Causes of Terrorism (Essay Sample)

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Causes of Terrorism
Terrorism has never been more of an important subject than it has been in the twenty first century. Terrorist attacks have propagated pervasive fear across the world, especially in the period that followed the September 11, 2001 in the United States. An important question, however, is what really motivates terrorists to attack innocent people, often causing hundreds and thousands of casualties across the world. Why do they only attack certain people or their social, cultural, religious, and/or political affiliates? This is an important question to answer as the world seeks the solutions to the problem of terrorism, which continues to escalate by the day. As such, an answer to this question is something the world is in dire need of. It is understood that not all people can agree on the actual definition of terrorism, owing to the fact that terrorists, as they could be conventionally defined, are enemies of world peace, but they see the rest of the world as an enemy and a threat too (Foerster 7). This paper takes a literary point of view in examining the different perspectives of terrorism and how different literature sources discuss the causes of terrorism.
The Definition of Terrorism
Different authors of books and research papers hypothesize the terrorism concept from different perspectives. As such, different definitions have emerged. One of the most recognized definitions is one that is given by the United States State Department. It defines terrorism as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience” (Rockmore, Margolis and Marsoobian 15). International and national efforts have been engaged in a struggle against terrorism, but, quite unfortunately, the billions of dollars spent every year and the thousands of lives of soldiers and innocent people lost every day only seem to go down the drain as the terrorism problem continues to aggravate.
In this regard, it is important, as some analysts have taken note, to shift focus towards the development of an effective and legal regime in fighting the problem. In order to do that, there needs to be a well-formulated and comprehensive definition of terrorism. This can be done through defining crime that, on one hand, attracts a widespread and internationally recognized ethical disapproval of terrorism and, on the other hand, has adequate precision to drive legitimate and internationally acceptable levels of prosecution (Diaz-Paniagua 47). The definition of terrorism in a comprehensive and explicit way, however, has been found to be extremely difficult (if not impossible) to achieve. One of the biggest problems in defining terrorism emerges in the fundamental values and the beliefs associated with the motivations that are behind terrorism as terrorists seek to accomplish certain objectives (Bassiouni 117). For instance, some see them as freedom fighters and are ready to die for them while the rest of the world may see them as enemies.
There are political perspectives that analysts have also developed in the difficulties of defining and dealing with terrorism. According to Sami Zeidan (2004), a very popular researcher and diplomat from Lebanon, the lack of a consensus on the definition of terrorism is the result of the risks of taking sides, which means that the political dimension of the definition supersedes the legal one. Its definition is difficult to achieve because it falls prey to the political interests of certain countries, while others remain on the sidelines (Zeidan 491). A perfect example of this political difficulty is that of Osama bin Laden, who was once, to the United States government, particularly the CIA, a freedom fighter because he was resisting the Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan in the 1970s. He turned against the US as a result of political motivations. Having understood this controversy, it is important to look at the insights that current literature has to offer.
Review of Current Literature
Having looked at the ideas presented in the definition issue, it emerges that terrorism can be associated with a wide range of motivations. Such would include social, political, and economic motivations. This chapter examines the various dimensions of the causes of terrorism.
Socioeconomic Perspectives
Sen (1999) adopts a socioeconomic approach towards the explanation of what truly causes terrorism and how it can be cured. He asserts that the most important approach towards fighting terrorism is for governments and institutions to try to promote better governance, which should be considerate of all social issues that affect socially and culturally different people. The improvement of state capacity and legitimacy as well as human development are ways that lie at the core of fighting terrorism (Sen, 53). This point of view seems to suggest that terrorism is used as a way to seek social and economic freedom, the lack of which is the cause of terrorism. As such, human development should be used in fighting deprivation and poverty, which are the root causes of terrorism.
This point of view is supported by other sources of literature, with Collier (2003) presenting a similar argument in the context of the Islamic states within the Middle East. He argues that, in these states, economic structures and political powers have robustly entangled (Collier, 53). This is supposed to mean that, if one is in political control of part or all of the state, it is obvious that his socioeconomic status will be high. This further means that the use of political power to gain a higher economic status results in the creation of different social classes, with the lower classes having fewer privileges. This argument is further supported by another researcher. According to Fuller, the biggest problem facing Muslim countries, which is one of the biggest root causes of terrorism, is their inability to invest in human development (Fuller 113). He adds that these Arab states should address the problems of human development in the social and economic contexts as opposed to the use of political power structures and executive administrative strategies that may create more harm than good.
This results in political and economic failure and provokes people with fewer privileges to rise against the administration through measures as desperate as killing innocent people. This is arguably one of the biggest causes of what has come to be referred to as the Arab Spring, which has seen hundreds of thousands of innocent lives lost in Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. A good example that has been given by another analysis is that of the link between deteriorating educational systems and authoritarian political structures, which have been said to hamper human development (Richards 34). He suggests that instilling democracy and stimulating human development are two social and political activities that should go hand in hand. None of the two can be successful without the other. Unfortunately, none of the aforementioned Arab states has been found to achieve success in any of these two areas because they focus on using political power to govern their people (Richards 34).
My Literature research also appears to suggest that there is a connection between social and economic issues of governance and radicalism, which is one of the root causes of the development of terror groups. It has also been a common suggestion within most of the current literature on the causes of terrorism that terror groups cannot achieve anything without societal support (Elliott 1). This means that terrorists are increasingly supported within their local communities because communities share the beliefs and values that motivate terrorists to take action. According to Krueger (2007), democratic countries have no trouble in fighting terrorism as opposed to undemocratic states, where terrorism has become a systemic problem (Krueger and Maleckova 119). The relationship between human development and radicalism has also been found to have a connection with the causes of civil war. It has been discovered that countries that are politically unstable and have low per capita income face high risks of civil wars and associated conflicts.
According to Fukuyama (2002), the root cause of radicalism and the subsequent terrorist activities revolve around the lack of strong educational systems that function well as well as economic dispossession. This author adds that this argument should not be disagreed with by fallacy arguments that seek to oppose it. This is based on the argument that terrorists do not come from poor families. They actually come from good economic background and are highly educated. This is supported by the example of the terror attacks of September 11, where fifteen out of the 19 terrorists that carried out the attacks came from Saudi Arabia, which is one of the wealthiest countries in the world (Fukuyama 13). However, it is possible that they were seeking to fight the international oppression that the United States seemingly sought to propagate against Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in general (Dempsey 3). Having discussed the socioeconomic perspectives that the existing literature has presented, the next section will discuss the political motivations behind terrorism.
Political Motivations
Cinar (1997) adopts a different perspective from what has been discussed in the previous chapter. He compares terrorism to a cancer cell that continues to grow in dysfunctional political systems. He presents that a common form of terrorism is political violence, which emanates from the conflicts that arise within and between political institutions. As such, it is usually caused by the incapacity of the government to deal with issues of legitimacy and political rig...