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Foreign Affairs is making available previously published articles that contribute to an understanding of the tragic attacks on New York and Washington. Several of the essays analyze the nature of contemporary terrorism and the capabilities of the United States to combat it. Other essays provide the Middle Eastern and radical Islamic contexts for so much recent terrorism, including, apparently, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Pakistan's Jihad Culture Jessica Stern (November/December 2000) Radical Islamic groups, strongly represented in the Pakistani military and tacitly supported by the government, are destabilizing the country and the region and providing critical support to the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan. "By facilitating the activities of the irregulars in Kashmir, the Pakistani government is inadvertently promoting internal sectarianism, supporting international terrorists, weakening the prospect for peace in Kashmir, damaging Pakistan's international image, spreading a narrow and violent version of Islam throughtout the region, and increasing tensions with India--- all against the interest of Pakistan as a whole." Read Preview The New Threat of Mass Destruction Richard K. Betts (January/February 1998) A prescient discussion of the dangers of terrorist attacks on the U.S. homeland and our failure to protect against them. "[The most] worrisome danger [is] that mass destruction will occur in the United States, killing large numbers of civilians. The primary risk is not that enemies might lob some nuclear or chemical weapons at U.S. armored ships or battalions, awful as that would be. Rather, it is that they might attempt to punish the United States by triggering catastrophes in American cities. But retaliation requires knowledge of who has launched an attack. Today some groups may wish to punish the United States without taking credit for the action." Read Preview Catastrophic Terrorism: Tackling the New Danger Ashton Carter, John Deutch, and Philip Zelikow (November/December 1998) Describes the deadly new forms of terrorism, the reasons for targeting America and what will be required to combat the new threats. "As the 1993 World Trade Center incident demonstrated, a terrorist group can include U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, operating and moving materials in and out of American territory over long periods of time. The greatest danger may arise from overlapping jurisdictions, such as the divide between 'foreign' and 'domestic terrorism' or 'law enforcement' versus 'national security'. … The U.S. government must create unglamorous but effective systems for accountable decision-making that combine civil, military, and intelligence expertise through the chain of command; integrate planning and operational activity; build up institutional capacities; and highlight defensive needs before an incident happens." Read Preview Keeping America's Military Edge Ashton B. Carter (January/February 2001) Proposes changes in the national security establishment to meet new missions, ranging from peacekeeping to dealing with terrorism. "Today, some of the most critical security missions --- counterterrorism, combating WMD proliferation, homeland defense, information warfare, peacekeeping, civil reconstruction, and conflict prevention … are accomplished in an ad-hoc fashion by unwieldy combinations of departments and agencies designed a half-century ago for a different world." Read Preview Beyond Border Control Stephen E. Flynn (November/December 2000) Argues that the global economy has opened national borders to goods and people, legal and illegal; terrorists and their weapons enjoy easier passage than ever before. Corporations and governments must work together, developing new technologies and techniques to help border control keep pace with booming commerce. "Last December, as year 2000 celebrations approached, Americans got a case of the pre-holiday jitters when news broke that an Algerian terrorist with suspected ties with Osama bin Laden had been arrested in Port Angeles, Washington. Ahmed Ressam had arrived in the United States from Vancouver in a car loaded with bomb-making materials. Only a U.S. Customs Service official's unease with the way Ressam answered her questions prevented him from driving onto American soil. What was most surprising about Ressam's arrest was that he was detected and apprehended at all -- one man amid the 475 million people, 125 million vehicles, and 21.4 million import shipments that came into the country last year.... Intercepting the ripples of danger in this tidal wave of commerce is about as likely as winning a lottery." Read Preview The Taliban: Exporting Extremism Ahmed Rashid (November/December 1999) Discusses how radical Islam and repressive politics are gaining ground in one of the world's most sensitive regions. As they consolidate their power over Afghanistan, the Taliban are starting to destabilize the entire surrounding area -- and beyond. "Striking up a friendship with Umar, the Taliban chief, [Osama] bin Ladin moved to Umar's base in Khandahar in early 1997. Bin Ladin reunited and rearmed the Arab militants still remaining in Afghanistan after the war against the Soviets.... Umar was quickly influenced by his new friend and became increasingly vociferous in his attacks on Americans.... Recent Taliban statements reflect a bin Ladin-style outrage, defiance, and pan-Islamism that the Taliban had never used before his arrival." Read Preview License to Kill Bernard Lewis (November/December 1998) A little-noticed declaration of jihad by Osama bin Laden in an Arabic newspaper underscores the Islamist's main grievance: U.S. troops in Arabia. "For Muslims…the holy land par excellence is Arabia…. Muhammad lived and died in Arabia…. the center of the Islamic world and the scene of its major achievements was Iraq, the seat of the caliphate for a half a millennium. For Muslims, no piece of land can ever be finally renounced, but none compares in significance with Arabia and Iraq." Read Preview Postmodern Terrorism Walter Laqueur (September/October 1996) Describes the birth of a new type of terrorist at the end of the Cold War: one less ideological, fired by apocalyptic visions, harder to distinguish from common criminals, armed with new weapons, and ready to use them indiscriminately. "Chances are that of 100 attempts at terrorist superviolence, 99 would fail. But the single successful one could claim many more victims, do more material damage, and unleash far greater panic than anything the world has yet experienced." Read Preview The Clash of Civilizations? Samuel P. Huntington (Summer 1993) This seminal essay sketches one view of the possible sources of conflicts to come, as the divide between civilizations grows deeper and the battle is joined between "the West and the Rest." "The fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future." Read Preview The Strategy of Terrorism David Fromkin (July 1975) A history of terrorism from the Middle Ages onward, with analysis of terrorist strategies -- and how governments can defeat them. "Terrorism is the weapon of those who are prepared to use violence but who believe that they would lose any contest of sheer strength. All too little understood, the uniqueness of the strategy lies in this: that it achieves its goal not through its acts but through the response to its acts. In any other such strategy, the violence is the beginning and its consequences are the end of it. For terrorism, however, the consequences of the violence are themselves merely a first step and for a stepping stone toward objectives that are more remote. Whereas military and revolutionary actions aim at a physical result, terrorists actions aim at a psychological result." Read Preview Reviews of Related Books America's Achilles' Heel: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Terrorism and Covert Attack. Richard A. Falkenrath, Robert D. Newman, and Bradley A. Thayer Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998 Read the review Terrorism and America: A Commonsense Strategy for a Democratic Society. Philip B. Heymann. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998 Read the review Inside Terrorism. Bruce Hoffman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998 Read the review Terrorism with Chemical and Biological Weapons: Calibrating Risks and Responses. Edited by Brad Roberts. Alexandria, Va.: Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, 1997 Read the review The Ultimate Terrorists. Jessica Stern. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999 Read the review Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban. Edited by William Maley. New York: New York University Press, 1998 Read the review Preventive Defense: A New Security Strategy for America. Ashton B. Carter and William James Perry. Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 1999 Read the review Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons. Edited by Jonathan B. Tucker. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000 Read the review Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. Ahmed Rashid. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000 Read the review The Greatest Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Growing Crisis of Global Security. Richard Butler. New York: PublicAffairs, 2000 Read the review Planning the Unthinkable: How New Powers Will Use Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Weapons. Edited by Peter Lavoy, Scott D. Sagan, and James J. Wirtz. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000 Read the review Road Map for National Security: Imperative for Change. U.S. Commission for National Security/21st Century Read the review Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy. Paul R. Pillar. Washington: Brookings Institution Press 2001 Read the review |
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