Is Terrorism a Part of the Dark Side of Globalization - Essay Example

Running Head: COLIN POWELL HAS STATED THAT "TERRORISM IS A PART OF THE DARK SIDE OF GLOBALIZATION". Colin Powell Has Stated That "Terrorism Is A Part Of The Dark Side Of Globalization". Do you agree? [Writer’s name] [Institution’s name] Synopsis This essay is based on an analysis of Colin Powell statement That "Terrorism Is A Part Of The Dark Side Of Globalization . The essay shall completely support this statement, for which arguments will be given regarding how globalization has given birth to an evil like terrorism. The introduction of the paper is based on general concept of globalization In order to support this point of view arguments have been given .in the analysis section of the paper. Authors like Friedman of the Lexus and the olive tree have been used to support Colin ‘s statement. The paper will give a detailed analysis of how Globalization has opened all borders and how it has helped in giving rise to terrorism. It shall also analyze how globalization has caused the sovereignty of nations to become absolute and thus further helping terrorism to succeed in it’s evil intentions. Apart from this , in this paper the September 11 incident will be used to ly explain the consequences of globalization. The detailed analysis will help in understanding exactly how globalization has negatively affected the world. The paper shall conclude with concluding remarks about how terrorism is a part of the dark side of globalization, thus supporting Powell’s statement . Colin Powell Has Stated That "Terrorism Is A Part Of The Dark Side Of Globalization". Do you agree? Introduction This essay shall analyze Colin Powell‘s statement that "terrorism is a part of the dark side of globalization”. The essay shall completely support this statement, for which arguments will be given regarding how globalization has given birth to an evil like terrorism. But before a detailed analysis of the statement is given it is very essential to know what really globalization is. Globalization is a concept which is based on the notion of interconnecting the cultures and societies world wide. It removes boundary restrictions and makes the movement of technology, labour and weapons ect across the border an easy task. Analysis Globalization does not modify the most important aspect of the world politics, explicitly the territorial distribution of the world into nation-states. Whereas the increased interconnectedness between economies and societies may make them more dependent with each other, but the same thing cannot be used to describe the state systems. At this point, states maintain sovereignty, and globalization does not solve political conflicts between nations, taking American imperialism as an example. Globalization does not provide safety for American government Iraq war (2003). Therefore it does not weaken the consequence of the threat of the use of military or the strength, or the significance of the balance of power as well. After the attack on 11 September 2001, Naim (2005)says that ‘the era of globalization is over’ . Thus globalization may influence our societies, economies, and culture, but it does not surpass the international political system of states. Under realism, globalization can not increase the prospects for peace in world politics. It can safely be said that by coincidence globalization gave rise to international terrorism, however it may even be predicted that as globalization increases and spreads far and wide, the reaction of international terrorism to this phenomena will be against glob will be even more intense, basically both are interconnected. Nations that do not shape themselves according to the globalization system are may face a lot of problems succeeding and eventually existing as the free market grows and changes in world economy take place. What Powell said can be supported by what Friedman’s book The Lexus and the Olive Tree”, existing affiliation among globalization and international terrorism. The book revolves around the concept of globalization and its reaction i.e. terrorism. Sustaining the region, history, religious and language which is considered as a person’s identity has turned into a crucial fight against the technological developments and modernization as globalization is all about this. (Friedman, 2000) Therefore, people who are against globalization are without a doubt threatened via their loss of authority and power over their own geographical location. A reaction to such dangerous factors is more or less in the form of organized international terrorism, the leaders of this movement utilize Islam for their own selfish purpose as they want to stop the spread of globalization at any cost. Globalization has the problem of international terrorism about Martin notes that: 'Global trade and political integration permit extremist to provoke the attention of targeted audiences far from their home territories. In many respects, because of globalize information and integration; terrorists are able to operate on a virtual battlefield and cross virtual borders to strike their enemies' (Martin, 2006: 269). In fact, currently terrorist organizations can acquire weapons of mass-destruction into the black market and share knowledge or trainings between them as for example ETA and Al Qaeda few years ago. General Problems of globalization grows in importance in sociology and in social and cultural theory. The attacks of September 11, 2001 Arab society faces a many of problems- none of which will be solved soon- that culminated in the most horrific terror attack on U.S. soil. All or some of these problems abound in every Arab country in one way or another: