Ptr 100 Perspectives on Security And Terrorism - Essay Example

Australia has strengthened their measures against terrorism after the 9/11 incident. In fact 9/11 was a wakeup call for the Australian government. They have formulated different policies to counter terrorism from different angles and different perspectives. Canberra has adopted a two-tiered approach to counter-terrorism. At the international level the fulcrum upon which its counter- terrorism policies rest is Canberra’s military alliance with the United States. At the domestic level, the Australian government has responded to the threat by hardening the state’s investigative and punitive powers.

1 Australia has realized that they have negligible prowess in countering the global terrorism and the most they can do is to strengthen the hands of the Americans in their war against terror. Australia is one of the prominent allies of America and they cannot stay away from the responsibilities of countering the global terrorism. Yesterday, it was America who suffered from terrorism; now India and Pakistan are the prominent victims; tomorrow it could be Australia and the Australian government has better awareness about it.

Apart from strengthening the hands of America, in countering global terrorism, Australia has concentrated heavily in domestic security as well. “Australias vulnerability was underscored on 3 November 2001when the Arab worlds al-Jazeera television channel broadcast a statement by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden identifying Australia as an enemy of Islam”2. It is a fact that terrorists are waiting for an opportunity to attack Australia because of the support it extends to US for the attack against War on Terror.

If many Australians thought that their relative isolation distanced them from the immediate threat of large-scale terrorism, any such complacency was shattered by the Bali bombings on 12 October 2002, which claimed the lives of 89 Australian citizens3 The Bali bombing has proved that Bin Laden’s statement was not a joke.