Terrorism: Aspects, Approaches and Implications Research Paper

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Terrorism

According to the United States Code, terrorism refers to any form of unexpected violence perpetrated by a group of individuals to civilians or untrained citizens of a country for political reasons. The main features of terrorism are political intensions, non-militant targets and clandestine perpetrators. This exempts such forms of violence as kidnapping or bombing for personal reasons.

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The target of the malicious acts must ambush unexpectedly and the attack has nothing to do with the intentions of a whole state. The heat of terrorism became more pronounced after the attack on the World Trade centre and significant damage to the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. During this incident more than six thousand people lost their lives after hijacked commercials airplanes crashed into the two buildings (Ruby 10).

Terrorism may not be the largest cause of deaths in the world today but it has continued to draw the greatest attention compared to all other forms of violence. For instance, the number of deaths due to car accidents in the year 2000 was approximately 42 thousand while that of brutal murders was about 15 thousand. These figures are more than thrice the number of deaths caused by terrorism. If this is the case, why is the war on terrorism given such a high priority? (Jones 265).

In order to obtain relevant answers to the above questions we have to understand military, politi,cal, economic and social aspects of it. The media has also played a great role in the general perception of terrorism. Other wars such as the Vietnam conflicts are also, compared to terrorism in order to gain a deeper understanding of the current state of tourism.

Military aspects

Different nations react differently in regards to attacks. In the United States, after the September attack some essentials of the military gai,ned more relevance while others lost importance or are on the verge of losing it. According to professionals the war on terrorism by the militar,y is a mandatory intervention intended on eliminating or putting an end to it. However, it is a complicated and expensive undertaking.

For a military intervention on terrorism to be successful, their targets should be articulately defined, efficient and swift. This is meant to reduce the destruction of the civilian population in the strike.

The main duty of military intelligence is the collection of terrorist details including leaders, members, sycophants and the prevention of their activities. With current advances in technology, the intelligence agencies of various countries should work in harmony to ensure effective data swap (Ruby 12). This can later be combined with data collection and processing.

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After the collection of information, the data stored is followed by the evaluation and analysis process. In order to facilitate this, the United States government is developing the total information awareness. Terrorism causes alteration in the ordinary information in the ordinary military activities.

These changes include the decisions on location of attacks, authorization of these attacks and acceptance of responsibility for all actions taken. Sections of the attacks are propagated by the use of high-precision arms while Special Forces units execute other sections. During these attacks, smaller units control an identified part of the areas. This tactics ensures the effectiveness of their strikes.

The existing structure of the Hungary Defense Forces prohibits the ground soldiers to be an active and successful participant in NATO-led operations. Therefore, Hungary’s is not in position to hold a successfa ul strike on the terrorists due to inadequate force. Countries that engage in the struggle must be readily prepared for the battle. Terrorists are known to launch attacks when least expected to do so (Wright, 41).

Political aspects of terrorism

In our attempt to analyze the problem of terrorism from a political point of view, we must complete several preliminary tasks. First, the analysis of current approaches to the topic of terrorism is necessary to obtain the broad state of hypothetical advance in the area. Going on to the application of psychological theory to terrorism, a logical start is the query of individual incentive. Why do people opt to engage in terrorist attacks? A concept intended to harmonize varied interpretations of incentive theory of character.

An elite focus on the character is, however, unfinished, since terrorism usually entails the practices of a group. Patterns of small-group interaction are a crucial section of the justification of terrorist activities. As initially stated, many terrorist activities are perpetrated due to political reasons. People on the losing ends are the hostages who experience intense oppression which in extreme cases can result in death.

We have explored the military reactions to terrorism and how the strikes are launched in order to be effective in the attack. Here we shall assume that terrorism is carried out on political reasons only and that the verification that the terrorist groups attain their political aims is absolutely mixed and tends to be more pessimistic rather than optimistic (Ruby 11).

