POL234 Essay: Assessing Global Efforts to Reduce Terrorism & Violence

This essay, prepared for POL234, critically examines the effectiveness of global efforts to reduce terrorism and political violence since 2001. It begins by outlining the various measures implemented by the United Nations and other international bodies, including conflict resolution, promoting cultural diversity, and economic development. The essay then delves into the challenges these efforts face, such as corruption, conflicting agendas between human rights activists and counter-terrorism agencies, and the misuse of media. The analysis highlights how these factors have hindered the success of global counter-terrorism initiatives, citing specific examples and statistical data on the rise of terrorist activities. The essay concludes by offering recommendations for more effective strategies, including fostering cooperation between different agencies and regulating media coverage of terrorism, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive approach to combat this global threat.

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Terrorism and Political Violence
There have been so many efforts that have been coordinated towards countering terrorism
and political violence. One of the efforts that has been taken by the United Nations is the
implementation of the measures that address the conditions that are conducive to the spread
of terrorism which include encouraging economic development, reducing marginalisation of
countries or regions, preventing and solving both political and non-political conflicts and
encouraging cultural and religious diversity by fostering the understanding between two or
more people of different cultures and religion1. The measures have so far been effective in
countering terrorism mainly by reducing the chances of radicalisation of the vulnerable
member country2. There has also been an emphasis on the need to support victims of
terrorism and political violence which has helped in reducing the chances of planning and
staging a revenge. Besides, the United Nations has formed strict rules and regulations
regarding terrorism and political violence with a view to reducing this menace in the world.
However, these global efforts ostensibly aimed at reducing terrorism and political violence
since 2001 have not been very effective due to increased rates of corruption around the world,
clashing agendas between the human rights activists and the counter terrorism community
and the misuse of the media to spread terrorist information which creates a sense of fear and
insecurity in the society.
The first measure that has been taken to reduce political violence and terrorism is the
uniting of over a hundred countries to fight against this disaster. For instance, in June 2013,
the Task Force Office, partnering with the Government of Switzerland held a counter
terrorism focal point conference in Geneva to discuss conditions that favour the spread of
1Perliger, Political Science & Politics, 50.
2 Caruso, European Journal of Political Economy, 39.

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terrorism3. The conference included almost 150 members of the United Nations together
with both local, regional and international organisations. This is where the various measures
to counter the spread of terrorism were suggested. The suggestions included encouraging
socioeconomic development among the member states, developing counter radicalization
programmes and offering support to victims of terrorism and political violence4. The unity of
many countries in the world to fight terrorism has to a large extent helped in countering
terrorism.
The United Nation has taken several steps in preventing and resolving conflicts within a
nation and between two different countries in conflict. Through envoys and mediators, the
United Nations has with support from the department of political affairs, has been involved in
conflict resolution and in strengthening the fragile democratic member states5. Several
measures have also been taken to reduce the election related violence. The united Nations has
done this either through the envoys and mediators or through the department of peacekeeping
operations whose main role is to see to it that a long-term stabilization is attained after a
conflict. An example of a political conflict that was solved by the United Nations is the 2007
post-election conflict between the former president of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki and the former
Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga6. The post-election violence which lasted for over two
months rented the whole country peace less with a lot of bloodshed. The conflict was finally
settled by Koffi Anan, a mediator from the United Nations. Ever since, the country has been
experiencing peaceful elections.
3 Winkler, In the name of terrorism, 33
4 Abrahms, Comparative Political Studies, 370.
5 Bosi, The Oxford handbook of social movements, 451.
6Feridun and Muhammad Shahbaz., Defence and Peace Economics, 200.

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Cultural and religious diversity has also been fostered through dialogues and
understanding to help reduce conflicts that may lead to ignorance and hate. The United
Nations in partnership with the Task Force Group has done this through implementing a
project proposed in 2014 that required training of some selected media professionals on
proper ways to address the public on matters relating to differences in culture and religion7.
An example of recently selected media professional for training are the Somalia Diaspora
Community. Religious differences in countries are said to be the main causes of both
terrorism and political conflicts which ultimately lead to political violence. Most political
violence arise as a result of political differences but in most nations, especially the
developing ones, the root cause of these violence is the cultural or tribalistic difference8.
Besides, a number of terrorist groups or associations are religious based. This therefore
suggests that solving the cultural and religious differences between people can greatly help in
reducing the political violence and terrorism.
Promoting economic and social development among different countries is another method
that has been used to reduce terrorism. The United Nations has made it a priority that its
member states should have a sustainable economic and social development. Economic and
social development have a direct impact on the peace and security of a country and therefore
indirectly reduces terrorism9. Underdevelopment leads to poverty. When citizens, especially
the youth lack a source of income, they may easily get lured into joining the terrorist’s groups
where they have the opportunity to get huge amounts of money. Alternatively, during a
political violence, most people who get engaged in the wars are youths who are idle and
7
8Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu and Sandler, Economica ,550
9Walsh and James, Comparative Political Studies, 560.

