Author: Amin Saikal / Publishing Institution: Australian National University Department of International Relations

Author:: Peter Van Ness, Hugh White, Stuart Harris, Amin Saikal, and Peter C. Gration
Publication Date:: 11-2002
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:: What curious path has brought us to this point? Just over a year ago, terrorists from the amorphous transnational Al Qaeda network killed thousands of Americans and other nationals by flying planes into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington, and a field in Pennsylvania. Today, the United States is preparing to launch a war against the state of Iraq, emphasising the grave and imminent danger posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, but animated also by a long-standing goal of 'regime change'. What explains this 'statising' of the so-called 'war against terrorism'? What risks does it pose for regional and world order?
Topic:: Security, Terrorism, War, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:: United States, Iraq, and Middle East

Author:: Stuart Harris, William Maley, Amin Saikal, Richard Price, and Christian Reus-Smit
Publication Date:: 10-2001
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:: Change in world politics is generally thought to be more momentous than incremental. The power of social, political and economic structures, combined with habit, routine and sunk costs, favours continuity over change, and practices can persist long after their purpose has declined. It usually takes major shocks to the system 'cataclysmic events that expose the shortcomings of established practices' to license new forms of understanding, empower new sets of actors, and encourage new methods of ordering social, economic and political relations. The Great Depression and the Second World War were cataclysmic events of this import, as were the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The story of international relations is thus one of 'punctuated equilibria', not gradual evolution.
Topic:: Security and Terrorism
Political Geography:: Afghanistan, United States, and Asia

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