Modern Day Terrorism: Impact on Western Countries and Responses

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of modern terrorism, defining it as violence against civilians for political purposes. It explores the evolution of terrorist tactics, from traditional methods to the use of hacking, chemical attacks, and new weapons. The essay focuses on the impact of terrori...Read More

Modern Day
Terrorism

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Terrorism is related to violence against the general public/civilians for political purposes.
The actions involved are purely wrong in a moral way and the its impact is not just limited to the
national boundaries but can be seen the whole world suffering (Whittaker, (2013). The main
motive of terrorism is to posses threat of violence regarding politics, religious activities,
ideologies and many more (Richards, (2014). This essay is provided to show the working of
modern day terrorist groups and organizations against Western countries such as Australia,
United Kingdom and U. S. The working of such groups has been shown to find our the role of
military in curbing it and to suggest non-coercive operations wherever needed.
MAIN BODY
Terrorism is a broad term which can be understood as the conflict in the form of violence
which may destroy a whole country (Schwenkenbecher, (2012). There are organizations which
manage the working of such acts and for carrying on these activities, many individuals are
recruited who are called terrorist groups. Modern days terrorism refer to new techniques and
ways through which lives of the civilians are destroyed (Phares, (2014). From the past analysis, it
has been found that terrorism is about attacking and ruining the normal situations in order to be
successful and continue to rise in wrongful acts. It has direct nexus with social and political
aspects in a country.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has defined terrorism as “the unlawful use of force
and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian
population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” It has
evolved with the time and the change is dramatic (Norris, (2014). Earlier, the terrorist groups had
traditional techniques of creating violence in the country. These included killing people from
suicidal bombs, shooting, kidnapping resident and well as foreign people for beheading them and
capture the entire act in a video to threaten the world. However, this has changed now, the
terrorist groups are no longer limited to these approaches and techniques and has moved to use
new ways which may not always about killing.
The current scenario is that terrorists are directed towards forming organizations being
funded by many different political parties around the world to multiply their strengths in order to
increase violence. They have started recruiting innocent people for carrying work of technical
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and critical nature apart from training them to kill. Therefore, it can be said that modern day
terrorism is about using hacking the information stored on government's sites, chemical attacks
to have long term effect, utilisation of new weapons of mass destruction and many other kinds of
activities. These have resulted in huge effect on different aspects of politics, economy, social and
many more.
It is important to have the knowledge about main features in order to understand the
accurate meaning of the modern terrorism as the scope it huge (Combs, (2017). It can be
described as unpredictable as it can happen any time and anywhere. This is makes it difficult to
control and combat. Due to this characteristics, it is hard for the department of defence to prepare
for such acts and make strategies. Furthermore, symbolic targets is again define modern
terrorism which means that, there is a specific location or identity with a meaning. The motive
behind this is to create a mark on the areas which is the prospective targets by terrorists groups
(Leistedt, (2013).
Terrorism is not at all lawful and nobody supports such acts. If some attack happens in
one country then it is possible that other states are likely to be affected since the trade and
business are connected with each other (Chenoweth, (2013). Furthermore, the cost involved in
making the situations better after terrorist attacks is huge which increases the additional burden
on the government for restoring the lives of civilians. There are many conventions which have
been formed with the collaborated efforts of many countries in order to help each other in
eliminating terrorism. Australia, US and UK are also members of some of such conventions for
working together in order to stop terrorism (Dragu & Polborn, (2014).
On talking about developed western countries like Australia, United States and United
Kingdom, these are always the main countries in the list of terrorists organizations. There could
be many reasons behind choosing any of these states. Modern day terrorist groups and
organizations consider the rapidly growing economy of these countries. The main way through
which the working of the big corporations and entities are destroyed is by hacking the sites
through which sensitive information are stolen. These are used in making illegal use and threat
the top officials of the country to approve the conditions of terrorists groups (Chomsky, (2015).
Apart from this, the young people who are in their growing phase and studying in schools
and colleges are brainwashed by terrorist groups. Such people are influenced in a negative way
and against the moral values which make them do as per the instructions provided to them by the
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head of the terror groups. Along with this, in the past years the incidents of chemical attacks
have also been seen. This refers to act of using toxin properties of chemical substance with an
intention to kill, injure or incapacitate somebody. The effect could of such attacks is harmful
enough to kill thousands of people in a particular location.
The recent case of chemical attack is one which occurred in Syria through chemical
attack in the region of Douma (Chemical attack in Syria, 2019). An investigation has bee
launched to assess the person who is actually responsible behind this. Approx. 1700 civilians
were killed in this attack. When the Syrian government being answered, it denied the allegations
of using chemical weapons. This shows the huge impact on lives of the people living in that
location. It is an incident in modern terrorism.
These organizations get the power because the internal authorities in various departments
of the country are involved in such terrorists organizations. Furthermore, these are funded by
many big corporations and personalities which are not disclosed publicly (Kingma, Cramer &
Chenoweth, (2015). The activities are carried by the people who has been recruited in these
entities for taking the terrorism to a next level. If various government departments are do not
function properly and legally then, the chances of terrorists activities get high.
Terrorist attacks have increased in previous years because of number of reasons ranging
from poverty, short term publicity and media attention, destabilizing policies implemented in a
