Crisis and crisis management in the

war on terror

Change, Conflict

and Crisis

3

EUA 601 and 620 Contemporary World Arena

9-111

origins2

crises3

managing crises4

perceiving crises5

the attacks1

acts of violence that are intentionally directed at non-combatants for the purpose of securing political objectives

(Philips 2020: 137)

Al-Qaeda and ‘transnational terror’

Use of aircraft and low technology

Part of a broader pattern

BaliMadrid

London

Major impact on US foreign and

domestic policy, and on US allies

everyth ing

two hours that

Halliday 2001

“ changed

changed the world

Where did it come from?2

terrorists

sub-humans

freedoms haters

barbarians and savages

evil-doers

But beyond pain and rhetoric…

serious thinking suggests

it’s more complex

1991change in balance of power

Decoupling

of Cold War proxy relationships

crises3

borderlandsAutonomous civil wars in

failed states and

ungovernable zonesHelman and Ratner 1992; Kaplan 1994

Security-development nexus

managing crises4

Bush doctrine

to forestall or prevent such

hostile acts by our

adversaries, the United

States will, if necessary, act

pre-emptively in exercising

our inherent right of self-

defence

National Security Strategy, 20 Sept 2002

Mixture of ‘traditional’ measures against states and ‘globalised’ actions

Rise of drone warfare based in (e.g.) Pakistan

Moral certitude

Military primacy

M. East democracy

Legitimised by UN and ‘coalition of the willing’

but

Extension into Iraq legitimacyundermined

perceiving crises5

crisis for whom?

why was 9/11 welcomed by some

US supports ME d i c t a t o r s

Persistent interventions in

the borderlands

US foreign policy has…

strutted around for a century, without saying ‘thank you’,

or ‘please’…

Western universalizing project

Liberal terrorPropensity to flatten whatever disagrees with US policy, in the name of the liberal peace

Brad Adams

9-11 As

response to

us hegemony

since 1991

http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/

Meaning in IR6

Crisis in the

global systemCrisis of the

global system

Crisis of

participants

legitimate response to

?violentamerican

hegemony

Or

?primitivism,

barbarism, extremism

Who are the ‘terrorists’?

How useful is it to use such terms ?

To demonise, dehumanize and

delegitimize ?

to confiscate the word humanity, to invoke and monopolize such a

term… has certain effects, such as denying the enemy the quality of

being human and declaring him to be an outlaw of humanity; and a war

can thereby be driven to the most extreme inhumanity

Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political

since all such acts are barriers to communication

Conclusion

nothing changes everything

George Will (2005)“

Little… has changed. The forces of globalization continue

unabated... The issues of the day… are largely the same.

Across broad measures of political, economic, and social

data, the constants outweigh the variations. And United

States' foreign policy is marked by no greater strategic

clarity than it had on Sept. 10, 2001

Dobson, 2006:1 “

Violence from hegemonic power inevitable to maintain status

realism

Attacks are war of ideas, beliefs and supremacy

constructivism

Violence sanctioned and

condoned by collective

security rules

liberalism

Opportunity to further goals of neoimperialism

marxism