...efforts to assure American citizens of the government’s industrious steps to protect them as well as the impacts that the speech had after the proposed counterterrorism measures that involved developing a robust national security as discussed in the paper. The President of America, George Bush addressed upon the unfortunate events of 9-11 that had unfolded in 2011 the month of September according to the article “George W. Bush - Address to the Nation on 9-11-01. He begins by expressing profound and bitter sentiments upon the deadly terrorist attack that claimed thousands of innocent lives including passengers who had boarded the plane and business people who were in the building. He uses words such as “lives ended suddenly by evil, acts of terror that are despicable. Bush...
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...The Cold War and War on Terror were literally not any typical war that we witnessed throughout history. Although, they were unique and each had their own causes and effects, yet in some ways they are connected. In the Cold War, was a war between two superpowers enemies but no actual fighting occurred, however, there was a stockpile of nuclear weapons and money was being spent like an actually Wars being fought. This war causes a bipolar system in the world where there were two dominant powers fighting to become the dominant power. The Cold War was a real complicated war because it was more a fight about ideology, Democracy and Communism. The attacks of 9/11 that caused the death of 3000 Americans, have reshaped and changed the way Americans...
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...Going To War Com/156 Going To War In today’s world there are many wars and rumors of wars. No matter where we turn we are hearing about one conflict or another. Often it make one wonder has there ever been peace in the world. Looking back on history our world has constantly moved from one war to the next. Trying to understand why it is that mankind feels the need to fight one another is not simple to answer. Many reasons have been given as to why war are started everything from religion, expansionism, ethnic cleansing and even in the name of peace itself. No matter what the reason is that people claim to be fighting for when you get down to the basic of it all. In the end people go to war for power and control, even when the purpose or perception to do so suggests otherwise. To better understand the reason wars are started we need first talk about why people go to war. Matthew O. Jackson and Massimo Morelli wrote (when researching for the book “The Handbook on the Political Economy of War.”) a list of the reason why people go to war. They included the following: religion, revenge, ethnic cleansing and other ideological mass killings, asymmetric information, bargaining failures, first strike advantages and preemptive war. (2009, The Reasons for Wars – an Updated Survey). As complete as this list was I found that often the reason for war was not simply one of the above topics. Often those declaring the wars would use multiple reasons as for the need. This often...
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...Theories 3/13/2016 Marxist theory: War on Terror Marxist theories of international politics are commonly dismissed out of hand as being outdated, preoccupied with economics rather than politics, and concerning itself more with domestic rather than international social relations. Viewed from the perspective of Marxism however, both liberalism and realism are profoundly limited, for each takes as its premise a world of pre-constituted social actors (whether self-interested individuals or security-seeking states). These theories are therefore unable to consider the social processes through which these kinds of actors have been historically constructed. Thus in analyzing the so-called war on terror, Marxism forces us to understand the development of the structures of global capitalism and the ideologies and agents situated within these structures. This essay therefore evaluates whether Marxist theories of international politics offer convincing explanations of the war on terror. I start with the Marxist understanding of capitalism as a historically particular way of organizing social life that entails political, cultural and economic aspects that need to be understood as a dynamic ensemble of social relations not necessarily contained within the territorial boundaries of nation states. I then apply this understanding to frame the war on terror through the context of economic security which has animated US policy-makers from the Second World War to the Bush administration, and in...
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...I will argue that the ‘war on terror’ declared by the Bush administration and so assessed for the US; is not a just war. It fails in the central interrelated criteria of just cause and last resort for jus ad bellum, which I detail first through assessment of the Bush administration’s self-proclaimed just reasoning behind resorting to war against a concept, and the alternatives available to it, I will then detail its failure in the jus in bello criteria of discrimination and proportionality, reasoning through the case of drone warfare. Jus ad bellum I shall firstly focus on the crucial jus ad bellum principle of just cause, holding the only just cause for war to be self-defence . The USA and its allies suffered unjust, unprovoked terror attacks, notably to embassies and battleships, as well as ultimately the 9/11 disaster, and further possessed reputable evidence of other failed attacks. Thus this essay acknowledges that they were under-attack from a powerful and effective enemy, which could be reliably pinpointed as Al Qaeda. These attacks were focused on non-combatants in landmark locations; deliberate targeting for maximum terror spreading effect, which further represented an attack on western freedoms. Hence the assailant satisfied neither jus ad bellum, nor jus in bello, and without immediate and effective action there existed great potential for further unjust attacks. This was the Bush administration’s argument for sufficient reason to declare war in self-defence . However...
