyvesteyn, I. (2004). How New Is the New Terrorism? Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 27(9), 439-454. Faludi, S. (2007). The terror dream: Fear and fantasy in post-9/11 America. New York: Metropolitan Books. Franco, C., & Schuler, A. (2004). Billions for Biodefense: Federal Agency Biodefense Funding, FY2001–FY2005. Biosecurity and Bioterrorism-biodefense Strategy Practice and Science, 12(4), 82-88. Franks, J. (2009). Rethinking the Roots of Terrorism: Beyond Orthodox Terrorism Theory? A Critical Research Agenda. Global Society, 23(2), 154-176. Kabir, S. N., & Bourk, M. (2012). Representing Islam and Muslims in New Zealand Newspapers. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 32(3), 324-338. Lefebvre, S. (2004). A Look at Intelligence Analysis. International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, 48(7), 125-132. McCreight, R. (2009). Educational Challenges in Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 25(3), 101- 120. Mahler, J. (2008, November 30). Ahead for Obama: How to Define Terror. The New York Times [LexisNexis], p. B2. Malan, M. (2002). The Post9/11 Security Agenda and Peacekeeping in Africa. African Security Review, 44(3), 223-247. Marks, R. A. (2010). Spying in America in the post 9/11 world: Domestic threat and the need for change. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. Rasmussen, G. H. (2009). U.S. counter terrorism efforts in Africa. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science. Rineheart, J. (2010, March 22). Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency | Rineheart | Perspectives on Terrorism. Retrieved from http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/122/html Read More

One of the trends in terrorism that is presently common is religious terror. Currently, reports of increased attack to a congregation of worshippers increased with a large margin. The war on religion believes remains the greatest threats and sometimes has left most people unable to make valid decisions on specific religion. The fight between Christians and Muslims is evident in many regions of the world with the Muslim organizations planning for cold wars against Christians. In Afghanistan, for example, their Muslim counterparts constantly evict the most Africans who live and work in the country from their localities (Duyvesteyn, 2004).

The trend is also observable in other countries especially those dominated by the Islamic religion. Subsequently, within Christianity there has been increase in differences regarding the biblical teaching especially on marriage causing terror attacks towards a certain group of believers. For instance, continued fights are evident in the United States especially California among those supporting same sex marriage and those of different sexes marriage. The differences continue to pose greater fears for attack from the different groups especially the same sex partners who feel alienated and coerced by the other group.

Therefore, to counter they organize attacks on the former to gain popularity. Presently, terror is most evident in learning with knowledgeable individuals recruited into various groups and trained. Conversely, most governments in the world do not provide adequate security within institutions and therefore most of them acts as hotspots for terror. The continued kidnapping common in schools continues to worry terror surveillance groups (Duyvesteyn, 2004). A good example is the Boko Haram recent kidnapping activity in Nigeria that lasted for several days affecting the social of the victims and their families.

Similar incidences are also evident in other parts of the world and control of such terror attack has become difficult due to the high population in our learning institutions. As the generation that the attack greatly influenced, the millennials were able to identify themselves politically. Moreover, they are able to likely to identify the liberal citizens than the older generations. The incident portrayed a reinforced heroic nature of the citizens as they worked together to control the situation irrespective of whether one belongs to police force, firemen or members of the defense forces.

Most people realized that the world is full of enemies with hatred who aim at hurting people directly. Currently, most people view terrorism as a violent activity that aims causing death of others. Since the attack, terrorism is a common term from almost all the social media that provokes different reactions from people depending on how people perceive it (Boyle, 2012). To some extent, people think that terrorism is act that causes death and destruction but in actual sense, terrorism is a war that causes death.

Most Americans viewed terrorism as an act of violence since the state government uses the term while referring to attack that occurs in military camps and foreign military forces within the state. Furthermore, people overused the word terrorism and classified it as an aggression act on the country’s allies. One of the factor that distinct terrorism from war is that t triggers fear among the citizens since most attacks do not have distinct places or fight grounds. Another factor that contributed to the escalation of terrorism attack is political differences among people as countries stood firm on issues relating negotiations with terrorist.

For example, America is a county that does not negotiate with terrorists. Moreover, the country often shows strong support to countries experiencing terrorism attacks (Lefebvre, 2004). The attack was able to change the way people viewed all aspects relating to terrorism since it caused much trauma among the Americans. Before the attack, the word terrorism was not a familiar term among the people but after the occurrence, the term became common due to increased levels of attacks.

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