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1231. How to Win the Battle of Ideas in the War on Terror

Author:
Robert Satloff
Publication Date:
11-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
President George W. Bush will enter his second term leading a country that is at war on five fronts at once. Four are clear: in Iraq and Afghanistan, against al-Qaeda and its global affiliates, and within the homeland. The fifth front, however, is the poor stepsister to the other four. It is being fought with an arsenal of outmoded and dysfunctional weaponry, a set of confused and self-defeating battlefield tactics, and no clear strategy for victory. Such is the status of the U.S. effort to fight the "battle of ideas" -- the ideological war to prevent Islamists and their sympathizers from capturing the social, cultural, economic, and political high ground in Muslim societies around the world.
Topic:
Security, Religion, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Iraq, Middle East, and Arab Countries

1232. A Ramadan Offensive in Iraq

Author:
Patrick Clawson
Publication Date:
10-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
Ramadan starts on October 15 or 16, depending on the sighting of the moon. Last year on the first day of Ramadan, five car bombs went off in Baghdad within an hour, including one in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) offices. There is a disturbing prospect that the insurgents could try in Ramadan this year to mount a more significant offensive than any attacks to date. Such an offensive would underline the insurgents' claim to act in the cause of Islam; it could significantly complicate plans for elections in Iraq; and it might aim to influence the U.S. elections.
Topic:
Security, Religion, and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Iraq, Middle East, and Arab Countries

1233. War in Iraq: Looking Forward, Looking Back

Author:
Michael Eisenstadt and Jeffrey White
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
Surprise in war is inevitable. It is impossible to anticipate all enemy actions or the impact of the social and political forces unleashed by war. To succeed, one must be able to rapidly adjust one's plans when their underlying assumptions are proven wrong. In this regard, the U.S. performance in Iraq has been found wanting. The war brought surprises in four areas: The insurgency. The Sunni insurgency resulted from the way the war was fought by both sides: U.S. forces brought about the rapid collapse of the regime without instilling a sense of defeat among its members, while many members of the regime's security forces survived the war because, whenever possible, they relied on paramilitary forces drawn from the dregs of Iraqi society to do the fighting for them. Moreover, the U.S. failure to realize that the fall of Baghdad did not end the war enabled the resistance to organize itself and stay one step ahead of coalition forces. The United States must prevent further entrenchment of the resistance and stamp out the miniature "republics of fear" that have emerged in the Sunni Triangle and deterred many residents from embracing the Iraqi Interim Government. It must be remembered, however, that successful counterinsurgency campaigns often take years to bear results. The question is whether the U.S. presence will become politically untenable before Iraqi political and security structures are in place.
Topic:
Security, Religion, and War
Political Geography:
Iraq, Middle East, and Arab Countries

1234. The Democratic Party's Platform and the Middle East

Author:
Ben Fishman
Publication Date:
07-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
The 2004 Democratic Party platform, "Strong at Home, Respected in the World," which will be formally adopted today at the party's convention in Boston, reflects the prominence of foreign policy in this year's election. Indeed, nearly half the document is devoted to strengthening American security policy after September 11 and U.S. Middle East policy writ large, including terrorism, weapons of mass destruction (WMD), democracy promotion, Arab-Israeli peace, U.S. military readiness, homeland security, and energy independence. By comparison, only ten of the fifty pages in the 2000 platform were devoted to foreign policy, and the Middle East did not stand out as a region of particular concern.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Religion, and War
Political Geography:
America, Middle East, and Arab Countries

1235. Reflections on Tin-Cupping for the Iraq War

Author:
Dov Zakheim
Publication Date:
07-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
Although the United States had been engaged in a similar reconstruction effort in Iraq not more than twelve years before the recent war in that country, the Iraq of 2003 was fundamentally different from the Iraq of 1991, which meant that the reconstruction effort this time around would also be fundamentally different. First and foremost, the reconstruction effort of 1991 was directed more toward the rebuilding of Kuwait. Because Iraq had triggered the first conflict, the donor countries were inclined to allocate the majority of their funds to the aid effort in Kuwait. Second, both the political situations and the internal economies of the countries that contributed to reconstruction effort twelve years ago were vastly different. In addition, several other reconstruction efforts were -- and had been -- going on when plans for the current reconstruction of Iraq were being formulated. Those efforts were in the Balkans, East Timor, and U.S.-occupied Afghanistan. By mid-March of 2003, while both the Afghan project and the Iraq war were underway, plans were made to establish a coordination group to raise money for the reconstruction of Iraq. This group was called the senior Coalition Contribution Group (CCG).
Topic:
Security, Religion, and War
Political Geography:
Iraq, Middle East, and Arab Countries

