A World Challenged: Fighting Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century by Yevgeny M. Primakov (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 549 transformationprocess in his chosen countries,which have been well chosen to illustrate the variety of approaches and experiences common to several more countries at that time. The reader is able to read across the chronicle and see the effectof each decision, largeor small,in the widerframework. Betz is also correct in emphasizing the value of interviews and personal comment in evaluating the process in each country. The fundamentalpolicy documents and institutionswhose various incarnationshe charts,quotes and footnotes extensively -which future historiansand analystswill find a very valuable resource - are often so bland that only their rapid creation from tabulaerasaeis remarkable. What is utterly invaluable is the way Betz accompanies this blandness with the trenchant views of those who were instrumentalin theircreation- views about content and function, and what the realissueswere. Insightslikethese are often lost to posterity,or ignoredby foreignresearcherspreoccupiedwith formand processratherthan power and substance. For this very reason Betz's book should be required reading for political scientists. Apart from occasional lapses in orthography,my only criticismis that the book does not cover as much as it could. Fuller treatment of two areas in particularwould have made Betz'streatmentexemplaryratherthan outstanding . First,given the degree of ignoranceof militarymattersin the 'civil'halfof the equation, I would have welcomed a discussionof the role (orfailure)of the media in enhancing mutualunderstanding. Secondly, as evidenced by the Russian military'sweak grasp of the new political processes (see p. I39 and footnote 107, P. I83), there could be more on the extent to which the militarythemselves adopted a new interfacewith the general population, as opposed to the political leadership and aspiring bureaucrats.Chronicling their defence of the need for conscription, or their dealswith local bigwigswould have rounded out the social dimension of civilmilitaryrelations . But these are minor quibbles. Betz has done us a great service in floodlighting and fixing an evanescent period in the democratization of GreaterEurope.Both futurehistoriansand those facedwith similardilemmas will have reasonto thankhim. Conflict Studies Research Centre ANNE C. ALDIS UKDefence Academy, Camberley Primakov,Yevgeny M. A World Challenged: Fighting Terrorism in theTwenty-First Centugy. The Nixon Center and BrookingsInstitutionPress,Washington D.C., 2004. viii + I50 pp. Notes. Index. Li6.50: $22.95. TERRORISM has emerged as the key security threat facing the international community in the early twenty-firstcentury, and the challenge it presents to governmentsas they seekto formulatecoherent and effectiveresponsesto the evolving terroristthreathas a particularresonance in Russia. Its decade-long conflict in Chechnya is perceived within Russia's security elites as part of a counter-terroristoperation and PresidentVladimir Putin believes it involves high stakes: the very survival of the territorial integrity of the Russian 550 SEER, 83, 3, 2005 Federation. Primikov is uniquely placed to offer an analysis of the subject, drawing as he does on his life-long experience of the Middle East and his inside knowledge of Russian intelligence as a formerhead of Russia'sForeign Intelligence Service (SVR) as well as his political appointments as foreign minister and prime minister under Boris El'tsinin the i990s, which he does with greatskilland academic care. The book itselfis divided into seven chapters:'Terrorism:A TerribleForce Unleashed in the World';'The Aggressionof Islam:Truthor Fiction?';'Peace in the Middle East:A New Approach is Needed'; 'The U.S. War on Terror'; Centers of Power: One or Many?'; 'Lessons For All'; 'Russia's Role in the ContemporaryWorld'.Primakovexplores the development of militant Islam as an unstableand growingfactorin the post-Cold Warsecurityorder,noting en route some uncomfortableaspectssuch as the role of the CIA in helpingto fosterthese elements during the Soviet-AfghanWar of I979-89. He explains that after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan militant Islamic groups began perceiving the US as their main adversary, making inevitable the targetingof the US by such terroristgroups.Ideas on co-operation in the War on Terror are mooted, such as the need to share intelligence on terrorist organizations and their members. For Primakov, enhanced intelligence sharing is one of the key lessons that must be learned from the events of I I September 200I. A recurringtheme throughout the work, which supplies the backdrop to many aspects of Russian thinking on counter-terrorism,relates to the shifts that have occurred since the end of the Cold War away...