War On Terror Research Articles

Questioning our agency inside agencies: rethinking the possibility of scholars’ critical contributions to security agencies

ABSTRACTDuring the months and years following the 11 September 2001 terror attacks in the US, it became axiomatic for American policy makers to speak of a need to more directly connect military and intelligence agencies with academic experts at American universities. Anthropology and other social science disciplines drew renewed attention as politicians, pundits and policy makers claimed regional and disciplinary expertise was lacking in the governmental agencies involved in America’s terror wars. This paper questions the possibility that the US governmental agencies claiming they seek anthropologists and other scholars to bring new ideas to security and defence agencies want the sort of independent ideas that a body of critical anthropologists would bring to this work. I argue that the primary outcome of these efforts will be, not the transformation of governmental agencies; but the transformation of American universities into more-streamlined appendages of expansive national security apparatus. The lack of serious consideration of these possibilities by policy makers or members of intelligence or security agencies the importance of asking such basic questions as clearly as we can. I argue that the broad range of post-9/11 existing and proposed programmes linking American anthropologists and other social scientists’ work with military and intelligence projects will narrow the range of views within intelligence and analyst circles, will damage university systems, and will produce a homogenisation of analysis that will weaken intelligence capabilities.

Как повысить эффективность борьбы с терроризмом с помощью инноваций

Как повысить эффективность борьбы с терроризмом с помощью инноваций

Prospects of Enduring Peace in Afghanistan: Avoiding Zero Sum Game in Af-Pak Region

Afghanistan has witnessed a turbulent history of long and devastating war due to Soviet unabated invasion of Afghanistan of ten years producing unbearable losses of life, institutions and society. The United States along-with the support of majority of Muslim countries supported Jihad to defeat communism. This victory was, however, short-lived as infighting among Afghan war lords later entangled the entire country with even graver consequence. The emergence of Taliban and resultant occupation of 70% of Afghanistan had brought some degree of stability by providing good governance and expeditious justice system, but failed to pragmatically adjust to international environment. The unfortunate incidents of 9/11 changed the world for foreseeable time with even harsher fall out for Afghan nation as unleashing of the war of terror destroyed the left over Afghanistan. The instability in Afghanistan has caused negative effects on Pakistan as next door neighbour, which has rendered all sorts of humanitarian, diplomatic and moral support to Afghan cause since Soviet invasion and has also suffered most in the process due to spill-over effects. The democratic government is incharge in Afghanistan after fall of Taliban regime in 2001 and several state institutions are also in place albeit at infancy stage, especially the security institutions, yet the prospects of enduring peace and stability are distant reality. More than three million Afghan refugees are still in Pakistan with very dim prospects of honourable return due to persisting instability. This paper highlights the causes of instability in Afghanistan with spill-over impact on Pakistan and suggests a course of action for enduring stability.

Fighting the Boko Haram: Military Offensive or Socio-Economic Solution?

The Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad (or Boko Haram) like any other extremist/terrorist group, has been notoriously known in Nigeria mainly due to the terror that it has been unleashing on civilians in the country. It has carried out numerous acts of indiscriminate violence against civilians and government officials thus resulting in the destabilisation of northeast Nigeria. In terms of the impact of terrorism, in 2017 Nigeria ranked 3rd in the world after Iraq and Afghanistan.1 The Boko Haram’s brutal war against the Nigerian state saw it become the most lethal terror organisation in 2014 when it caused some 6,664 deaths2, the same year that it declared a caliphate. In 2015 alone, the Boko Haram killed no less than 5,478 people, thus making it the second deadliest extremist group after the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).3 Further, in 2015, the Boko Haram became internationalised when it pledged allegiance to the ISIS.4 Its indiscriminate killings have also given rise to a displacement of people in the north-eastern states such that many Internally Displaced Persons’ Camps (IDPs) have been established in these states. Following its decade-long war of terror against the Nigerian state and its neighbours, Nigeria is now faced with an enormous security threat and humanitarian crisis, with the displacement of more than 2.6 million people.5 In fact, more than 14 million people in the northeast are in dire need of humanitarian aid.

The War on Terror: Is There Ever Room for Compassion?

The War on Terror: Is There Ever Room for Compassion?

Targets and Tactics: Testing for a Duality within Al Qaeda’s Network

ABSTRACTOne prevailing view treats Al Qaeda as a monolithic entity with a global network of affiliates. Yet, certain affiliates appear more committed to local political and territorial goals – parochial, not global, terrorists. We construct a classification scheme to differentiate affiliates conceptually and empirically, and then track their types over time. We sort Al Qaeda’s network of affiliates using a principal components analysis of terrorist attacks from 1988 to 2012. We show that this aids in identifying latent affiliate types, and interpreting shifts in behavior. We find that despite Al Qaeda’s anti-western rhetoric, there exists a global-parochial divide in which most affiliates are parochial – with anti-Western groups pursuing local political goals even when Western targets remain. By providing an empirical strategy to identify which affiliates are more or less aligned with global terrorism, this research holds implications for the literatures on terrorism and civil war, terrorism and democracy, and the effects of counterterrorism.