Radical terrorism perpetuated by United States foreign policy which can be attributed to the Iraq War, the increased globalization ideology, and the political decisions of the past and present. Another source of terrorism is the globalization ideology of American policy (Newman, 2006). The globalization ideology can be described as the United States trying to force its ideals and morals onto the rest of the world. For a radical Muslim there is nothing good or wholesome about the American way of life. In the eyes of many extremists, the United States’ dealings with many Muslim countries only serve to corrupt the Muslims that come into contact with America. Muslim extremists believe the United States’ very presence threatens their way of life. With each new push of American ideals the extremists push back harder with an increasing amount of believers ready to die for their cause (Audrey 2002). It can be said that Powell’s statement is correct as Globalisation is basically based on the concept of developing an integrated economic system which function internationally mainly by means of trade and economic flows. It may even encourage the people to cross international borders for the purpose of employment or lifestyle. Along with this it may also encourage the exporting of technology. Globalisation basically has opened all the entrances for people all around the world to move and trade freely. September 11th incident in America, the increase in people infected with aids and the outburst of S.A.R.S are what globalization has bought in through its open doors. Globalisation under all circumstances needs the protection of military. The reason behind the September’s incident proved the fact that, international economy was in danger. Highly developed technology and quicker travel have caused 9/11 to take place. It can safely be said that the more advanced man get the more evil he spared. Osama Bin Laden leads a global network of terrorist groups and has kept the network possible through tools of globalization. Apparently, Americans have a history for being targeted for terrorist attacks since globalization. New communications like the internet have made it possible for political organizations to build large organizational networks, combine resources, and exchange information. It can be considered as accuse of terrorism also as the cornerstone of globalization causes the growing volume, speed and significance of movement in as well as across borders of humans, merchandise, funds, greenhouse gases, drugs, viruses, arms, e-mail ect. All nevertheless, defy the doctrine of sovereignty to monitor and control everything that crosses the border. States are realizing that they no longer have comparable vulnerability but are subject to forces outside their control. Such an implication implies that sovereignty weakens nations, the notion can be further debated that it needs to be weakened even more as states cannot prevent outside commercial, or political influence; sovereignty is no longer a sanctuary (Kepel 2003). Globalization makes sovereignty absolute and that is why it is the dark side of globalization as Sovereignty should thus be based on conditions or contract, it should not be left absolute. If a country unsuccessful in fulfilling it’s side the contract by promoting terrorism, utilizing , design or moving weapons of mass destruction, or promotes any kind of genocide, then it is defying usual rules of sovereignty and exposes its self to external attacks. The political challenge for this age is to gain extensive support for doctrine of state conduct as well as a method for finding solutions when these rules are broken. Nevertheless globalization results in extremely negative outcomes. A quicker and unrestricted movement of individuals, merchandise and information has created a lot of challenges, including the formation of new type of crime and exposure to trans-national crime. Globalization of business and travel has given international criminals extraordinary unrestricted movement, makes it easy for them to cross borders and to start of their operations. As a result, virtually every region or country in the world has seen an increase in international criminal activity (Kelly etal 2005). Criminal organizations will continue to garner power if action is not taken to stop the ease with which they operate across borders posing a serious threat to national and international security as accrued funds are frequently being used to finance terrorist organizations. For organizations like al-Qaeda, borders are nothing more than a mere inconvenience in their criminal enterprises. Through the increasing lack of geographical constraints and advanced technology, globalization has expanded the illegal market allowing criminal organizations to enter into strategic alliances resulting in ascension of crime. Irregular economic growth, with a rigid division of wealth both among countries in society was the key cause - as in the previous era of neo-liberal globalization. The capricious combination of economic crises, political chaos, and armed clashes has always been the ultimate cause of intense international crisis. The increasing knowledge of anti-globalization movement helps neo-liberal globalization to give rise to such conditions which may encourage the awful attacks on New York and Washington. Hamish McRae, an enthusiastic follower of neo-liberal policy, claimed that it was likely that 11 September 2001 will give rise to a new approach i.e. the beginning of a slow recession in international movements of trade and wealth, a steady withdrawal from an interrelated world. Thus this knowledge which McRae is speaking of only causes more confusion and havoc in