The root causes of terrorism

The POST, Sun, February,04, 2007.

Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema

At Davos the Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz once again emphasized the urgent need to address the root causes in order to completely eliminate the menace of terrorism. His assertion that the world needs to do more to address the immense sense of hopelessness amongst the deprived people particularly those living in regions afflicted by long drawn conflicts. The effective tackling of terrorism requires a holistic approach in which the security efforts must be accompanied by measures to resolve the root causes of terrorism.

The tragedy of 9/11 led to the formation of an international coalition to combat terrorism under the leadership of the United States. This global coalition drew its moral strength from the endorsement of the United Nations. The global war against international terrorism therefore enjoyed the universal support. However, there were many observers and analysts who thought that the US had interpreted this support as the license to act unilaterally and without any regard to the rules of international law and authority of the United Nations. The current situations in Iraq is the manifestation of this American unilateralism.

The war against terrorism has changed the concept of security. It is a new form of war in which the enemy is no longer the traditional state entity. It is a war against an enemy, which can no longer be identified, located or predicted. It is therefore a highly complex, difficult and unpredictable war. However, it is being increasingly recognized that war against terrorism cannot be won only through military means. As it is the war against terrorism would not only confront many obstacles but would also be a painfully long affair.

While international community supports all efforts in the war against international terrorism, the war has created new tensions between and within a number of nations. This is because of conflicting perceptions of terrorism and failure to address the main impediments influencing the course of war. Unless and until serious considerations are given to the six factors that are and would continue to impede progress on this front, the war is going to be a long drawn pursuit. These factors include lack of definition, blurring of clearly recognized distinction between a legitimate freedom struggle and terrorist movements, inability to opt for a comprehensive approach, quick acceptance of prejudicial interpretations, not properly addressing the root causes of terrorism and finally not much emphasis is placed on tracking money trail.

While each of the above mentioned factors deserve to be comprehensively analyszed, addressing the root causes is perhaps the most important. Undoubtedly the most important factor that needs to be addressed deals with the causation and this has not yet been able to attract deserving attention. What causes terrorism? Injustice, deprivation, denial of legitimate rights in a comprehensive sense, excessive use of force are just few of the causes that often give birth to undesirable violent approaches. Additional two factors such as disparity between power and forces and gap between rich and poor tend to exasperate the situation.

Undoubtedly democracy, justice and improved economic situation with job opportunities could certainly help in improving the situation. A concerted effort to effectively deal with causation aspect could put war against terrorism on the right track. Unless the causes are treated properly this war is likely to continue for years without attaining the desired containment. A concerted hard look at the Kashmir dispute or the Palestine issue could not only lead the international community towards the desired panacea but may also prove the first major gain in this war. Concentration on the removal of causation could pay the dividends that are becoming even more illusive than they were in the past.

Why does a terrorist opt for violent approaches? One school of thoughts suggests that after exhausting all other available means to redress the situation, a terrorist feels that the only way to attain his objective is to adopt what are generally considered intimidating means. This of course denotes that a terrorist is defined by the means employed rather than by his goals however justifiable they may seem. Another school of thought simply believes that opting for violent means appears to be short cut towards the attainment of stated goals. A terrorist views violent approach as the most effective mechanism to air his point of view.

A systematic extermination of important individuals who are spearheading a movement against the established authority is often interpreted as state’s efforts to eliminate them and weaken the movement. However it needs to be highlighted that in some cases the movement is a genuine freedom struggle and state’s attempt to crush the movement is not viewed sympathetically. But on the other hand the states that are opposed to such freedom struggles and are involved the processes of crushing the movements, they always tend to project them as terrorist movements.

There are four major causes which produce terrorism; injustice in all forms, denial, deprivation, social and economic inequalities. An aggrieved individual invariably seek justice initially through judicial system but having gone through all the levels of judicial system and not being able to secure justice, some individual take recourse to violence in order to highlight the experienced injustice. As far as the states are concerned, almost all states are aware of imperfect nature of the operative international system. Cognizant of the imperfect nature of the state system, they tend to either join alliances or be in grouping or seek the blessings of a powerful state etc.

Similarly if a state or the particular group of people are promised to allow them to exercise their rights but later these rights are denied to them, the chances regarding the advent of a movement brightens. When the leaders of movement feel frustrated and unable to secure what has been promised, they begin to contemplate the employment of violent course of action. Another cause of violent path is deprivation whether these entails property or human rights. A concerted hard look at the Kashmir dispute, the Palestine question and the Chechens quest for freedom could not only lead the international community towards the desired panacea but may also prove the first major gain in this war. Concentration on the removal of causation could pay the dividends that are becoming even more illusive than they were in the past.

Perhaps the most important cause of terrorism revolves around social and economic inequalities. This is precisely what the Pakistani Prime Minister attempted to highlight at the Davos Economic Forum. Focus on eliminating poverty from the region is a generally accepted priority of the regional leaders. South Asia houses  one fifth of humanity and need to focus on improving economies in order to eliminate poverty. The economies can only function smoothly if the political dispute are resolved enabling to regional countries to concentrate more on economic uplift.

The Pakistani Prime Minister has been extremely consistent in pushing the notion of attracting investments in order to provide the much desired boost to economy. To create a favorable climate for the functioning economies, he has also been regularly supporting efforts against the menace of terrorism both inside as well as outside Pakistan.

The writer works for Islamabad Policy research Institute.