The Importance of Understanding the Causes of Terrorism - Essay Example

Understanding Terrorism Introduction Terrorism is a global menace and the most talked about topic in the modern world. The picture of the terrorism has changed after the 2001 WTC attack. Day by day different terrorist outfits are spreading their nets across the world. Persons who are involving themselves with the terrorist activities are considering themselves as the freedom fighters that are fighting against any established systems. Terrorism does not have any internationally accepted definition. Most of the global community agrees that terrorism is all about killing innocent and unsuspecting people. The word terrorism originated from the word Terri, which is a Latin word. Body It is very important to understand the various causes of terrorism. It helps us to recognize the root cause and ideas of the terrorism. There are several reasons for which human being choose this path of destruction and unjustified violence. It is being observed that some people select the way of terrorism to bring change. Those people have certain set of policies on the basis of that they conduct their cowardly acts. It is very important for us to understand what sorts of change they are seeking. It can help us in significant way. Once the reason of terrorism is known to us then it is easy to prevent the act of terrorism. Understanding the root cause of terrorism can provide extra information which is highly important for the prevention of the destruction. It is often being observed that under the cover of religion sentiments terrorists often creates catastrophic destruction. Terrorist outfit like Al-Qaeda wants to create the dominance of Islam in the global foot print. In the course of that, the terrorist organization is trying to misuse the religion views of Islam (Hoffman, 2013, pp. 79-81). This kind of thing is significantly risky for the human being and for the global peace. That is why it is very important to understand the root cause. After the 9/11 attack, US Government tried to find the reason for the massive destruction. When they understood the root cause of the terrorism, they started their activities to resist the ugly head of the terrorism. They found that Afghanistan was the place from where the whole terrorist activity was planned. To prevent this kind of activity in future they attacked certain locations of the country and up to certain extend they have managed to dismantle the terrorist activities over there. This incident is also categorically indicating that, understanding the reason of terrorism can prevent terrorism. Over the years America and its allied forces like UK, Germany, France etc has tried to understanding the causes of terrorism in detailed manner. Organizations like FBI and CIA have given significant efforts to go deep into the cause of terrorism. The success factor is significantly self reflecting. After the 2001, till today USA has remained free from any terrorism. They have successfully prevented the terrorism in their soil. The main reason behind this success is detailed understanding regarding the causes of terrorism. There are lots of reasons for which terrorist activities can raise its ugly heads. Those reasons are social injustice, revenge and political motives. In each of the cases root causes for terrorism are different. Each and every reason requires separate prevention strategy. To create counter terrorism strategy for all these heterogenic reasons, it is very important to know the root causes. If the root cause is known then designing the counter terrorism strategy is much easier. Otherwise counter terrorism strategy without knowing the root cause of the terrorism cannot be successful. In the last two decades various terrorist activities have opened the eyes of the international community. Previously counter terrorism strategy was more of an individual effort from the side of the affected country. But now a day’s global fraternity has changed their strategy. They have identified the root causes of the terrorism. It has helped them to unite against the global terrorism. Currently security and intelligence agencies of the various countries shares intelligence input among them. These kinds of intelligence inputs are significantly important as far as the prevention of terrorism is concerned. Terrorism is a consolidate result of the various small but important things. It has some critical elements. Those elements are leadership, ideology, funding, personnel, weapons, safe heavens, communication, intelligence and movement. All these elements are significantly important for conducting terrorist activities. It is important for us to understand all these elements of the terrorism. Understanding the source of funding for terrorism is utterly important. Once the cause of funding is known to the global security agencies then it is considerably easy for them to cut the supply line of terrorist funding. If supply line of funding is absent then it is very difficult to carry out terrorism. In this way terrorism can be prevented. Safe heavens are those areas where terrorists can move without any fears. They use those areas as the base camps for conducting different terrorist activities across the globe. It is significantly important to recognize those areas. After the 9/11 attack, international community identified Afghanistan and Pakistan as the safe heavens for the terrorists. They attacked those countries to prevent the threat of global terrorism (Cronin & Ludes, 2004, pp. 73-74). Their detailed understanding related with safe heavens helped them a lot. American forces were able to gun down most wanted terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden on 2nd May, 2011 in Pakistan. That incident was a significant blow for terrorists across the world and it was an important step as far as the prevention of the global terrorism is concerned. Conclusion All the above discussions and arguments are clearly indicating that we gain a lot from understanding the causes of the terrorism. Detailed understanding about the root causes of the terrorism activities across the world helps immensely to prevent the activities of terrorism. In this paper several real examples are being provided. All those examples are clearly articulating that counter terrorism strategy requires substantial understanding of the causes related to the terrorism. The paper also has categorically stated that better understanding about the causes of the terrorism can provide important information or intelligences which are significantly important for the prevention of terrorism. References Cronin, A.K. & Ludes, J.M. (2004). Attacking terrorism: elements of a grand strategy. Washington DC: Gerorgetown University Press. Hoffman, B. (2013). Inside terrorism. New York: Columbia University Press. Read More