If one should restrict our evaluation of the post World War II epoch, during which the frequency tourism attacks soured, then by and large, the evidence does show that political results are comparatively assorted. We will explore the impact on political systems and politics per se and at the end, one will explore the consequences of terrorism on religion both the perpetrators religion and the religion of the sufferers.

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There have been literally numerous of terrorist groups around the world in the past 30 years, even if we exempt the guerrilla and separatist groups. In this paper, an adequate analysis has been undertaken on the ineffectuality of trying to define terrorism based on the political bias earlier stated. It is important to state that the government perspective on whether a group engaged in terrorism can be considered a sufficient definition.

If we further differentiate between terrorist alliances with political goals versus alliances whose political benefits are vague, we will perceive that the huge majority of these alliances have political benefits that can be acknowledged very articulately. There are numerous benefits whose objectives cannot be straightforwardly clarified or differentiated, between conscientiously mandated objectives versus political aims but still one can still try it.

Initially, we need to set some ground regulations to be able to evaluate. The first is to figure out what nature of political objectives are these terrorist alliances seeking to attain. The second is to determine the time we are referring to. By now, it is recognized that the groups under scrutiny are terrorist groups, which have been named as such by different governments.

Obviously, the basic assumption is that the terrorist groups have decided to undertake terrorism because of some reasons and the existing political system is not capable or is unwilling to incorporate or accomplish their political objectives. The theoretical statement of these seems vague thus we will advance some examples from across the world so that most of these rules can attain shapes.

For instance, within China, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Italy, Iran, Russia, USA, UK, France and South Africa we can observe a nice little span of varied political systems. Some exhibit moderate democracy, monocracy, theocracy, communist single party rule, Muslim majority, and all mixtures of these systems. Each of them has terrorist campaigns, some have a single one, some have strew or numerous campaigns, some have one at a time and some have various discrete campaigns going on at the same time (Wright 45).

The political objective that these terrorists are searching for overthrow of the current political order and substitute it with something closer to their own ideas. This may be a new position from an existing position or replacement of the existing state with another form. In both cases, the current political order needs to be distorted (Ruby 9).

In the second case, there are people who are not looking for altering the position in a geographical sense but for the political order or framework or the bearing for the current political array. So, we have the jihadi’s in Saudi Arabia demanding the existing Al-Saud empire to be replaced and to withdraw the US hold on the Al-Saud regime and the Jamiaa Islamia (TBC) seeking to modify the Indonesian government, the Maoists in Nepal, the communists in Malaysia, Shining Path in Peru (TBC).

In reference to national self-resolve and a separatist agenda, the chances of an anti-colonial administration being brought down by terror are increased. This is particularly so, when the colonial system racially, linguistically or otherwise is split from the group that is fighting for self-government. Africa, for example, attained independence due to liberation movements against Belgium, UK and France as they all did engage in terrorist activities. When there is not such an obvious difference, the evidence is far more mixed and baffling.

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As an example, we look at the nationalist situation in India, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Thailand or Peru, which does not seem to permit a breakaway country to take place. The situations in Yugoslavia and Bangladesh are dissimilar, as civil wars cannot really be interpreted into a terrorist kind of campaign clarity.

Israel, confronted with a sort of colonial hangover, anti-colonial terrorist campaign that has mutated into something dreadfully strange, is also not a clear example of a terrorist campaign that is triumphant. Moreover, Israel itself can be characterized as a country, which came into being based to some extent on terrorism. But at least they got their state.

The Palestinians, regrettably, even though they have been involved in freedom movement for the past three decades via terrorist dealings, they are still far from getting their own state. A similar situation exists in the Northern Ireland (Ruby 9). The Northern Ireland has remained resolutely tied to Westminster for already 40 years of fighting.

Definitions and approaches

Due to different circumstances under which the acts of aggression occurs acting as the pivotal judgment to ascertain whether the act of terrorism has been committed or not, defining terrorism has proved hard. In recent times, most scholarly articles that center on terrorism use earlier definitions. For example, Thornton describs terrorism as an aggressive act or threat that is used to influence political conduct but in an internal war situation.

