Impact of Terrorism on Global Security (a Case Study of Africa)
Chapter One
Research Objectives
The objectives of the study were:
- to identify the factors influencing terrorist activities between the period of 2000 to 2010,
- to establish why terrorism is inevitable despite the collective state efforts (UN),
- to examine how terrorism has affected education systems,
- to examine the effects of terrorist activities on international peace and security from 2000 to 2010, and
- to provide recommendations on how to effectively combat the effects of terrorism in the international system.
The thrust of the research was to provide an analysis of the effects of terrorism between 2000 and 2010 in maintaining international peace and security.
CHAPTER TWO
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW
The main objective of this part was to review relevant literature on international peace as it relates to international peace and security. In trying to provide an analysis of the effects of terrorism on international peace and security the study relied on the concept of collective security which is derived from the theory of Idealism to explain why states come together to combat terrorism. The major terrorist groups and the way they operate across the world are discussed in this chapter. Incidences of the terrorist acts are costly and have led to the loss of life, disturbance of the environment and destruction of infrastructure. Terror is persistent, evolving and transnational such that individual states in the international system has a need to come together to eliminate terrorism. The terrorist activities are transnational and have been manifesting in various forms including kidnapping, suicide bombing, accessing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and hostage-taking. They seek to fulfill different political objectives to suit their individual goals. This instills a sense of insecurity for both the state and its citizens as the attacks are sporadic and have unknown formulae of execution.
The UN (2002:V) Preface by the former UN Secretary General Koffi Annan states that “terrorism is a global threat with global effects…its consequences affect every aspect of the UN agenda from development, peace to human rights and the rule of law…” The continuous devastating and horrific attacks in the presence of collective security custodian, UN and other regional bodies responsible for peace keeping suffered serious challenges in guaranteeing peace and international security.
The Concept of Collective Security
The death of civilians prior to World War 1 (WW1), violence and growing pressure of terrorists left the world with a high sense of insecurity and a distorted future world security system. The effects of the war were massive to an extent that states were left exposed and vulnerable. In January 1918, the United States of America (USA), President Woodrow Wilson proposed a “general association of nations” which was the human kind‟s only salvation. The History Learning Site (2011:1) argued that “Woodrow Wilson was horrified by the slaughter that had taken place during WW1 in what was meant to be a civilised part of the world. The only way to avoid a repetition of such a disaster was to create an international body whose sole purpose was to maintain world peace” In this way, Woodrow Wilson was proposing for a democratic peace formula that will serve the people from the scourge of war. This study revealed that it led to the formation of the League of Nations in 1921, which was later transformed into the UN in October 1945. The UN has become a Collective Security Organisation which has a mandate given to it by the Charter of the United Nations (2011 Article 1.1) to “maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace… and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of peace…” It is from this background that UN plays a pivotal role in international peace and security maintenance. This study centred on the efforts, failures and hopes of the UN as the “barometer” of peace and security maintenance in fighting terrorism.
International Relations Theory Knowledge Base (http://www.irtheory.com/know.htm) defines collective security as “arrangements for facilitating peaceful settlements of disputes assuming that the mechanisms of preventing war and defending states under armed attack will supplement and reinforce each other.” The definition for collective security implies that states have to come together and find a common solution to end the problems affecting the peace and security arrangements. The need for collective security can be traced back to Emmanuel Kant‟s writings in The Perpetual Peace in 1795. Gallile (1980:9) states that “perpetual peace has usually been taken to be a call for immediate political action and to provide a recipe for the immediate achievement of a lasting European peace, but it has also been interpreted as presenting a moral ideal to which states ought indeed to aspire in their external relations.”
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Research methodology refers to the way in which a researcher retrieves data from the selected sampling frame, methods to collect data, instruments to be used and how is the data scrutinised and presented. Leedy and Ormrod (2000:100) define research methodology as the “framework to extract meaning from the data collected.”
Research Design
The researchers used qualitative research methods to solicit information from respondents who are well informed about issues of terrorism. The method ensured thoroughness, authenticity and accuracy of the research findings. The qualitative part of the research included in-depth one-on- one interview with a guide, chat interview through social networks like Google chat, Skype, Hotmail and Facebook as well as review of secondary historical sources.
Instrumentation
The researcher used structured interview because it guided the respondents on the information required. The goal of using interview as a research method was to obtain more in depth information on how terrorism affects international peace and security. This allowed the respondents to describe the effects of terrorism more accurately and thoroughly.
Method Of Data Collection
The researcher used structured interviews to 14 participants randomly selected from the following categories; (a) embassy staff from USA, Pakistan, Iran, Nigeria, South Africa and Sudan, (b) Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) (c) International Organisation for Migration (IOM) (d) National Association of Non-Governmental Organisation (NANGO) (e) Diaspora colleagues in 5 countries were scheduled for chat interview (f) ambassador of Sudan. The researchers targeted 25 research participants and managed to interview 14. This made the researchers to make a twist from face to face to using telephone and chat shows on Facebook. For telephone interview the researcher managed to interview 2 participants because they had busy schedules. The reason for using interviews was that it led to compilation of rich and complete description of terrorism.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusion
The research study concludes that terrorism has negatively affected collective state effort in maintaining international peace and security especially the period between 2000 and 2010. The decade in the millennium witnessed the major attack of a superpower where almost 3000 people dead of over 50 nationalities. Of the dead, they left orphans and widows who are not able to pay the school fees for their kids because the bread winners were killed. This is a challenge not only in America but in Africa as a whole.
