In the twentieth century acts of terrorism multiplied considerably, due to advances in technology. New developments in transportation, communications and weaponry including explosives and electronics made carrying out acts of terrorism easier to orchestrate. Following World War II in 1945 conflict between Israel and Arab nations caused Terrorism to spread into Western Europe and other parts of the world. It was hardly a new crisis but it spread rapidly over the 19760’s and 70’s and reached new devastating levels in the 1980’s when terrorists became more frequent and more destructive.
In 1983 U.S. marine compounds and the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon were targeted by truck bombs; 287 US soldiers and sailors were killed along with officials from both the US and Lebanon. In 1985 a TWA aeroplane was hijacked and an onboard US navy diver was murdered. Later that same year a cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists whose killed Jewish-Americans onboard. In December 1985, airports in Italy and Austria were attacked by suicide bombers; young children were gunned down during the incident. In 1988 a Pan Am flight was targeted as the carrier for terrorist bombs which were exploded at 31,000 ft. over Lockerbie, Scotland. Everyone onboard died as did 11 residents in the town below. The Libyan government harboured the responsible terrorists for over 10 years before handing them over. National governments opposed to the western world often helped to fund and harbour terrorists. Much of the problems for catching terrorists were that they were being protected by nation states.
The end of the 1980’s and the start of the 1990’s also brought about the end of the cold war, which saw a drastic change in terrorism. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the super power rivalry eliminated the sanctuaries of the Eastern European countries and the safe travel routes that ran through them. A new age in terrorism started. Terrorism in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s was all about gaining publicity for either the group sponsoring the attacks or the ideological aims of the them. Not always were large amounts of innocent civilians killed, often maybe one or two would the figure recorded. The aim was purely to get across their ideology or their geo-political message. Terrorists would usually claim immediate responsibility and even sometimes give warning to reduce the loss of lives.
However, during the ninety’s up until the present day, all that has changed, in a devastating way. Large non-state terrorists have sprung up; new communications have joined different groups so that they can work together. They no longer seem concerned about public opinion but instead of causing the most destruction possible and taking as many lives as they can. Further more, they no longer care about surviving to see the results of their attacks, and are quite happy to die for their cause. More so these days they fail to calm responsibility or even engage in misdirection about the culprits. Terrorism therefore clearly has risen to yet another level. Most alarming is the fact that today terrorist do give their lives in search of new terrorist attacks and this opens up new possibilities that were previously not available i.e. the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, more commonly know as ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’.
Acts of international terrorism in 1995 spread across over 50 countries worldwide. Terrorists continued to threaten society and in some cases prevent peace i.e. Palestine and Israel. Numbers of reported cases for terrorism had actually dropped by 1995 but the attacks that did happened tended to be more lethal taking the lives of more people. Where terrorism had begun to fail in achieving its political aims it made up for in psychological, economical and physical damage. An attack on a Japanese subway paved the way for the use of chemical terrorism as it was targeted for a gas attack resulting in over 550 people dieing. Also in the same year a federal building in Oklahoma City, USA was a target for a car bomb. Over 150 people lost their lives and a further 600 were seriously injured. In 1998 various US embassies namely in Africa were bombed; 263 dead and over 5000 injured. These figures show how the ferocity of terrorist attacks rose even though the frequency has dropped. Weapons of Mass Destruction seemed like the terrorists way forward.
These new threats must be counter measured by anti-terrorist agencies within government organisations. It is their job to gather intelligence on any terrorist movement and to try to prevent any attacks in any way possible. This includes preparing for terrorist situations and knowing how to deal with an attack effectively. Post-cold war terrorism up to the turn of the century changed dramatically with these new, more destructive weapons. The governments of targeted society now also had to change to keep up with the terrorists and international anti-terrorist groups were set up usually led by the Americans. At G-7 conferences with the addition of Russia counter terrorism measures began to appear nearer and nearer the top of their agenda. More support came in for anti-terrorism and enhanced cooperation was called for. For the start of 21st century the ‘free world’ seemed to have in the some what capped terrorism. All was to change though on the morning of Tuesday 11th September 2001.
For most of the world 11th September 2001 had partly been lived at the time most Americans were just starting or on their way to work. In total four Boeing planes were hijacked on the morning in question. Two were flown into the city of New York and were crashed into both towers known as the twin towers of the World Trade Centre (WTC) killing everyone on board both planes and destroying both towers sending them crashing to the ground. One of the other planes was directed to the Pentagon the military head quarters in America and was crashed in to that again killing everyone on broad and a large number of people inside. Due to the secrecy of the building it is unknown how much disruption was caused, but nonetheless over three floors on one side were affected and many lost their lives. The fourth plane late reported to be enroute to the white house was shot down by military aircraft. This particular plane had been delayed by 40 minutes on a runway in Newark leading to claims that it was prevented from crash landing. There was unfortunately a period of time between the planes crashing and the buildings collapsing. What this meant was that there was ample time for police, fire and ambulance services along with numerous volunteers to rush to the aid of those in the burning buildings before the buildings came down on top of the workers below.
