Conflict: Its Origins, Ethics and Containment - Essay Example

Every act of terrorism is a wrongful act Introduction Presniakovy (2003) defined terrorism as the methodical use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective. It the use of violence acts to frighten the people in society as way of proving a point to the leaders of a particular State. Presniakovy (2003) stated that terrorism has been used by political organizations throughout history using nationalists, revolutionaries, and ethnic groups. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) describes terrorism as the lawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate the government and the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. There are two forms of terrorism, international and domestic terrorism. According to the writings by Law (2009), international terrorism is done in a foreign country by terrorists who are not native to that country and they use violence against civilians in order to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature, through instilling fear in the people. Domestic terrorism is terrorism practiced within the country. The main objective of terrorism is intimidating individuals in a country to get what they want. Terrorism has the following characteristics, involve activities that are dangerous to human life as they disregard the federal law; they are meant to intimidate the people in society, influence the policies of a government by force, and affect the conduct of a government by assassination, mass destruction, and kidnapping of prominent people in the society (Malisow and French, 2008). Terrorists are people who participate in terrorism. There are various types of terrorism depending with what the terrorists are using to instill fear to people. State terrorism is the use of force without declaring war to frighten people to achieve a political goal in the society. Malisow and French( 2008)defined bioterrorism as the deliberate release of toxic biological agents to harm citizens, cyber terrorism as the use of improved information technology such as computer systems to attack, narco terrorism as the use of drug trafficking to influence decisions, and nuclear terrorism as the use of nuclear materials to exploit others. The essay is going to discuss the history of terrorism, the major terrorists in the world, reasons why the terrorists make the lives of people miserable, acts of terrorism that affect the people and recommendations to stop terrorism. History of terrorism The first incidences of modern terrorism occurred during the Reign of Terror headed by Maxmilien Robespierre in the French Revolution. Robespierre made sure that the enemies of the French revolution were killed. He dictated the citizens in the country to do whatever he wanted. Cronin (2004) stated that Robespierre justified slaying innocent civilians as a necessary demand in the transformation of the kingdom to an open-minded democracy. This type of leadership laid a foundation for the modern terrorists in the world since they realized that the use of violence facilitates better systems in the government. Through the leadership of Robespierre, people characterized terrorism with state action but in the 1950’s the idea of terrorism as a strategy to disobey political orders became famous to citizens. Later on other non-state actors, started using violence to defend their rights in the society for example groups supporting nationalist agendas. Some groups such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka used suicide bombs and other queer methods to frustrate the government for them to get independence from the Sinhalese government (Bingley, 2003). Terrorism started becoming a serious threat when many people started participating in bloody events and setting off bombs in airplanes. In the 1990s religious groups mainly the Islamic groups became a threat to other religions such Christianity, Hinduism, and Judaism. The Islamic groups are the biggest threats in terrorism because their religion supports violence and the more they kill people, the more they are viewed as prominent people in their society (Al-Khattar, 2003). Terrorist groups There are various groups of organizations that are known to be terrorists. Examples of terrorist groups include; the communist and socialist groups that participated in terrorism activities, examples include the Weather Underground Organization in The United States of America, Red Brigades in Italy, and Shining Path in Peru and Revolutionary Struggle in Greece. The National liberation groups that participated in terrorist activities to liberate their countries from bad governance include: Tamil Tigers from Sri Lanka, PKK from Kurdish and Fatah from Palestine. There are also Religious-political groups that facilitate religious terrorism and use religious idioms to define their terms (Al-Khattar, 2003). The goals of the religious groups are political since they revolve around gaining recognition, territory, and power. Examples of religious groups include the Al Qaeda who are transnational Islamists, Aum Shinrikyo who are Hindus and Buddhists from Japan, Boko Haram who are Islamists from Nigeria, and Klu Klux Klan who are Christians from The United States, and Hamas who are Islamists from Palestine (Das and Kratcoski, 2003). Causes of terrorism Terrorists commit violent acts for various reasons, which include: Discrimination The people living in the Diaspora feel alienated and this makes them feel the need to revenge against the others. Weinberg (2009) gave the example of the Muslim people from poor countries that move to wealthy States to study and work, and while in these countries they feel isolated because of their colour, language