Terrorism: The Global Security Threat

“There is no good terror and bad terror. Terror is terror. There’s not terror that you can accept and terror that you cannot accept. Murder is Murder.” - Ariel Sharon

 Security as a term is widely known but the meaning attached to it or how people perceive security to be is very limited to some aspects only. In simple language, security is being free from threats and danger but as one gets deeper into the topic, one realizes that over time security has attained a lot of different meanings and broadened its jurisdiction in what all may become security concerns and issues. At present, security is not restricted to military terms and the national realm but undertakes many international and domestic issues. person. Till the period of the cold war, the security aspect was narrow, but it suddenly broadened up as the world faced the issues of ethnic conflict, refugee population and famine, conventional war, and humanitarian intervention. Broadening the conceptualization of security meant including four other sectors i.e., Political, Economic, Societal, and Environmental in addition to the military dimension. (Bilgin, Booth, and Jones 143). 

As said, what might be a security threat for one, might not be for the other. In order to bring out the best of security studies and have a greater understanding, Critical Theorists ask, ‘what is security?’ and turns out that security is whatever we make of it. It is a process of emancipation, with no objective and timeless meaning but does not ignore the military aspect of security. It goes on to raise another thought by saying ‘whose security are we referring to. It rejects the statism that fails to provide daily security to its citizens. (Bilgin, Booth & Jones, 153-154). 

 One of the important and ongoing security threats could be the issue of Terrorism. Terrorism is usually people getting through the calculated use of violence especially for a political cause but has turned out to be representative of religious differences that exist in our world. They engage in hijackings, kidnappings, and suicide bombings too. Their works are systematically planned over a long time and lead to high casualties. The main aim that terrorists have is to disturb the sense of security one has and lead to chaos. This relativity of security—of who or what is being threatened, and from what or whom—has important consequences for understanding security relations between states, within states, and between non-state actors. (Krause & Williams,2). When talking about Terrorism, whose security we are pointing at, we are referring to the security of individuals, the society as a whole, the community one lives in, and the international system that entails everything, from the threatening individuals and anti-social elements that are very part of the society we live in. The means to ensure security from terrorism is to have a strong military but also requires strong international cooperation because terrorism is some kind of issue that can not be dealt with by a single nation instead all the countries need to come up with their solutions and see if that is applicable and can put an end to the uprising terrorism. The purpose to put an end to terrorism is the very survival of human beings, the species and to ensure that they are safe, have the freedom to do what they wish to, and are living a peaceful life, exercising their rights and fulfilling their duties. All these have to be ensured by the state, the government ruling the concerning nations, and the institutions that are related to the issue and have the ability to bring together the nations in order to act against it.

 Evidence points that there has been a rise in right-wing terrorism across western Europe and they are taking the form of international or being transnational, getting onto global concerns. The recent example of the Taliban overthrowing the western led government of Afghanistan shows the rise in the Jihadist groups and the influence this ideology could have. This requires the nations to have strong counterterrorism policies in order to respond to this threat effectively and this requires defining the acts of terrorism clearly. According to the recent RAND Europe study, there is disagreement as to classifying what comes under terrorism. The problem becomes grave when traditional ideology mutates and somewhat hinders the ability to classify right-wing acts as terrorist acts. 

The 9/11 attacks, in which 4 hijacked American commercial aircraft were flown into the important buildings by 19 militants associated with Islamic group Al-Qaeda, in the United States in September 2001. One aircraft crashed in the Pentagon building where the US defense department is headquartered, another was for the capitol building of the US congress but crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The other two crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Centre. It resulted in the death of around 3 thousand general public and 400 police officers and firefighters. It was the most severe attack on the US since the founding of the country in 1776. The attack was so terrifying that it’ll be painfully present forever. For those who witnessed the scene or lost their family members, anticipating death became a condition of living. In response to this, George W Bush initiated the ‘Global War on Terror and launched ‘operation Enduring Freedom’ against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime who were suspected to be behind this attack. 

 The human cost of terrorism has been observed everywhere. The United Nations itself has suffered a severe human loss. Terrorism has turned the lives of people, forced them to leave their homelands, look for new occupations, and spend their lives in refugee camps. Individual security is the basic right and the obligation of the governments to ensure it to their citizens. 

 References-

 1- Krause, K., & Williams, M. (2018). Security and “security studies.” The Oxford Handbook of International Security, 13–28.

 2- Uppal, S. (Ed.). (2019). chapter 3. In Contemporary World politics: Textbook in political science for class XII. essay, National Council of Educational Research and Training 

 3- Dascalu, D., & Wilkinson, B. (2021, November 8). Defining 'terrorism' is the first step to defeating it. RAND Corporation. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.rand.org/blog/2021/11/defining-terrorism-is-the-first-step-to-defeating-it.html 

4- Terrorism. IILS Blog. (2017, March 1). Retrieved February 4, 2022, https://www.iilsindia.com/blogs/terrorism/ 

5- Wong, J. P. (2021, September 13). The guilt i carry over 9/11 drives me to help others. RAND Corporation. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.rand.org/blog/2021/09/the-guilt-i-carry-over-911-drives-me-to-help-others.html