Reaction to the attacks was unprecedented and through NATO the attacks were recognised by all member countries. Immediate action was taken and the ‘War on Terrorism’ was declared the following day. All of the leading countries around the world were instantly on high alert; numerous business towers and other large buildings were evacuated and received high security. The Global business markets crashed as trading stopped in Wall Street. The whole of Manhattan was masked by a cloud of smoke which remained for days after the destruction and was visible for up to 25 miles. Terrorism although before was international now truly was a global threat. The attacks of 9/11 did not just affect the USA and its allies through NATO, but in fact the whole world. The global economy fell to a historical low and air flight was cancelled to and from America for over a week after the incident. The final death toll was numbered at 2,743 including foreigners of over 90 different countries. This tragedy was clearly felt all over the world and it is fair to say that terrorism once again had a new role in international politics. For the first time countries felt defenceless and vulnerable. They could no longer guarantee there own borders. So what now could they do to combat global terrorism?
As I direct result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, UN troops led by America and Britain attacked Afghanistan and its evil Taliban government, thought to be partly responsible for the events. Following extensive aerial bombardment UN forces moved in and seized control of the country and handed it over to a new democratic party. Afghanistan is supposedly the home of Osama Bin Laden the Saudi exile who is the leader of the ‘Al-Qaeda’ terrorist network. He was the person blamed for orchestrating the 9/11 attacks and is still to this day on the FBI’s top ten most wanted list. The crushing of Afghanistan showed the world that the US and her allies were not prepared to take the incident lying down and in some respect reassured America’s dominance on a world scale. So intent on crushing terrorist harbouring states and states that supported terrorism the United States invaded Iraq.
The UN recognised Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi regime as having potentially lethal Weapons of Mass Destruction. Knowing that weapons programmes for biological and chemical weapons existed in Iraq the UN sent in inspectors to find results of these weapons. None were found and without a UN resolution the US invaded, with minimal help from her allies, Iraq and over through the oppressive government. To this day the rebuilding of the country is continuing. These two countries were top of the US’s hit list and both were brought down relatively easily. Other previously ‘rogue states’ have in light of the recent coalition invasions volunteered to give up weapons programmes i.e. Libya. The speed at which these governments have been made historical has obviously made some national leaders sit up and take note. After all even though the terrorist groups are non-governmental they still need to be set up somewhere and the aim of the coalition forces is to make these governments realise that they are as G. W. Bush once said ‘either with us or against us’. Maybe the force used would be enough to deter anyone harbouring or supporting terrorism. After all the US had some considerable success in having wanted terrorists handed over in the late 20th century.
Terrorism has continued since 11th September 2001. The US in particular has had the threat of ricin and anthrax attacks and some indeed making in to the offices of US governors and officials. In the UK attacks have been feared and extra action taken to prevent it. At Heathrow airport, Britain’s and the world’s busiest airport tanks and other heavy duty army presence were on stand by. New security laws have been purposed for the airlines perhaps the industry most affected by 9/11. It still has not today fully recovered with the fear of flying still fresh in the minds of a lot of people. At this stage there are still so many unanswered questions regarding terrorism and the way it’s affecting international politics. The current war on terrorism, is it an everlasting battle? How can we fight an enemy that we can not see? What is the present state of affairs in the world right now?
Well some experts say on the topic that what the United States have done is not enough, ‘merely coordinating the existing capabilities to the United States to counter catastrophic terrorism is not adequate to protect the nation or the international order from this major new challenge..’. Since the end of the cold war new developments in terrorism have occurred. The USA as the worlds leading symbol of capitalism has traditionally been safe, in a broad sense of the word. Although throughout the 20th century America has been engaged in various conflicts around the world, its own boarders have been protected. The only time when this was not true was back in the 1800’s when it faced civil war. How ever the events of 9/11 completely changed this view. For the first time America and indeed the rest of the capitalist world was all of a sudden vulnerable and open to attack. This undoubted changed the way terrorism impacted upon world politics. America acted as a result of the attacks in the way that traditionally they know how; through force. US led coalitions successfully overthrew two tyrannical regimes who have been oppressing their peoples for years and who have been harbouring and funding directly and indirectly terrorist groups. Also through intelligence services raid have been carried out all across Europe and the rest of the world uncovering and arresting potential terrorists and their plans. In this way the war on terrorism has been successful, however the main network of groups such as Al-Qaeda still exist and finding and capturing a hand full of members wont do anything in the long run. The leaders are still free roaming the globe and quite simply there is nothing the Americans or anyone can do about it. They can’t attack an enemy they can’t see, they can’t prepare for an attack they know nothing about and they can’t secure their territory.
9/11 has simply made this apparent to the world; the terrorists can always go one better and the only way to stop them is to stop nation states supporting them. So in answering the question how has terrorism impacted upon world politics, it has had a drastic effect. Governments around the world work daily to prevent terrorism, it has become a top agenda issue as these officials are generally worried about the fact there is nothing they can do. Nation state security policies have all changed in the recent decades due to terrorism and the threat of it. The impact has been huge. America for a long time has been the most powerful nation in the world and the fact that certain groups are being given so much consideration shows the true defencelessness of the world’s leader. It is in this way that terrorism has made such an impact into world politics following the cold war and in particular after 9/11.
Bibliography
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Alexander, Y. International Terrorism: national, regional and global perspectives. Praeger Publishers, New York 1976
Hershberg, E. and Moore, K.W. Critical views of September 11. The New Press, New York 2002
Howard, R. D. and Sawyer, R. L. Terrorism and Counterterrorism. McGraw-Hill, Connecticut 2002
Whittaker, D. J. The terrorism reader. Routledge, New York 2002
Booth, K. and Dunne, T. Worlds in Collision. Palgrave Macmillian, New York. 2002
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22nd February 2004
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Ashton B. Carter, “the architecture of government in the face of terrorism,’ international security 2002