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...Islamic Terrorist Groups: A Comparative Study of Terror Jason Schrand HSM 305: Survey of Homeland Security & Emergency Mgmt Instructor: Blake Cheary October 6, 2013 The phrase "Islamic Terrorist" conjures many images for different people. Many will recollect the acts of September 11, 2001 - the act of terror that led the United States first into an invasion of the Taliban-controlled nation of Afghanistan and then into the "Second Gulf War" with Iraq. While both wars made great progress toward the initial goals, namely the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the Hussein dictatorship in Iraq, as the years went by and the war dragged on, seemingly endlessly, the Islamic groups faced by the United States and her Allies seemed to be wearing down the civilian desire to continue to wage war. What American civilians do not seem to understand is that not only does the multitude of groups have very nearly the same goals, but they are also willing to die for their cause and will be almost impossible to defeat unless they are hunted and destroyed. A study of the Islamic terror groups must include historic examples; Islamic extremism is not a recent development, nor has the ideology of the extremist believers changed much since the Islamic Conquests began in the 7th Century. In F.M. Mickolus' work International Terrorism in the 1980's, Mickolus wrote that since 1968 alone two-thirds of the known incidents of terrorism in the world had occurred in...
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...left to make comparisons to the American experience in the Vietnam War. These people argue that the United States has put itself into an in-extractable “quagmire” from which there is no feasible withdrawal. This type of reasoning by historical comparison is not wise because no two historical events are completely alike. In the case of Iraq and Vietnam, extreme caution should be exercised in comparing two wars so far apart in historical circumstances, geography, and time. It becomes pretty obvious that the differences between the two conflicts greatly outnumber the similarities. This is especially true in the strategic and military dimensions of the two wars. There is simply no comparison between the environment, the scale of military presence, losses incurred over time, the quality of enemy resistance, the role and scope of enemy allies, and the duration of open warfare style combat. There are, however, two political parts of the Iraq and Vietnam wars that are similar in nature: our attempts at nation-building in a foreign culture, and our trying to sustaining domestic popular support in a long and drawn out war against insurgents. Policymakers should have an understanding of the reasons for U.S. political failure in South Vietnam, as well as for the Johnson and Nixon administrations’ failure to sustain popular support for the accomplishment of U.S. military objectives in Vietnam. A repeat of those failures in Iraq could have uncalculated consequences for U.S. foreign policy...
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...BOOK REVIEW | LOSING THE BATTLE AGAINST ISLAMIC RADICALISM | | Raghav Sharma Research Intern, IPCS Descent into Chaos: How the War against Islamic Extremism is Being Lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia Ahmed RashidPenguin Books, 2008Pages: lviii+ 484 Price: Rs. 495 | | | The timing and the title of the Ahmed Rashid's latest book could not have been more appropriate. It comes at a critical juncture as the US shifts into election mode marked by politically-charged debates over its policies on the so-called war on terror and as much of South and Central Asia appear to be sliding dangerously down the path of anarchy. Rashid's work makes for a gripping read, his meticulous attention to detail, familiarity with the political and ethnic complexities, credentials as a journalist par excellence having covered the region extensively for 25 years and his access to key political players across the spectrum lend weight to his work.The author makes a stinging critique of the failure of the policies followed by the international community at large and the US in particular in addressing issues pertaining to social stagnation and state failure in the region that have been vital in fuelling the rise of extremism. While he rightly criticizes the Clinton administration's fire and ice policies in dealing with the rising extremist tide, it is the Bush administration he castigates most strongly for its ham-handed approach. This approach, he says was primarily responsible...
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...History 2084 Russia in War and Revolution How Can We Explain the Great Terror? The Great Terror, the watershed between Marxist-Leninism and true Stalinism, is usually defined as the period of almost indiscriminate repression spanning from the Moscow show trials of 1936-37 to the end of Yezhovchina in 1939. During the Terror hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Russian persons were arrested, detained, deported and/or executed on the strength of orders filtered down from above, with Joseph Stalin at the apex signing the executive command. Given the cult of personality, as well as the particular style of administrative bureaucracy, that had been fostered through the decades since the revolution it would not be unreasonable to conclude superficially that Stalin had orchestrated some grand, Machiavellian operation for the inculcation of his position at the head of the Communist hierarchy. However, to do so seems incongruous with the portrait of incompetence painted by his contemporaries (the Ryutin Platform and the general indictment by Lenin[1] springing immediately to mind) and the seemingly ad hoc nature of his policy decisions[2] (specifically, his situational swings between conservatism and radicalism in the 1920's that seemed to consider the ramifications of those policies as a secondary consideration to the quelling of political dissent[3]). While it seems probable that he was apt to consolidate his influence within the Party at any opportunity, the picture of Stalin-as-Cartoon-Villain...
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...left to make comparisons to the American experience in the Vietnam War. These people argue that the United States has put itself into an in-extractable “quagmire” from which there is no feasible withdrawal. This type of reasoning by historical comparison is not wise because no two historical events are completely alike. In the case of Iraq and Vietnam, extreme caution should be exercised in comparing two wars so far apart in historical circumstances, geography, and time. It becomes pretty obvious that the differences between the two conflicts greatly outnumber the similarities. This is especially true in the strategic and military dimensions of the two wars. There is simply no comparison between the environment, the scale of military presence, losses incurred over time, the quality of enemy resistance, the role and scope of enemy allies, and the duration of open warfare style combat. There are, however, two political parts of the Iraq and Vietnam wars that are similar in nature: our attempts at nation-building in a foreign culture, and our trying to sustaining domestic popular support in a long and drawn out war against insurgents. Policymakers should have an understanding of the reasons for U.S. political failure in South Vietnam, as well as for the Johnson and Nixon administrations’ failure to sustain popular support for the accomplishment of U.S. military objectives in Vietnam. A repeat of those failures in Iraq could have uncalculated consequences for U.S. foreign policy...
