In Focus: Terrorists

Since the 2001 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, one of the organizations most commonly associated with terrorism is al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is a non-state actor led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. While the organization has targeted primarily Western interests, their attacks have occurred across the globe, including in Kenya, Tunisia, Indonesia, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Turkey, Yemen, Iraq, and Spain.

Osama bin Laden has provided different reasons why his organization has targeted Western interests, including the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia, the home of Mecca, Islam’s most sacred site. He has also publicly stated that his attacks on the US in particular are motivated by US support for the state of Israel, which he views as a Western creation in the heart of the Muslim world. For bin Laden, the victims of this Western creation were the Palestinians, whose lands were taken away or occupied by non-Muslims. However, his critics argue that his motivation is less about defending Islam or the Palestinians and more about a megalomaniacal desire for power. Regardless of the motives, al-Qaeda’s actions have killed thousands and prompted the US to call for a global war on terrorism. But just what is “terrorism? ”

Although definitions of the term “terrorism” are multiple and highly contested, there are some common elements in many of them. For example, most definitions refer to acts of political violence designed to threaten and terrorize civilian populations. That being said, defining what constitutes a “civilian” can also be problematic.

Non-state terrorism poses many threats to the nation-state. For example, many nation-states are concerned about the possibility of terrorists obtaining weapons of mass destruction and quite literally destroying their states. Other threats posed by terrorists include criminal activities that destabilize states. For example, al-Qaeda was involved in the illegal diamond trading that contributed to the destabilization of the Western African nations of Sierra Leone and Liberia. Al-Qaeda operatives sold weapons to local guerillas in exchange for diamonds. This proliferation of weapons led to lawlessness, mass violence, and the emergence of competing rebel groups that outnumbered and outgunned government forces. As a result, both the Sierra Leonean and Liberian governments fell. Terrorists also pose a particular threat to weak nation-states that have limited control over their territories. Terrorists target these nation-states as prime places to establish training camps. These nation-states then become the targets of more powerful nation-states that attack them for harboring terrorists.

UNIT 8