1236. Afghanistan: Lessons learned from a Post-War Situation

Author:
Anders Tang Friborg
Publication Date:
07-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The key challenge in the Afghan post-war situation has been how to re-establish a sovereign and effective state structure in a country affected by more than two decades of conflict and war. Since the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan has been facing one of the most comprehensive state-building exercises in recent years. Many of the state institutions were formally in place for the Karzai government, but the capacity was limited and they were competing with various parallel command structures. The re-establishment of a state can be analysed along many different dimensions, but three overall categories have been chosen to structure this paper: (i) the authority and control over the use of force throughout the entire territory of the state; (ii) the establishment of a legitimate government with executive powers at central and local level, and an independent judicial system; and (iii) the authority to regulate the economic resources of the country.
Topic:
Security and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Middle East, and Arab Countries

1237. The Palestine Question in the Wake of the War in Iraq

Author:
Michael Irving Jensen
Publication Date:
02-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
By mid-January 2003 the American Assistant Defence Minister, Paul Wolfowitz, stated that America would work intensively in order to create a Palestinian State as soon as the War in Iraq was over. In Denmark and other European countries a number of politicians issued similar statements, and peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis became an argument to justify a war against Iraq. Even people who were not convinced by the necessity of war began to argue that something positive would eventually emerge from the war – especially in the case of the Palestine Question. Their argument held that the Americans had to do something constructive in the Middle East. They needed to engage more seriously, and they had to demonstrate to the Arab world that although part of the "war against terror" might be taking place in the Arab world, it was not a war against the Arab world, or against Islam, for that matter. Thus, it was only logical to engage the US in the Middle East, and thereby do the utmost in order to force the Israeli occupation to cease. Despite the huge American problems in "post-war" Iraq the question of Palestine is still very high on the agenda not only in the Middle East, but globally.
Topic:
International Relations and War
Political Geography:
Europe and Middle East

1238. Are Events in Iraq after the Occupation an Ordinary Security Problem?

Author:
Nihat Ali Özcan
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
The US carried out the Iraqi occupation quickly, easily and with few casualties. It put an end to the security bureaucracy in the name of building new Iraq after the war. After a short while it faced unexpected resistance in the regions where Sunnite Arabs live. Insurgents have proved by their choice of targets and use of methods that they have a long-term and systematical resistance strategy. The insurgents could organize quickly because of effective tribal order, power of old security bureaucracy which kept its integrity after the war and refusal of foreign occupation. Insurgents want to control the public in order to get rid of weakness. Therefore, the keypoint of contention is who will control the public. While insurgents commonly use "terror" and "violence", occupiers try on the one hand to make insurgents ineffective, on the other, to win the "heart and brain" of the public. Security questions may spread to whole country in Iraq where there are ethnic and religious struggles. Iraqi Shiites may be involved in the conflict. Kurdish claims on Kirkuk may bring an ethnic conflict to the agenda. If the US administration can't provide stability in Iraq as soon as possible, Iraq may drift into a civil war.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Arabia, and Kirkuk

1239. The Just War Concept: From Antiquity to Present

Author:
Fulya A. Ereker
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
When taken as an aspect of "thinking on war", the concept of "just war" can be defined to include the ideas and practices that demonstrate when it could be justifiable to conduct a "war" and that aim at limiting the use of force even when it is deemed a just war. The concept of just war is a product of various cultural sources that have developed for centuries especially in the Western world. This study examines the historical development of the concept of "just war" and attempts to demonstrate the place that the tradition reached today. With this purpose in mind, the study, first of all, tries to explain the terms of "jus ad bellum" and "jus in bello" that together draw the conceptual framework of the theory of war and at the same time constitute the two different dimensions of the theory. Historical development of the concept is examined in sequential phrases that correspond to philosophical contributions to the tradition. The classification is based on the historical development of the West, because the concept itself is an element of the Western culture and tradition.
Topic:
Development, War, and Culture

1240. Better Safe than Sorry: Applying the Precautionary Principle to Issues of International Security

Author:
Marc Houben
Publication Date:
11-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The strategic condition of the world is characterised by the fact that pre-emptive military action may be necessary. This condition is based on the realisation that legitimate national governments have lost their monopoly on the use of force while determined individuals and groups of individuals can lay their hands on weapons with which they can inflict huge, even irreversible damage to entire societies. Assuming that preemptive military action is here to stay and we should be determined not to let it escape democratic control. This paper seeks the procedures and checks that should be in place if pre-emptive military action is to be firmly embedded in democratic practices and institutions. To that end, it reviews the application of the precautionary principle in the environmental and food safety domains and assesses whether the procedural checks and practices used there can also have their utility in the international security domain.
Topic:
Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Government, and War