country or the motive to damage the economy (LaFree & Bersani, (2014). These can be termed
as short term goals but there can be long term goals also which can be from redistribution of
power, influence and wealth. These can push the people to take up the terrorism by getting
influenced with the motives of terrorists organizations. Terrorist groups imagine that by showing
terror in the world, they can become successful which can make them dominate the world
(Newman, (2013).
Counter-terrorism means combating the terrorism with the help of military and other
techniques or ways. It generally comprises of techniques, strategy, enforcement of law and
taking help from the intelligence agencies to track the situations in order to prevent terrorism. In
the first instance, military force is used to stop the funding of these organizations as without
enough finance, no weapons, recruitment or strategies can be made and executed. Hence, this is
the best way to stop such incidents (Kaplan, (2017).
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Every country has defence department which is divided into air forces, marine and
military for combatting the terrorists attacks. US has the most efficient and largest military
however, UK and Australia are also good enough to handle such incidents. The personnel in
military forces are given training and weapons to use it in the right way for protecting the
country. Terrorist attacks often need support of all the people living in the country and not just
the military to tackle the situations. Furthermore, if the attack is immense then the military along
can not counter the threat.
The answer to violence is not always the violence, sometime it becomes imperative to
understand the main reason behind terrorist attacks to find out what has made it happen.
Therefore, non-coercive operations can also be used which refer to not using threats or force to
achieve compliance (Hardy, (2015). Such activities are effective only when there is some scope
of negotiating with the terror groups. This can save a lot of cost and destruction to the
infrastructure. These are directed towards increasing a friendly environment throughout the
world so that peace can be maintained without harming anyone.
One of the examples of non-coercive operations is that US is considering a peace deal
with Taliban whereby an agreement has been prepared to be signed by both of these countries. It
comprises of the conditions followed by a conclusion in order stop making Afghanistan a
launchpad to conduct attacks outside the country and complete withdrawal of US and NATO
forces along with this other conditions have also been included in this for negotiating with
Taliban. It is an example of non-coercive operation which can help US in reducing terrorism in
that country. This can set an example that it can be prevented without engaging in counter
attacks (US-Taliban deal, 2019).
Australia, US, UK and other western countries can come together in order to deal with
terrorism in a moral way. Terrorist groups use use violence in a particular way, aiming at certain
kinds of intermediate results which can get them meet their ultimate ends. However, the answer
for terror is not always the terror. There must be efforts for resolving such situations in an ethical
way. This can save the economy and other areas of a country. Hence, with the recent example of
US-Taliban peace deal, it can be said that military force alone is not sufficient to handle these
situations as this can make the situations worse. Furthermore, it involves huge cost and efforts to
make strategies, purchase new weapons, executing them and many more. This is a drawback in
using the military force along and increase the demand of using non-coercive functions.
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Non-coercive is effective as it can help in managing terrorist attacks peacefully by
avoiding violence. Also, other countries can take this as example by negotiating with
organizations. On the other hand, military force can be deployed special task of preventing the
financing of the terror groups. This can produce desired results in preventing the terrorism
including the modern terrorism.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it can be concluded that terrorism is sometimes defined as a “form
of coercion” aims at combating the attacks done by terrorist groups. The change in the
techniques and ways used in terrorism have been changed drastically which has given rise to new
concept called modern terrorism. It is about using chemical attacks, hacking and misusing of
confidential information for using them illegally. Traditional approaches has been changed
which was more into killing the people and now, the terrorist groups have interest in destroying
the economy of developed and rich countries in order to threaten other states of the world.
Furthermore, it is necessary to study the reason behind such attacks in order to make plans and
strategies for combating such attacks. In addition to this, there should be combination of military
force and non-coercive operations so that double effect can be created for faster combatting.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals:
Whittaker, D. (2013). Terrorism: Understanding the global threat. Routledge.
Richards, A. (2014). Conceptualizing terrorism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. 37(3). 213-236.
Schwenkenbecher, A. (2012). What Is Terrorism?. In Terrorism: A Philosophical Enquiry (pp.
38-47). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Phares, W. (2014). Future jihad: Terrorist strategies against America. St. Martin's Press.
Norris, J. J. (2014). Why the FBI and the Courts are Wrong about Entrapment and
Terrorism. Miss. LJ. 84. 1257.
Combs, C. C. (2017). Terrorism in the twenty-first century. Routledge.
Leistedt, S. J. (2013). Behavioural aspects of terrorism. Forensic science international. 228(1-3).
21-27.
Chenoweth, E. (2013). Terrorism and democracy. Annual Review of Political Science. 16. 355-
378.
Dragu, T., & Polborn, M. (2014). The rule of law in the fight against terrorism. American
Journal of Political Science. 58(2). 511-525.
Chomsky, N. (2015). Culture of terrorism. Haymarket Books.
Kingma, K., Cramer, B., & Chenoweth, E. (2015). Regime type and terrorist attacks. Emerging
Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Interdisciplinary, Searchable, and
Linkable Resource, 1-15.
LaFree, G., & Bersani, B. E. (2014). County‐level correlates of terrorist attacks in the United
States. Criminology & Public Policy. 13(3). 455-481.
Newman, L. S. (2013). Do terrorist attacks increase closer to elections?. Terrorism and Political
Violencei. 25(1). 8-28.
Kaplan, A. (2017). The counter-terrorism puzzle: A guide for decision makers. Routledge.
Hardy, K. (2015). Resilience in UK counter-terrorism. Theoretical Criminology. 19(1). 77-94.
Online:
Chemical attack in Syria. 2019. [Online]. Available through
:<https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2019/08/04/tulsi-gabbards-reports-on-
chemical-attacks-in-syria-a-self-contradictory-error-filled-mess/>
US-Taliban deal. 2019. [Online]. Available through
:<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/taliban-close-peace-deal-afghan-group-
spokesman-190828114246759.html>.
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