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...securitization theory – using the case study of War on terror in Afghanistan (2001-2012) Introduction Security study was in the past regarded as a sub-discipline of international relations underpinned in Anglo-American thinking. Until early 1990s, security studies were considered as a strategic studies focusing on a strong military focus. This traditional view of security involved the protection of the state and a scientific agenda to secure the state from definable threats and maintain the status quo. This is a positivist approach which was based on rationalism and realism. The Copenhagen School presented an alternative view of security studies by responding to the traditional approach of forming a clear sense of ‘what is security’. This approach is defined in three mechanisms: development of sectors approach to security, developing a regional focus on security and critically engendering a social constructivist theory of security through securitization studies. This theory will be the main focus of this discussion. To achieve a critical discussion of what securitization really entails, this paper will use the case study of USA’s war on terrorism in Afghanistan. The approach used by the US government to fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq can be considered as a securitization approach which has led to a resulted in security problems in the two countries rather than solving the issue. Securitization of USA’s war on Afghanistan can be viewed in three perspectives:...
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...context of the end of the cold war. The idea of “clash of civilizations” suggests that twenty-first century global order will be characterized by growing tension and conflict between rival cultures or civilizations, as opposed to the political, ideological or economic conflict of old. Huntington furthermore argued that the world was split into 9 different civilizational orders, and the West would clash with all of them, but in particular it would clash with the Islamic world, Japan and Russia. The realists have given little attention to the issue of identity or cultural politics. They focus on the behavior of states. However the liberals have recognized this thesis to some extent. Huntington’s view that the West would clash with the Islamic world was vindicated after the September 11th terrorist attacks, neoconservatives looking for a response distanced themselves from Huntington’s rhetoric. Neoconservative George W Bush was keen to emphasize that not all Muslims were to blame for 9/11, and indeed it was just a tiny minority of extremists holding the Islamic world back. Whereas Huntington had argued that the Islamic world was hostile to western ideas of liberal democracy, George W Bush ignored this insight and fought two wars to try and bring democracy to the Middle East, ignoring Huntington’s claim that there would be a backlash if Western values were spread through force. Thus the neoconservatives would view the war on Terror not as a cultural war, as Huntington and most other...
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...to counter terrorist activities? Terrorism by itself has numerous definitions as it is hard to define it precisely. It is said that this phenomenon has over 100 definitions and lack of one, widely recognized, hinders fighting with this danger. When we discuss about terrorism in colloquial conversation, we instinctually know what it is about and what the meaning of this word is. It is otherwise in case of professional and legal discussions where you have to agree on a definition of the term. The concept of terrorism derives from the Greek treo – “to tremble, to fear”, “to coward, to run away” and Latin terror, -oris – “fear, dread, dismay”, or “terrible word, terrible news” and a derivative of the verb Latin terreo – “to induce horror, to scare”. The word “terrorism” means literally “to sow horror, fright”. Dr Krzysztof Karolczak in his book “Terrorism - a new paradigm of war of the 21st century” draws attention to the problems of...
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...Terrorism by Mukul Sharma and Exporting the Patriot Act? Democracy and the ‘war on terror’ in the Third World by Beth Elise Whitaker and a report named The Terror of Law UAPA and the Myth of National Security, by CDRO, which deals with terrorism on National level. The basic definition of terrorism is ‘the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purpose.’ An act of terrorism might be terrorism to one country whereas patriotism to another country. There are different definitions of terrorism by different agencies. There is no accurate definition of Terrorism as there is difference of opinion...
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...had far reaching effects on American foreign policy. Several changes occurred and a new general priority was created in national security. The entire American populace awoke to the fear of an amorphous enemy Al Qaeda, a terrorist group led by Osama Bin Laden which had declared war on the US by taking the battle to the very shores of America. Over 3000 people were killed when on the 11th of September 2001 two hijacked planes were flown into the he World Trade Centre destroying the twin towers, a third struck the pentagon building while the fourth heading for the White House was brought Down by its hostage passengers who courageously laid down their lives for the nation. The attacks were unprecedented considering the fact that The United States had been attacked before by terrorist. In 1993 the World Trade Centre was bombed, in 1988 US embassy bombing took place in Kenya and Tanzania and in and October 2000 the USS Cole Bombing took place in Yemen 1 just to mention a few. The attacks were considered an act of war and as such required decisive action which was clearly spelt out by President George W. Bush in his September 20th joint address to congress that same year. "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated…And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either...
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