The New Black Novel and the Long War on Terror

The New Black Novel and the Long War on Terror

Violent Subjects and Rhetorical Cartography in the Age of the Terror Wars, by Heather Ashley Hayes

All too often in rhetorical studies, the term “violence” is left undefined or enthymematic—kept in play within a broad range of phenomena including instances such as the threat or risk of physical ...

Worth Fighting For: Canada's Tradition of War Resistance from 1812 to the War on Terror par Lara Campbell

<i>Worth Fighting For: Canada's Tradition of War Resistance from 1812 to the War on Terror</i> par Lara Campbell

Exilic Childhood in Very Foreign Lands: Memoirs of Polish Refugees in World War II

The cultural representations of World War II have been dominated by narratives of suffering, victimization, displacement, and death, as much in Poland as elsewhere. But frequently forgotten are the stories of hope and survival of thousands of Poles who escaped the terror of war and found safe haven in distant, and often ‘exotic’, lands such as Persia, India, Africa, and Mexico. To date, little scholarly attention has been paid to the cultural portrayals of these experiences. Conspicuously absent in most of this research is an examination of the Polish refugee children and their personal experience of exile. Building on a selection of memoirs and shorter first-hand accounts, this article explores the authors’ experience of these ‘very foreign lands’, their encounters with local populations and, in many cases, the eventual permanent migration. The stories discussed in this article challenge the stereotypical view of childhood passivity and victimhood, and highlight the constructed nature of childhood. By showing the multitude of ways in which children were able to build peaceful, happy environments away from home, often with the help of local populations, this paper is also relevant to the current debate on the ongoing refugee crisis, emphasizing that once it was Europeans who sought refuge in ‘very foreign lands’.

From Caution to College: The Effects on Veterans with Self- Reported Trauma Symptoms Sharing their Experiences with the Campus Community

Over 900,000 veterans are using benefits for higher education today; the vast majority of them served in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). Over 25% of GWOT service members that have been treated by the Veterans Affairs (VA) are reported to have symptoms of posttraumatic stress or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTS/PTSD). PTS/PTSD negatively impacts student veterans’ abilities to navigate stressful environments such as college and university settings. The Veterans Embracing Transition (VET) Connect Program at San José State University (SJSU) is designed to connect veterans with non-veterans as peer educators. Five of the 13 VET Connect peer educators (38.5%) who were interviewed reported having symptoms of PTSD. Through their service as peer educators on and off campus, these participants demonstrated signs of healthy coping effects through sharing experiences and educating non-veterans of the struggles related to military culture, service, combat, and loss. This study was conducted in collaboration with Sophia Alcala. We worked on independent research questions and observations using data derived from the same larger study simultaneously under the supervision of Dr. Klaw.

Military Families Coping with Death, Dying and Grief Issues

There has been approximately 1.5 million service members who have spent service time in Iraq, of which about 500,000 have served two tours of combat (Whitlock, 2008 as cited by Huebner, Mancini, Bowen, & Orthner, 2009). Given that deployment tours can last up to 15 months, many military personnel have been spending more time overseas than at home. As the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) continues the death rate continues to rise, there are many families and children that will have to cope with the death of a love one and the grief that comes with it. This article will bring awareness to helping professionals and agencies that work with military families and their relatives after the death of a service member. It will show the length and use of such modalities as the social learning theory and the grief cycle model in offering the best interventions and techniques when providing psychological services to families of services members who died while in combat. It will also provide a starting point and mid-point for love ones that may be seeking additional resources after the death of a family member.

Australia's “War on Terror” Discourse

Australia's “War on Terror” Discourse. By Kathleen Gleeson (Ashgate Publishing Company: Surrey, 2014). ISBN: 9781472419859. £65.00 (hb).

Silence Was Salvation: Child Survivors of Stalin’s Terror and World War II in the Soviet Union. By Cathy A. Frierson. Annals of Communism Series. Edited by William Frucht.New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015. Pp. xviii+268. $65.00.Sacrificing Childhood: Children and the Soviet State in the Great Patriotic War. By Julie K. deGraffenried. Modern War Studies. Edited by Theodore A. Wilson.Lawrence:

<i>Silence Was Salvation: Child Survivors of Stalin’s Terror and World War II in the Soviet Union</i>. By Cathy A. Frierson. Annals of Communism Series. Edited by William Frucht.New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015. Pp. xviii+268. $65.00.<i>Sacrificing Childhood: Children and the Soviet State in the Great Patriotic War</i>. By Julie K. deGraffenried. Modern War Studies. Edited by Theodore A. Wilson.Lawrence:

Richard Flanagan’s the Unknown Terrorist-A Novel about the “War on Terror”- A Critical Elucidation

Richard Flanagan’s the Unknown Terrorist-A Novel about the “War on Terror”- A Critical Elucidation

The Analytic Hierarchy Process in GIS-Driven Military Operation Base Selection: A Case Study in Sri Lanka