society as it gives rise to incidents like 9/11. Therefore it can be said that this kind of knowledge is the creation of globalization. In bringing to us the convenience of post modernisms, society may the have overlooked consequences of our rapid expansion from a local society to a global one (Nassar 2004). The world political affairs, in the age of globalization had a lot of issues which requires collaboration to deal with them. After the frightening experience of 9/11, there was a requirement for more investments in a conflict prevention capacity is extremely obvious. Terrorism, violent behaviour in the world, especially in Middle East countries , if globalization did not have a evil side then the European union should use all it’s resources both political as well as financial as it is considered as an organization which promotes globalization , thus it must take part in supporting conflict prevention. As The European union itself an is an has to exercise its role in making peace as well as prosperity, and thus due to such unrestricted borders of globalization it too has a hard time controlling terrorism. Prospective conflicts are frequently a cross bordered. An ability for action in reaction to disagreement or make an extremely general foreign policy all depends on what the nations require , the ability to do something and, the most important the political will to take steps against terrorism is quite difficult as most of the political forces too are at the mercy of globalization (Cooper 2003). Thus they pay more attention to development then to eradicating the issue. America waged war against the terrorism, “The Economist” claims that the financial systems of Argentina is facing intense crisis, and the world economy are going through the most horrible slowdown in ever. Does this entire picture of crisis portray point towards moderate international system which we know as globalization? The answer to this is yes as Powell said terrorism the dark side of globalization and thus only something with such a Dark side could cause so much chaos. When such a system in which only one nation is dominating the other comes into being then surely it calls for trouble. And the borders open up their doors, by giving different kind of visas without much investigation then evils like terrorism come into being. It is such a radical thought that global terrorism, the trend of terrorists waging war against a number of countries at the same time, was made possible due to globalization and currently it has turned into the prime challenge to this notion as undoubtedly Powell’s statement about globalization‘s dark’s side being terrorism is hundred percent true. Global terrorism completely depends on how fast globalization spreads. Infact it can be perceived that global terrorism is apart of this global culture which was created by globalization. Globalization as a system was supported by the notion of removing restrictions from the orders thus making sovereignty absolute. Globalization is basically a system in which employment, information, assets, technology and income can travel across borders with least the amount of interference from the law. This kind of freedom has replaced thee strict system of security. Conclusion When we talk about globalization most people consider it a blessing, they only see the advancements and new policies. Basically they see the bright coloured picture which the politicians paint for them. Behind this lovely scenery is dark and evil side one that causes nations to loose the lives of their people. The dark side of globalization is truly eroded the dark side of human nature. The idea erasing all of cultural and race boundaries by globalization eradicates a common view of leadership, and forms a base upon which diverse views of leadership are formed. These views are different from that which globalization expects from them and thus a terrorist leader is born. Globalization cannot on nay way mould the thinking pattern of people who live according to a different life style. Globalization has given terrorism a way to cross into all borders. The fact that it imposes it’s notions on people irrigate a lot of nations and in turn it cause them to revolt. And thus revolting nature leads to extremely adverse effects. Thus by the above given analysis it can be concluded that Colin Powell’s statement that terrorism is a part of the dark side of globalization is completely valid and should be considered as a warning to the entire world. Anything which removes all restrictions and tries to make opposites meet can only cause chaos in the entire world. People realize that in order to take the easy route to development they will have to face the wrath of terrorism. References Audrey Kurth Cronin (2002); Behind the Curve: Globalization and International Terrorism" Journal of International Security, volume 27, issue 3, pages 30-58 Cooper Robert (2003); The Breaking of Nations Atlantic Books, American edition Friedman L. Thomas (2000); The Lexus and the Olive Tree Anchor; Reprint edition Kelly J. Robert, Maghan L. Jesse, and Serio D. Joseph (2005); Illicit Trafficking: A Reference Handbook (Contemporary World Issues) ABC-CLIO Kepel, Gilles (2003), Bad Moon rising: a chronicle of the Middle East today, London, Saqi, Naim, Moises (2002). The Fourth Annual Grotius Lecture: Five Wars of Globalization. American University International Law Review, 18 Nassar R. Jamal (2004); Globalization and Terrorism: The Migration of Dreams and Nightmares Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc Newman David (2006), `The lines that continue to separate us: Borders in our borderless world', Progress in Human Geography, Vol 30 (2), 1-19, Read More