Terrorism violence goes beyond the scope of the socially acceptable conduct creating a distinguishing factor between itself and other acts of aggression. Terrorist’s violence is designed in such a way that its influence is based on its ability to cause heavy fatalities and material obliteration. Its main targets are symbolic in the fact that they attack symbols of the state and society.

The violence is mainly aimed at affecting the political options of both the players and the non-players in the field of politics (Tomlinson 221). Consequences arising from the violent acts may sometimes be uncontrollable and may range according to the level of destruction. According to the desired goals of the terrorists performing the violent act, controlling the reactions of the affected is vital.

According to Thornton ideas, terrorism is committed against a state by a minority group against some particular state. Terrorism committed by states carries a lot of resemblance to terrorism committed by insurgent groups, it includes the processes, the desired outcomes and the insurgents used to commit the terrorist activity. In cases where government commits terrorism activities, the goals may vary, for instance, terrorism may be used to achieve political power or obedience.

Governmental and insurgents terrorist activities vary in their hierarchy of command, influence and rank which requires distinguished study. The outcome of terrorist activities by an insurgent group is far much greater as compared to that committed by a government. On September 11, 2001, the chain terrorist attack commanded by the insurgent group al-Qaeda in the United States, two passenger planes were skyjacked and crashed into the World Trade Centre built in New York. The act claimed 3000 lives (Fodor 2)

Although, it was not intended to derail tourism in the United States, the act has up to date had great effects not only on the travel and tourist sectors but also on the economy of the United States as a whole (Ruby 11).

Despite terrorism, other factors like natural catastrophe and disease epidemics might have been the reason for the decline of the sum GDP in the whole world. The economic decline cannot be solely attributed to failure of the tourist industry. Losses from low scale businesses in the affected area or from international trade may have also caused the economic decline.

The 9/11 terrorist attack on New York caused plummeting in tourist influx by 4 million in 2001 in comparison with the previous years. This designated some degree of fear in the tourism sector that concerned not only the United States but the whole world.

There was a decline in tourists’ activities in the whole world. Major declines occurred in passenger flights. Both British airlines and American airways registered immense decline in the market which opened the market to cheaper airlines bringing more and stiff competition in the flight industry.

The United States airlines, catering and accommodation facilities and those working in the flight industry have been rendered jobless. Passenger planes are taking off with about half of their seats unoccupied due to lack of passengers. Throughout the United States, some of the gatherings and conferences have been ceased due to fear of similar attack (Fodor 2).

The tourism industry is highly prone to such acts of terror and in this case the impact was very huge. Indeed the susceptibility of the industry to terrorist activities is evidenced by the huge economic losses that the industry suffers in such circumstances. The reason is that the industry entirely depends on tourist travels and accommodation which in its turn, are usually direct targets of terrorists. Further more acts of terror surround tourist facilities and foreign nationals in the targeted countries.

In the United States, for example, the cost of 9/11 could not be estimated. In the tourism industry alone, it was estimated that $1.1 billion was lost. Over 1 million people lost their jobs. In terms of GDP, the economy experienced 1.8% decrease due to the decline in the tourism industry. Other factors may have contributed to the slow growth in GDP though the effects of terrorism were profound (Wright 47).

The act of terrorism on world trade center not only affected US but also other parts of the world. In fact, the global tourism decreased considerably compared to previous years. The global slump in tourism was due to succeeding attacks in various parts of the world, the constant threats and unabated fear of being attacked.

Many countries issued travel bans in those countries they deem vulnerable. Advisory warnings were issued against certain tourist facilities, and some places were restricted for foreign nationals. These contributed to the huge economic losses not only for the tourism industry but also for the affiliate industries such as aviation, hotel, tours, and operation industries.

During this period, hotels in New York recorded a 45% decrease in the bed occupancy while over three thousand workers were retrenched. Washington experienced over 50% decrease in the bed occupancy and cut back on employee wages by almost 60 %. Other cities such as central Florida and Seattle, which known for their full bed occupancy in summer, saw a remarkable drop by almost 90% percent.

