Ways International Society Influences Sovereign States to Handle Terrorism

This essay discusses the ways in which international society influences sovereign states to handle growing threats from terrorism. It explores the strategies and techniques used in the fight against terrorism, including the adoption of counter-terrorism units, military tactics, and technology. The essay emphasizes the importance of international cooperation in containing and neutralizing the threat of terrorism.

Running head: PERSPECTIVES ON SECURITY AND TERRORISM
Perspectives on Security and Terrorism
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Question: Discuss critically ways in which international society influences
sovereign states to handle growing threats from terrorism.
Introduction
One of the most common threats that sovereign states have to encounter in today’s
day and age is the threat posed by terrorism (Srikanth 2014, 60-68). The perpetrators of
terrorism can pursue their activities citing any ideological or philosophical justification, but
more often than not their activities are always pursued with the objective of sowing terror and
uncertainty into the minds of the citizens who reside in a particular state (Dugas and
Kruglanski 2014, 423-429). There are many ways to tackle terrorism and this essay shall take
a brief way how international society has influenced the fight against terrorism.
Discussion
Terrorism as a phenomenon can said to be as old as the recorded use of warfare in
human society (Shapir 2014, 51-57). In the past, the use of terrorism was restricted within the
bounds of military strategy, to aid the operation of regular military forces with the objective
of crippling the enemy’s morale and therefore put the enemy’s military capabilities at a
disadvantage (Abrahams and Potter 2015, 311-342). Of course, this was before any
international agreement on the procedure of conducting warfare was agreed and ratified. Ever
since the rules of war have been clearly defined and accepted by the sovereign states of the
world, terrorism is now seen as a form of war crime and an illegitimate use of lethal force,
especially against non-combatants (Arnold 2016, 137-154).
Contemporary versions of terrorism have been in existence since the 1960s (Skoll and
Korstanje 2013, 341-364), and often many terrorist activities are inspired by acts of terror in
the past. Perhaps, the group - or groups - which gave rise to terrorism as it is understood

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today, are the various factions of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Many of the tactics
employed by the terrorists of today were often used to great effect by the separate factions of
the IRA in the 1960s and 70s (English 2013, 496-511), a time period which is dubbed in
Anglo-Irish politics and relations as “The Troubles”. One of the most high profile attacks by
the IRA involved the killing of Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy and Governor-General of
Britain’s Indian possessions.
At the same time, various Palestinian groups had emerged with the objective of
terrorizing the citizens of the State of Israel into submission in order to make the demand for
an independent Palestinian State. United under the banner of the Palestinian Liberation
Organization (PLO), it carried out many an attack on both military and civilian targets
throughout the Middle East and elsewhere (Goldman 2013, 364-378). The most notorious
instance was the murder of Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics by a group
named the Black September Organization, which was alleged to be a part of the PLO. It was
their most publicized attack.
However, the modern version of terrorism developed during the Soviet intervention in
Afghanistan, between 1979 and 1989 (Hashim 2014, 69-83). To offset the amount of Soviet
influence and intervention, the USA and China armed and even trained the Mujahedeen, a
collective, umbrella-term used to describe a number of groups and factions that had united to
oust the Soviet Armed Forces out of Afghanistan (Ahmadi 2016, 9-22). It was soon that the
Afghan resistance assumed a religious tenor, as the fight of the Mujahedeen was determined
to be a jihad, an Islamic holy war (Alvi 2014, 38). This is at the point where Islamic
fundamentalists like Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri were able to gather the
resources, manpower and expertise to commence operations at al-Qaeda.