and culture. The alienated people end up looking for individuals from their culture hence creating groups that can lead to extremist ideologies. Religion The battles for ownership of territory in countries where people from Islamic religion and Christianity live have led to terrorism because innocent souls are lost in the violence involved in the wars there. The Islamic religion promises rewards in the afterlife for individuals who frustrate and kill people from other religions, this increases the risks of terrorist attacks happening in the world today (Al-Khattar, 2003). Political grievances Held (2008) stated that lack of political comprehensiveness in the States could cause individuals in the society to involve themselves in terrorism. This is where the government makes orders that make people’s lives difficult and uncomfortable and hence the people form terrorist groups to react on the issues. The accidental guerrilla Held (2008) defined the accidental guerrilla as a theory whereby, terrorist groups such as Al Qaida locate in areas with poor governance and use it as a refuge to extend their philosophies to other countries and as a foundation to carry out their violent activities. When security forces from other super power countries intervene, the Al Qaida group facilitates the locals to reject the forces and join their movement therefore recruiting more members to help them. Acts of terrorism that were wrongful acts Terrorism causes a lot negative impacts in the society, economically, politically, and socially. Effects on the economy Terrorism leads to negative impacts in the economy by destroying what people have build in years. Structures, towns, and cities are destroyed when terrorists attack and leave the business owners with nothing to look up to and have to start investing from the start again. Audrey (2004) stated that the economy of a country is affected when both local and foreign investors fear investing in the business opportunities available in the country because of terrorist threats. The economy also slows down because of damage of consumer confidence and hence goods and services produced in the country are wasted due lack of market to sell the goods and services. Terrorism is wrongful acts as it makes tourists fear to visit places that are prone to attacks or that have been attacked before hence the country loses revenues that benefit the economy. When terrorists attack the governments’ issues restriction orders to tourists and travel advisories, which influence the tourism sector negatively. Case example of September 11, attacks Biachi (2004) stated that one of the major terrorist attacks happened in the United States of America on September 11, 2001, when Al Qaida members captured four commercial airplanes and crashed two of them into twin towers in New York City, the third plane crashed in the Pentagon building near Washington, D.C and the fourth plane crashed near Pittsburgh. This plane crashes led to deaths of many people who were in the planes and the surrounding areas that the crashes happened. Many people were also injured and had to lose some parts of their bodies. The economy of the United States was also affected with the collapse of the World Trade Center complex and destruction of the Pentagon. Biachi (2004) stated that September 11 2001 attacks in the United States affected the financial markets since the New York’s financial markets remained closed due to the destruction of the communications systems that were located in the World Trade Center. The attacks in the United States affected their economy since major changes had to be done to the overall supply chains. They had incur extra costs that is in terms of money and time to ensure security at land borders and ports to prevent any other unplanned attacks by terrorists. The homeland security had to be increased in the country thereby having a negative impact on the economy since they now spend US$ 500 billion annually on the departments preventing attacks by terrorists Biachi (2004). Social effects Terrorism is a wrongful act as it makes people in society live in fear because of the violence involved. Terrorist express their anger on innocent people to show they are unhappy with the government. Terrorists use tactics such as bombs, suicide attacks, hijacking, nuclear attacks, and aircraft attacks to instill fear to people in the society. All these tactics lead to destruction of property and loss of human lives. Human life is sacred and a human right but the terrorists ignore the importance of human dignity and kill as many as they can to prove a point to the government (Coady, 2002). Terrorism is a wrongful act as innocent children are killed or left as orphans when their family members are shot. Terrorism affects the mental and physical processes of people when they think about their lost loved ones and their properties lost in the attacks. Case example of Boko Haram attacks Boko Haram are terrorists in Nigeria who have made the lives of people miserable by burning pupils in boarding schools and shooting students to prove to the government that the Islamic people cannot be led by a Christian president and that they are fighting for an Islamic State in Northern Nigeria (Coady, 2002). The Boko Haram terrorists have killed many people from the Christian religion by attacking them in churches and burning the churches during services to show that they are superior. All these acts of terror by terrorists are wrong and make people live in fear because they could be killed any time with unreasonable groups revenging against the government. Political effects Terrorism is a wrongful act as it instills fear in the leaders of a country because most of the attacks are meant to prove