In general, the tourism industry players were hard hit by low customer bookings and even those who booked canceled their check-ins. Most of the industry players had to operate at the minimum cost possible to reduce prices and at the same time, make some reasonable returns. With increased security and favorable prices, the customer-eroded confidence could be won back.

The effect of the terrorist attack on the stock market was two-fold. The major stock exchange in the US, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), that was more or less housed in the world trade center was out of operation for some days.

NASDAQ, London Stock Exchange and others that were housed in the world trade center had to evacuate, and all the trading activities had to be canceled. Indeed this was the first time the NYSE had to be closed since World War 2. The financial crisis was looming as a result of the closure of the trading activities (Tomlinson 210).

Due to the looming financial crisis, Federal Reserve had to act quickly and announce that it was operating. During its announcement, the Federal Reserve declared the discount window open to meet the liquidity in the financial market. In fact, its first actions were geared towards averting a financial crisis.

One of its remarkable actions was the addition of $100 billion per day, during the first three days after the attack. The then governor of FED in Washington described other actions that FED took to stabilize the economy and offset potential disturbances in the financial system in detail. Not only was there a problem in the financial markets, but gold and oil prices almost doubled.

Though the currency trade was minimally affected, the value of a dollar depreciated sharply against major world currencies such as euro, pound, and yen. The days that followed saw stocks in major European markets sharply falling. Britain, Germany, and Spain recorded a sharp decline in their stock exchanges with over five percent. Other parts of the world were not exceptional. Indeed Latin America stocks declined with over six percent on average.

Political, social and economic implications

In spite of the high popularity and government interests in the issue of terrorism as well as the pledge psychology and social sciences hold for hypothetical development, the literature on it is unsystematic. There are many alarmist and historical treatments, yet few researchers have focused their interests on terrorism. Amidst these scholars, very few are familiar with the literature and usually try to refer to already existing works.

Nonetheless, there is evidence that terrorism is turning out to be a permanent issue that requires ample research in the main framework of political science, including conceptual and quantitative studies. However, few psychologists and psychiatrist have considered this area of research. The current analysis of the situation as about social and economic welfare is just an outline of the extent of the problem. There is much to accomplish to have a broader view of the problem.

The current literature only examines the prevailing findings in an attempt to suggest the parts of psychology on which future theoretical researches should make contributions. They also tend to define the emphasis that psychological approaches to the issue should attempt to make (Hermann 2).

Several reasons can be associated with the poor situation of theoretical development in the area of terrorism. To start with, terrorism is a subject that has faced controversy; it carries normative implications that are tailored to make the use of the phrase a statement for either approving or disapproving the act.

As a result, it is noted that the normative connotation and controversy nature of terrorism obstruct clear definition. It suggests that terrorism should be regarded as a criminal activity directed on civilian targets, particularly for political motives.

Second, in spite of its historical antiquity, it is a comparatively new concept that is raising the interest of researchers, following the government’s interest as well as that of the public after a series of attacks, hijackings, and hostage seizures became thrilling news towards the end of the 1960s up to early 1970s.

In the last decade, the number of references on the issue of terrorism has grown from hundreds to thousands. The complexity and dramatic nature of the subject, as well as the exceptionally rapid development of the area, have produced even results beyond doubts (Tomlinson 212).

Third, since terrorism is viewed as a threat to the reputation of the government and international image, official bureaucracies become more attentive to the issue of terrorism than that perceived in other areas in scholarly studies, if not always to the stability of the system. The result of government interest is the emphasis on the specific elements of terrorism that appertain to the safety of the public…especially, the response to the problem and the expectations of the future threat.

Criminal justice and policy analysis methods are more usual than attempts to clarify the motives of terrorist groups and terrorists as individuals. These methods often refute that the motives of the terrorist groups are relevant to all, rather concentrating on their capabilities and legal countermeasures.

