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3091. The Terrorist Threat and the Policy Response in Pakistan

Author:
Aarish Ullah Khan
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Abstract:
Terrorists manipulate fear through the use of violence to achieve their objectives. An understanding of what motivates terrorists to employ mindless violence against civilian or non-combatant targets is essential for assessing the phenomenon. The current discussion of 'root causes' often focuses on finding the causes of antagonism towards civilization in the mind of a fanatic terrorist at the individual level. The debate about what motivates a terrorist, however, overlooks the factors that enable a terrorist to conduct terrorist activities. As argued by Walter Laqueur, even if better control can be achieved over the extremist motivation for terrorism, there will still be a few isolated individuals for whom the temptation to employ terrorism—if the opportunity remains—will be hard to resist.
Topic:
Security, Religion, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Pakistan and Middle East

3092. The European Security Strategy: An Evolutionary History

Author:
Alyson J. K. Bailes
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Abstract:
The adoption by the European Union (EU) of its first official and comprehensive security strategy—'A Secure Europe in a Better World'—in 2003 may be seen (aside from any practical results it leads to) as a conceptual and procedural turning point in the development of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Set against its specific political background, it was also an important stage in the developing self-awareness and ambition of the EU as a player in the global arena. The European Security Strategy (ESS) has already attracted perhaps more than its fair share of exegesis, comment and debate. Too often, however, it has been treated almost in the style of literary criticism, divorced from its historical, institutional and short-term political context. This Policy Paper illuminates the latter dimensions of the document's significance and lays out a framework for considering and monitoring its future impact.
Topic:
Security and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
Europe

3093. Private Security Companies: The Case for Regulation

Author:
Caroline Holmqvist
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Abstract:
It was estimated in March 2003 that 15 000–20 000 private security contractors were working in Iraq, and the conflict there was referred to as 'the first privatised war'. Since then, both the number and the visibility of contract personnel in Iraq have increased, triggering a broad debate on the role of private companies which provide military and security services to states, corporations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). However, the phenomenon is neither new nor exclusive to the Iraqi conflict. The past decade has seen the rise and consolidation of a global industry for private security provision, with over 100 companies operating in as many countries worldwide.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Development, and Government
Political Geography:
Iraq

3094. The Hidden Cost of Homeland Defense

Author:
Benjamin Friedman
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
Conventional wisdom says that none of us are safe from terrorism. The truth is that almost all of us are. The conventional belief is that in response to terrorism, the federal government has spent massive sums on homeland security. The fact is that the increased federal spending on homeland security since September 11 pales in comparison to increases in the U.S. defense budget. But homeland security has costs beyond spending, costs that conventional thinking rarely considers. U.S. homeland security policy conjures up a flawless enemy that could strike at any moment, in any place. That policy institutionalizes the fears terrorists created and harms liberal values.
Topic:
Security, Economics, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States and North America

3095. Why Intelligence Isn't to Blame for 9/11

Author:
Joshua Rovner
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
It did not take long for blame for the September 11 attacks to cascade onto the intelligence community. But it is not deserved, and the reasons for that are important.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
North America

3096. Who Needs the U.N.?

Author:
Gary G. Troeller
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
There has long been a feeling in the corridors of power in Washington that the United Nations is irredeemably flawed and condemned to ineffectiveness. It is viewed as an irritating constraint on U.S. power, or worse—expensive, wasteful, slow to act, and irrelevant.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, Washington, and North America

3097. Iran: Rogue State?

Author:
Ali Mostashari
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
Iran is now an important focal point for U.S. foreign policy. Yet many have argued that the United States lacks a coherent foreign policy on Iran, amounting to no more than an enormous list of “evils”: namely, that Iran exports its radical Islamist revolution, supports Hezbollah and Hamas and actively opposes the Middle East peace process, is building nuclear and biological weapons capacity, was involved in the bombings of the Jewish center in Buenos Aires and the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, provides Al-Qaeda with safe passage and refuge, helps insurgents in Iraq, assassinates its own dissidents and oppresses its people, and so on.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Nuclear Weapons, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Iran, Middle East, and Saudi Arabia

3098. Filling the Army's Ranks for the Iraq War

Author:
Cindy Williams
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
Some two years into the occupation in Iraq, the U.S. Army faces a serious staffing challenge. As of May 30, 2005, the active-duty Army had missed its recruiting goals for four months in a row. If things do not improve substantially, the service will have only 10 percent of needed enlistees pre-signed for basic training at the beginning of 2006; normally it begins the year with about one-third of its trainees already committed to contracts.
Topic:
Security
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, and Middle East

3099. The Iraq War: Do Civilian Casualties Matter?

Author:
Les Roberts
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
A disturbing thing happened to me in Afghanistan last May while working on a project to install wells in villages. After a delightful month of working in a rural province, filled with welcoming leaders and offers of tea at every house, the mood suddenly changed. A young man walked up to my 42-year-old female American colleague and bashed her in the face. As we collected our interviewers and headed back to the vehicles, children from the village pelted us with stones. This violence against anything foreign played out in hundreds of locations across Afghanistan that day.
Topic:
Security, Civil Society, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Iraq, and America

3100. All Weapons of Mass Destruction Are Not Equal

Author:
Allison Macfarlane
Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
In the United States, weapons of mass destruction have become the bête noir of the 21st century. They are now the justification for pre-emptive war, for an expansion of the cold war nuclear arsenal, and for the spending of billions of dollars on offensive and defensive measures. Since significant portions of U.S. foreign and domestic policy are based on this categorization, it is high time to reflect on whether these weapons pose such a lethal threat.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States