a point to the government. The terror attacks are normally planned to make the government leaders change their opinions about different controversial issues in the government. Terrorism activities create a bad image for the country as it shows that the government is not working well enough to ensure security in their country. Some governments for example in Nigeria are being frustrated by Boko Haram terrorists who are fighting to make the Northern part of the country an Islamic State by making people suffer and they have no one to help. Malisow and French (2008) stated that governments are likely to fail prematurely when they are affected by the terrorist attacks. On the other hand, the governments that rein their territories with violence and use dictatorship like Robespierre during the French revolution are wrong because they make people suffer and kill innocent civilians. Containment of acts of terrorism Terrorism is a criminal act since it leads to loss of lives and destruction of property and should be avoided. The government should come up with policies that ensure serious punishment for perpetrators of terrorism activities (Coady, 2002). Recommendations in stopping terrorism Reduction of military assistance The government with strong military powers should stop helping other countries like providing them with improved military hardware as this makes some of the individuals take advantage and use these materials to attack them. For example, when the United States government provided military assistance to Israel’s enemies, it made them a target of attack by the terrorists that supported the war in Israel. Stop illegal firearms transfer The governments should enact policies that prevent the transfer of illegal firearms. This will reduce terrorism since the attackers will not have tools to use to intimidate individuals in the society. Terrorist use firearms made from improved technology from the developed countries, when the transfer of these firearms is stopped, the terrorists will lack materials to facilitate their attacks. Non-interference The governments of various states should stop interfering in other countries’ disputes and stop providing firearms for foreign governments to reduce the terrorist pressure on the States that are stable. When a government helps another country to solve its issues in the name of protecting human rights around the world, it becomes a target of the terrorists since they view the government helping its enemy as a threat. Poverty alleviation Individuals from poor countries easily join terrorist groups because they are sure that after intimidating people in the society, they will be paid a lot of money and become rich. Reducing poverty in the country by educating the youth on the consequences of terrorism enables the young people to aim at better things than being lured into terrorist activities. End of injustice Injustice in the government has led to formation of terrorist groups where individuals take the law in their own hands. The rich people in the developing countries are becoming richer and the poor individuals becoming poorer, Das and Kratcoski (2003) stated that this gap has led people toward terrorism as they need basic needs to survive and the leaders of terrorist groups assure them that they provide all those needs. The governments should therefore end injustice and distribute resources equally to all the people to ensure that their people are not lured into terrorist activities. Conclusion Terrorism is violence against innocent individuals in the society and causes lose of human lives and destruction of properties. Terrorists use tactics such as bombs, suicide attacks, hijacking, nuclear attacks, and aircraft attacks to intimidate and instill fear to people in the society for political reasons. Modern terrorism was started during the French revolution where the leader Robespierre dictated the people and killed the enemies of the revolution to ensure people followed his rules. The causes of terrorism are discrimination, religion, and political grievances. Terrorist attacks affect the people economically, socially, and politically leaving them frustrated and hopeless. The acts of terrorism can be reduced by the governments of various states enhancing policies that ensure serious punishments for those people who participate in terrorist activities. The governments of should stop the transfer of illegal fire arms, stop interference in disputes in other countries, end injustice, educate people in their countries to reduce poverty and to stop providing military assistance to countries that are in war in order to stop terrorism. References Al-khattar, M. (2003). Religion and terrorism: an interfaith perspective. Westport (Connecticut), Praeger. Aubrey,M. (2004). The new dimension of international terrorism. Zürich, vdf- Hochschulverl. Bianchi, A. (2004). Enforcing international law norms against terrorism. Oxford , Hart. Bingley, R. (2003). Terrorism. Oxford, Heinemann Library. Coady, A. J. (2002). Terrorism and justice: moral argument in a threatened world. Carlton South, Vic, Melbourne Univ. Press. Cronin, K. (2004). Attacking terrorism elements of a grand strategy. Washington, D.C., Georgetown U Press. Das, K., and Kratcoski, C. (2003). Meeting the challenges of global terrorism: prevention, contro, and recovery. Lanham, MD, Lexington Books. Held, V. (2008). How terrorism is wrong morality and political violence. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Law, D. (2009). Terrorism a history. Cambridge, Polity Press. Malisow, B., and French,L. (2008). Terrorism. New York, NY, Chelsea House. Presniakovy,B. (2003). Terrorism. London, Nick Hern. Weinberg, L. (2009). Global terrorism. New York, Rosen. Read More