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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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March
2007
Volume
12 - Number 3 |
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What is the solution to Terrorism? By Terrina Harford Terrorism can be defined as a form of asymmetric warfare, and is more common when direct conventional warfare either cannot be (due to differentials in available forces) or is not being used to resolve the underlying conflict. The context in which terrorist tactics are used is often a large-scale, unresolved political conflict. The type of conflict varies widely; historical examples include: - Secession of a territory to form a new sovereign state - Dominance of territory or resources by various ethnic groups - Imposition of a particular form of government, such as democracy, theocracy, or anarchy - Economic deprivation of a population - Opposition to a domestic government or occupying army So… what is the solution to terrorism? Here’s my two cents having traveled around the world as an Officer in the US Navy. For starters, we can not forget two important facts: 1. Terrorism has been around for hundreds of years. 2. One country’s terrorists are another country’s freedom fighters. As a result, there is no simple solution. To help illustrate my points, I will begin with an analogy. When an individual discovers a cancerous tumor in his of her body, the first and correct decision is to go in and take the tumor out before it kills you. However, there is also another step that must be done before and after the procedure; Treatment of the body holistically or the cancer might come back and the next time it may kill. Analysis must be conducted on the conditions that enabled the infection to fester and reach a level of fatal threat. To make the analogy clear in the case of terrorism: if a terrorist cell is identified somewhere that is planning an attack, yes of course we must destroy the terrorist cell and operation. However, to truly eliminate the problem of terrorism, we must address the underlying motives/conflicts (some are identified in the second paragraph) that create a terrorist. Then come up with the creative solutions that will eliminate the motives so that the problem will not reoccur in the future. There must be a coordinated and unified effort to eliminate the desire for countries/groups to create terrorists/freedom fighters. References: Terrorism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism |