Concepts of non-violence in response to 9/11: European options to influence US policy - Essay Example

the post Cold War era arguably has heralded a new peace world order based on the entrenched deterrence theory, however Mahmood comments that “if these dividends are spent on unsound and archaic tactics to defeat the new enemy, we will squander an historic opportunity for our flawed strategies” (Mahmood, 2008 at www.stormingmedia.us/19/1979/A197974.html). Moreover, the proliferation of terrorism as a global phenomenon and the problem of defining the concept under international law measures add further gravitas to Mahmood’s arguments regarding the current flaws in counter terrorism strategy post 9/11.

The focus of this paper is to critically evaluate the viability of an alternative approach to traditional military thinking and consider non-offensive defence measures in strategy as a response to 9/11. In doing so, it is submitted at the outset that the central problems in combating the terrorism threat has been the persistent failure to understand causality, which is further compounded by the lack of effective measures at international law to combat terrorism. Moreover, it is necessary to comprehend the interrelationship between the imbalance of power among terrorist groups, US foreign policy and causality for terrorism in considering the interaction between terrorists and opponents (Betts, 2002, p.19). Accordingly, in section 1 of this paper I shall evaluate the problems regarding the definition of terrorism as a crime under international law, which is further compounded by the lack of effective enforcement measures.

This in turn has provided a breeding ground for knee jerk politically motivated responsive measures to 9/11, ignoring the need to consider causality and non-violent responsive strategy. In turn, this fuels a domino effect on terrorism proliferation, which is further perpetuated by the risk of nuclear terrorism, which I shall discuss in section 2. I shall then conclude with an overview discussion of considering non-violent response concepts as