The concept of collective security has been discussed in detail but it has remained very difficult for states to collectively co-exist. This is because of the ideological and geographical differences between and among member states of the UN. The collective security agenda is overridden by state interest. This is accompanied by refusal by some member states to be bound by the rules of the UN. This concept is based on the pacifist settlement of disputes but on the other hand diverge from the real practise of politics and peace. The concept is usually favoured during large conferences whose idea is to stimulate research while on the ground states act together with friends than enemies. As noted earlier, the concept of collective security is outweighed by the theory of Realism which is clear on the reasons why states are reluctant to fight terrorism collectively. It states that politics is ridden by selfishness and egoism of states and individuals who are always in pursuit of power. Politics is thus the struggle for power and peace. The theory of realism explains the real practise and contact of states and the exercise of hard power in a political world. The research study used the concept of collective security and theory of realism because they are relevant in the contemporary times when there is need to eradicate terrorism or reduce its effects.
The research provides that terrorism has negatively affected collective state effort in maintaining international peace and security especially from 2000 to 2010. The effects of terrorism has been categorised into three (2) major areas: 1. 1. The Effects of Terrorism on Economic Security and The Effects of Terrorism on Individual Security.
- The Effects of Terrorism on Economic Security includes the reduction of FDI, reduced capital inflows, stalls stock markets, shifts investment both capital and labour. It ushers in higher uncertainty thus reducing confidence among potential investors. The state shifts its priority from projects designed for growth to higher demand for security and once security is given higher priority, transport sector suffers especially dealing with cross border. Besides industry will act below capacity or forced to close due to the lack of labour.
- The Effects of Terrorism on Individual Security.
The research study explained security not only to mean insulated from physical harm but also from environmental security, food security, community security, economic security and even health security among other securities. The continuous advancement in technology has led to the emergence of cyber-terrorism, Narco-terrorism, biological terrorism and even nuclear terrorism. These are designed to inflict pain and insecurity upon the citizens of a government which will then fail to protect its citizens. The Mumbai attacks, Black September, 9/11, bombing of the WTC in 1993, hostage taking and kidnapping have all caused human insecurity
These problems are very difficult to mitigate given that the states are driven by their individual interests rather than collective efforts. The UN has tried to curb terrorism through pacifist tract of dispute settlements but this has been very effective in world forums. These forums are not binding to terrorist organisations, so whatever recommendations, policies or actions, the concerned organisations are absent hence they escape any legal binding status. On the other hand the UN has no leverage, financial resources and motivation to deter terrorism. It is ironic that the UN which is supposed to maintain peace and security has no permanent police force to safeguard what it stands for. Instead, the “boys and girls” who are selected to represent this body are mostly egoistic and enjoy themselves at the expense of providing peace and security. It can be summarised that the period between 2000 and 2010 has witnessed fragrant gross violation of human rights either by the state itself against its civilians or the civilians against the state or state versus another state. It can be dubbed a prime period for terrorism which took advantage of the world chaos especially after 9/11 terrorist attacks.
If the economy is deteriorating, then many people especially in Africa fail to send children to Primary School, High School and Universities. People will be migrating; some will lose their infrastructure and slowly poverty is witnessed. Somalia is a true case. Individual security allows children to find better educational facility. But terrorism seeks to break all that. In turn, the nation as a whole will not function properly.
Recommendations
It is commendable in this research study that the UNSC should be reformed, rebranded or abolished and submits all veto to the General Assembly in order to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. The P5 status was made by the victorious powers of the WW2. But this is an era that has since passed. Today there are some states which are more advanced than France for example Japan and South Africa who can take over from France. The Asian Tigers have a success story of economic boom while the USA, EU and Africa are facing financial crisis. Thus there is a need to re-look at the criteria which warrant veto status.
The GWOT needs to be based on a clearly defined concept of terrorism and has to be conducted in such a way that it does not itself resort to terrorism. Instead, it has to be integrated into a balanced international economic order, one that will make the incidences of terrorist thwarted and finally erode the social support for terrorism. Thus, it is commendable that the UN find a common definition of terrorism which is more accommodative than the current case where “terrorist” defend themselves through definitions which are not universally bound. If there is no definition of terrorism which is agreed then there is no basis for such a war because it is baseless. The waging of the GWOT should be waged through collective security framework as defined in Chapter VII of the UNC. This will avoid anarchy and it restores the lost international peace and security as such kind of war is contacted multilaterally and not unilaterally.
It will be of great value if the fighting and detonation of bombs is stopped to allow for economic growth. If fighting continues, investors will find it risk to invest in any area. It is imperative that the fighting, destruction of property in order to make a political statement be minimised paving way for investments, good distribution channels and providing of capital injection into manufacturing. This allows for maximum exploitation of resources and free sanctions trading zone in a globalised village. If terror activities are minimised this allows growth in every sector of the economy.
The study recommends that there is need to observe human rights and all protocols relating to the protection of civilians. Without observance of human rights then the humans will continue to suffer. The methods applied to the contact of war should be observed without fail and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and African Charter for People‟s Human Rights. Besides it is suggested that all states begin to create structures that will cater for all human security needs from security, food, health, environment, and community security. To that end, this will provide a new world political dispensation which tolerate the existence of all securities.
There is also need to provide stiffer measures to terrorists who target civilians once they are multilaterally caught and tried. This also extends to the abolition of Guantanamo Bay and Ghraib terrorist holding centres. There is also need to remove control of counter-terrorism (GWOT) from the USA to the UN for the purposes of trial and execution of terrorists. This minimises the frequency of terrorist attacks because terrorism would have been dealt with in a multi-lateral approach as opposed to uni-lateralism.
The research study recommends that Open Distance Learning (ODL) should be used a panacea to better educational systems during the time of crisis and beyond. As students drop out of school due to the reasons related to terrorism, ODL will provide a gap between lessons missed or time lost. This will be a powerful weapon to insulate a nation against the effects of terrorism on educational system.
References
Books
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