Lastly, the challenge of attaining the kind of comprehensive information that could enhance the psycho-biographical researches of individual terrorists or develop chronologies of group dynamics potentially bears psychological theory building.

Challenges resulting from the common suspicion of governments and terrorists are obvious, considering the consequent secretiveness and illegality of terrorist organizations. Intelligence and security contemplations can hinder access to information. For instance, a social scientist from former West Germany revealed the difficulty of interviewing members of a terrorist group called Red Army Faction and most could not even afford to meet the researches ((Ochberg 67).

Somewhat paradoxically, they found that local government representatives were unwilling to cooperate despite the research being commissioned by the government. However, this research effort in West Germany was hindered because the researchers focused on the already suspected terrorists who were under arrest or facing trial.

These individuals were not yet convicted and the research was to be required to present their findings as evidence in the cases since the interviews with terrorists did not carry the status of free communication. Such conditions accompanied by uncooperative and hostile attitudes of the accused individuals towards the researchers who were viewed as representatives of the system made the trust between the two indexes impossible to achieve.

In contrast, a study conducted in the United States prisons proved to be more successful as compared that in Germany. Knutson succeeded in the interview with convicted terrorists as she found the prisoners eager for the opportunity to pour out their views to a concerned listener; most of them saw this as an opportunity to clarify the reasons for their actions which was denied during court hearings. The prison authorities were also motivated and helped the researcher.

Methodical and situational differences may explain why the ease of American research as compared to that of West Germany. Nonetheless, the requirement for high secrecy mean that that the results gathered from this research should be formulated with care, and that admission to the findings, and another information is restricted (Wright 49).

In summary, despite the large number of terrorism materials, including primary information such as trial records, the literature on the current analysis is very limited. Thus, this analysis is based on small research data and analysis. It is based on autobiography materials, in spite of their lack of self-perception.

Assessment of terrorism is interdisciplinary relying on secondary sources from political science, history, sociology that offer case studies of terrorist groups and individuals. Insights on the theory are sort from other materials in psychology and tailored to interpret terrorism activities and their consequences.

Furthermore, most of the literature on the relationship between the media and terrorism focuses on the reaction of the media towards terrorism activities. The relationship between mass media and terrorism is symbiotic to the extent that insurgent terrorist groups exploit the media as a channel for their political messaging to the targeted audience while supplying thrilling news for the media houses.

Also, much of past researches focused on psychological, political, or legal components of the relationship between terrorism and the media, while ignoring to use of other approaches to the analysis. This discussion identifies insufficient information on terrorism as one of the key implications in understanding the political, social, and economic contexts while the secretive and complexity of the issue catalyze the dilemma (Ochberg 62).

Words leverage the way people think and limit concepts and ideas that can be carried to one individual to another. As mentioned, the media can play a big role in providing the public with the information that will be judged by the societies to be relevant in any novel discourse.

Therefore, it is critical to the state agency and the insurgent terrorists that the media utilizes their language to outline the actions of violence that are politically motivated. Terrorism is a multifaceted issue that should be diagnosed in terms of factors influencing the persistence and relationships within society.

Works Cited

Fodor, Joseph. “Military aspects of fighting terrorism”. 2005. Web.

Hermann, Margaret, G. “The Psychology of Political Terrorism”. 2003. Web.

Jones, Fowley and Fong, Yu. “Military psychiatry and terrorism. In Department of the Army”. Textbook of military medicine. Washington, D.C: Department of the Army, 1994:264–269.

Ochberg, Fuller. M. Preparing for Terrorist Victimization. New York, NY: Praeger, 1979.

Ruby, Charlie. “Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy”. Journal of Social Sciences 23.1(2002): 9–14.

Tomlinson, John. “The decline of the empire and the economic decline of Britain”. Twentieth Century British History 14.3(2003): 201-221. Web.

Wright, Augustine. “British Decline: Political or economic?” Parliamentary Affairs Review 40.1(1987): 41-56. Web.

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