In a military context, the collection, analysis, and use of geographic data can provide leaders with timely and accurate information on which to base decisions. GIS systems are used to store, manipulate, analyze, and manage all types of geodata, and are widely used by many military organizations in military decision making processes (MDMPs). Apart from accuracy, usage of GIS in MDMPs has provided many advantages, becoming a powerful and popular tool in the militaries of developed countries. However, even though GIS is a sophisticated tool in MDMP, the Sri Lankan Army has not employed widespread use of these systems. Tactical operations in which covert movement is paramount to success depend on high quality data and information concerning enemy positions, as was the case in the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009). A case study of base siting using GIS is explored here; in this research we attempt to introduce GIS as a powerful tool in MDMPs in the Sri Lankan military. Sri Lanka is a developing country that suffered from a terrorist war for more than 30 years. All decision making and data gathering was done manually, spending more money and man power that was realistically necessary. This research is focused on providing solid evidence for the use of GIS techniques in MDMPs, which can partially supplant slower, less reliable humanbased decision making processes. In selecting a suitable permanent or temporary military operation base in enemy territory, all parameters need to be evaluated accurately. Injecting logical and statistical data, thus more automated processes into command-level decisions, will minimize errors in MDMPs. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is utilized to structure commander’s perceptions of important selection criteria, and optimal base selection procedures are described.

EXPLORING OPTIONS OF RAPPROCHEMENT WITH TALIBAN ON THE PERPETUAL STATE OF WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistan since the Soviet Invasion in 1979 and later by the USA in 2001 on the pretext of Global War on Terrorism (WoT) has remained in a perpetual state of war even after the collapse of the USSR and before US invasion. The fragile state with a lack of central government and dysfunctional state institutions has created serious international and regional security issues with an influx of refugees, drugs, and above all terrorism. The instability in Afghanistan has created national security problems for Pakistan and despite enormous sacrifices and instability, Pakistan is in the eye of storms for not doing enough despite US active military presence. The USs willingness to engage the Taliban for an honorable exit strategy and ensuring that the government in Afghanistan is more representative, are in fact positive signals which need to be capitalized by engaging all parties to the conflict.

Cathy A. Frierson, Silence Was Salvation: Child Survivors of Stalin’s Terror and World War II in the Soviet Union

Cathy A. Frierson, <i>Silence Was Salvation: Child Survivors of Stalin’s Terror and World War II in the Soviet Union</i>

Dogs of War or Jackals of Terror? Foreign Fighters and Mercenaries in International Law

The threat of “blowback” from foreign fighters, unaffiliated volunteers who join an insurgency in a distant land, has led states to explore a variety of normative mechanisms. Among these is the international legal regime applicable to mercenaries. This short paper considers the evolution of mercenarism and the efforts to regulate it. Attempts to fit foreign fighters into that normative category are unlikely to succeed. In part this is due to the question of motivation, which is central to most definitions of mercenary and focuses on private gain. But it is also linked to the reasons for regulation in the first place: mercenaries are seen as threats in the states to which they travel, while foreign fighters are primarily deemed threats by the states to which they might return.

The Application of a Master Frame: Tracing the War on Terror in the Irish Times 2001-8

 This research was made possible by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS). Introduction THE ‘WAR ON TERROR’ has surely been one of the most analysed phenomenona in political communication during the first decades of the st century. That this might be so is perhaps unsurprising given its prominence and its impact on domestic and international politics during this period. It has increasingly been regarded as the new ordering principle of international relations (Archetti, ).The phenomenon has been identified as a ‘master frame’ akin to the ‘cold war’ (Hackett, ; Kuypers, Cooper and Althouse, ) which dominated political discourse in the latter half of the th century. Snow and Benford () originally used the term ‘master frame’ in their analysis of social movements to signify ‘political and cultural shorthand, used to unify a broad movement and instil political agency’. Meyer () later sought to expand its significance beyond social movement politics, using the term to describe a more comprehensive worldview where a master frame will have resonance both within mainstream political discourse and movement politics (Meyer, ). In this regard Norris et al. () note that the fall of the Berlin wall and the replacement of the Cold War frame with the newer ‘war on terror’ frame offered ‘a way for American politicians and journalists to construct a narrative to make sense of a range of diverse stories about international security, civil wars and global conflict’ (Norris, Kern and Just, ). This paper proposes to address a lacuna in the framing literature by studying how and in what context the master frame of the ‘war on terror’ was used in newspaper coverage. To date the literature on framing has been predominantly focused on either content (e.g., frames in news), framing effects, or the interplay between the two – what Scheufele () called frame setting. However, little research has been conducted on the context in which a frame is used or invoked and for what purposes. In seeking to address this objective in the press, utilising a newspaper with an agendasetting role is preferable. This choice to focus on an elite newspaper reflects what other communications scholars have observed: that stories tend to spread vertically within the news industry, with editors at regional media outlets often deferring to elite newspapers and newswires to set the national news agenda (Gitlin, ). In this paper it is proposed to use the Irish Times as the object of study for a couple of reasons. Firstly, international news research has typically been dominated by large ‘elite’ nations such as the US and the UK (Lazarsfeld, ; Tsang, Tsai and Liu, ) and thus the perspectives of smaller and more peripheral countries THE APPLICATION OF A MASTER FRAME: Tracing the ‘War on Terror’ in the Irish Times 2001–81