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The fight and struggle against terrorism has been always a collective one (Bizina and
Gray 2014), where sovereign states with a mutual interest to curb down upon and defeat
terrorism and terroristic activities resorted to share intelligence and counter-terrorism
techniques to serve mutual benefits. Many can trace the creation of dedicated counter-
terrorist units to the consequences of the Black September Organization-led Munich massacre
during the course of the 1972 Summer Olympics (Oganyan 2015, 21-26). Since then, every
country that has some amount of military and capacity have utilized its resources to the
creation of counter-terrorism units as specialized units designated to specially counter threats
and eliminate the presence of terrorists.
Often, standard counter-terrorism procedures have become embedded in the military
tactics of various armed forces all around the world, thanks in large part to the Israel Defence
Forces having to encounter terrorist threats on a regular basis (Marcus 2015, 500-528). It is
this experience that led to the development of a unique, hand-to-hand combat style dubbed as
Krav Maga. So effective and popular was this fighting style that it was readily adopted by the
major military powers in the world. Many weapons manufactured by Israelite weapon
manufacturing enterprises too found its way into the hands of non-Israeli military personnel
all around the world (Mor 2018, 1622-1636).
As terrorism assumed global proportions right after the September 11 attacks on the
World Trade Centre in 2001, it became more imperative for various nations to ramp up their
level of preparedness to encounter and eliminate any kind of threats posed by terrorists
(Braithwaite 2013, 95-101). Whereas terrorist threats in the past pertained to hijacking of
civilian aircraft or acts of random shooting on civilian targets, the scope and scale of terrorist
attacks are now carried out with a degree of military planning and precision, with the
deliberate aim to terrorize and intimidate civilians. It is thought that the state’s inability to
protect its own citizens would be the cause of more instability and chaos, which would lead

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into the attainment of the objectives that the terrorists had set out to achieve (Hall and Ross
2015, 847-879). There thus seems to be no change in the final objective of terrorism despite
the changes of military tactics, military technologies and ideologies over the course of
centuries.
Many international organizations have united and come together to develop common
methods, techniques and strategies to combat the rise and influence of terrorism. Individual
countries have their own ways to combat terrorism. Most notably, the United States and Israel
have a no-tolerance policy towards terrorism and do not engage in any sort of negotiations
with terrorists or their ideologues (Canetti et al. 2014, 504-520). Surging ahead with the idea
of the best defence being offense, most countries aligned with the USA carry-out pre-emptive
strikes against targets of interest and opportunity that are related to the existence of terrorists
(Cronin 2015, 87). One of the most notable instances was the elimination of Osama bin
Laden in 2011, in compound in northern Pakistan.
The persecution of offensive, counter-terrorist activities by sovereign states and the
international society is increasingly relying on the adoption and use of technology. Drone
strikes have been particularly useful to safely engage and eliminate important individual
targets, be it infrastructure pertaining to the propagation of terrorism or individual leaders and
ideologues of terrorist organizations (McCrisken 2013, 97-122). However, in recent years,
the use of drones has increasingly come under the scrutiny and criticism of international
commentators and academics, noting that rather than having any tangible effect against
terrorists and terrorism, it is instead crippling and grievously wounding innocent civilians all
around the globe (Brooks 2014, 83-103). As a result, the use of drones remains a highly
controversial issue within the discourse around the methodologies of counter-terrorist
operations.

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Other than the use of drones, counter-terrorist units around the world are continuously
adopting new technologies in military hardware. The use of night-goggles as well infra-red
imaging have greatly helped the cause of anti-terrorist operations around the world. In recent
times with the rise of the Internet, the power of the Internet was grasped by both terrorists and
their opponents (Bates and Mooney 2014, 2). Therefore, the inclusion of computer
technology and programming have been added on to the roster of tools in the arsenal of
counter-terrorism, making the use of cyber warfare against terrorists as one of the key
phenomenon of this era (Bigdanoski and Petreski 2013, 59-73). Knowledge of the users of
social-media by terrorist and counter-terrorist alike has the existence of both the belligerents
on the realm of social-networking, constantly fighting a struggle of dominance over the
narrative each wishes to propagate the other.
All of these developments are a result of the international society’s co-operation in the
face of a common, menacing threat. With the widespread use of counter-terrorist methods
and technologies, sovereign states were influenced to adopt them into their military doctrine,
with the specialized aim fixated towards the liquidation of terrorists. As a result, terrorists
have fewer places to find refuge or operate in. In this way, the international society is
committed to contain and neutralize any threat that could emerge as a danger to common,
innocent citizens of all countries. It is hoped that the international society continues this
gesture of co-operation, with the aim to eliminating the threat of terrorism once and for all.
Conclusion
To sum up and conclude, the international society has played a very active and
pioneering role whenever it came to the threat of terrorism on the event of encountering with
it. Through shared developments in fighting styles, military hardware and technology, many
sovereign states are now protected than ever against the danger posed by the scourge of

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terrorism that is occurring all across the globe. The continuance of this co-operation and
mutual beneficiary influence will result in the end of terrorism as a phenomenon in the
history of military strategy, tactics, doctrines and options.

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