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financially unstable. This therefore suggests that economic stability can help in reducing both
terrorism and political violence10. The UN has offered a support in this area mainly by
offering development funds to its member states.
There are also other several measures that have been suggested by the UN to the
members’ countries to prevent and combat terrorism. First is that all member countries should
refrain from organizing, facilitating, taking participation in or tolerating any terrorist activity
within its territories and that the member country should not host any terrorist training camps
which can be used for organization of a terrorist activity11. Secondly, the member states
should help in fighting terrorism by obligating to the law that anyone found in support,
facilitating, participating or trying to participate in either planning or funding a terror attack is
guilty and should be judged in accordance to the international laws12. The member states
should also ensure that there is corporation among themselves by timely exchanging accurate
information that concerns a terror attack. The United Nations has also asked its members to
put measures in place that ensure that there is security in manufacturing and issuing of travel
documents. The members should be able to detect any alteration or fraudulent use of any of
their documents which would help in reducing terrorism by discouraging the movement of
terrorists from one country to another. There has also been a travel ban against Taliban and
Al Qaida members. The United Nation has asked its members to strengthen this ban by
participation in the wide distribution of the International Criminal Police Organization special
notices that concern victims of this ban. Lastly, the United Nations has encouraged all the
member and non-member countries to join hands in fighting and ending terrorism.
10 Stewart, Critical Infrastructure Protection 30
11 Akhtar, Juned, Torkel and Knut, Journal of Transportation Security, 189
12Tase, Academicus International Scientific Journal 30

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Despite all the above measures to combat terrorism, a terrorist attack, one after the other
has been dominating the headlines. According to United Nation’s statistics, the effect of
terrorism has significantly increased since the year 200013. There has been a constant increase
in the number of deaths resulting from terrorism. Between 2000 and 2013, the number
increased from 3,329 to 32,68514. There was then an 80% increase in the number of deaths
from 203 to 2014 which made the latter year to be the worst on the record of terrorism around
the world. However, terrorist attacks are mainly concentrated in five countries. In 2014 for
instance, the countries that were majorly affected included Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria,
Afghanistan and Syria15.
In 2002, the areas that were highly affected by terrorism included the United States, India
and Russia. During this time these three nations were among the top five most affected
nations alongside Algeria and Colombia. By 2008, a different picture of terrorism emerged.
The impact of terrorism had declined in the United States and increased in several parts of
Asia and Africa. By this year, the top five most affected nations included Iraq, Pakistan,
India, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan16. By 2014, the terrorist attacks were more severe in
Northern and Central Africa alongside Europe. The most affected nations during this time
included Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
There are several reasons for the increase in terrorist activities around the globe. These
include the clash between the agendas to counter terrorism and those of the human rights,
13 Rao, Early detection of disease, 13
14 Agnew, Theoretical Criminology, 150
15 Herschinger, Historical Social Research, 61
16 Zimmermann, European Journal of Political Economy, 159.

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misuse of the modern media to spread threats and other terrorist information, corruption
among others.
There is an antagonism that exist between the human rights community and the
counterterrorism. This makes them to be predisposed to work against each other. The human
rights activists are sometimes viewed as pro-terrorists, they indirectly add to or abate
terrorism17. The counterterrorism and the human rights community need to create coherent
systems between their two different frameworks. They should build a joint communication
programme that would present the objectives of both groups. All this could be done by the
United Nations through its agencies. The UN member states should see to it that the criminal
justice systems that deal with domestic, transnational and international terrorists are more
effective and fairer. The Human Rights activists and their protocols should then be
incorporated into the international counterterrorism training and should also have
representatives in the UN agency responsible for fighting terrorism. The above efforts could
help in the reduction of terrorism by preventing radicalization of the innocents and by
ensuring greater legitimacy of the government efforts
The modern media has also had a hand in the increased number of terrorist activities. Most
terrorist organizations make use of the internet to get new recruits and to transform
themselves into organic social movements. The modern media has made it possible for every
individual to become not only consumers but also producers of terrorist ideologies. The
current media is fond of showing graphic images of terror attacks for prolonged period of
time. This creates a perception in the society that the terrorists are successful thus spreading
an element of fear and insecurity among the society, something that the terrorists really want.
17Enders, Walter and Hoover, American Economic Review, 72.

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To stop these effects the extent to which the journalists cover a terror attack in the media
should be regulated by both the local government and the United Nations.
The main cause for the increase in both terrorism and political violence is corruption. For
political violence for instance, corruption contributes mainly by creating mistrust between the
top government officials which leads to conflicts and eventually a violence in the country.
Some of the major corruption activities that have led to political violence around the world
include unfair judicial services, unfair electoral processes, cultural or religious
discriminations and generally poor leadership18. Unfair judicial services lead to bitterness and
loss of confidence in the dependence of the law for fairness. As a result, more people
especially top government officials get engaged in unlawful acts. The courts may also be seen
to be ruling in favour or under the influence of a particular political party. The result here is
that all the other political parties may team up against this one political party. A conflict
therefore arises which might lead to protests against these unlawful acts and eventually, a
political violence may arise. Unfair or an electoral process that has been perceived to be
unfair can lead to a political violence. The 2007 post-election violence in Kenya was mainly
as a result of an electoral process that was perceived to be unfair. The country usually gets
divided along political lines. In their quest for fairness, the citizens usually engage in
demonstrations and eventually fight each other. Cultural and religious discriminations can
also lead to political violence. When a certain tribe or religious movement is isolated in a
nation, they usually try to fight back which might cause a political violence. Poor leadership
on the other hand contributes to political violence by worsening the conditions of the fairness
of the judicial system and the electoral processes. There have been many cases where the
citizens have carried out demonstrations against their current leadership. An example is in
Zimbabwe in Africa where the citizens especially the youths carried out protests against their
18Milton, Daniel, Megan and Michael, International Interactions, 635

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former president. These protests lead to violence and instability in the country for several
months.
Corruption aids the increase and spread of terrorism across the world. First, corruption
leads to poverty in a country. As a result of being poor, most people during their job search
could be lured into getting recruited into terrorism either knowingly or unknowingly. A lot of
stories about the youth especially from the developing countries who have been promised of
luxurious jobs abroad only to end up in terrorist training camps have been the headlines of
many media stations19. Alternatively, one may willingly decide to join a terrorist group as a
result of having faced a lot of difficulties in job search with no hopes of securing one in the
near future. Terrorism has also spread as a result of several nations failing to fully implant
the requirements of the United Nations to fight terrorism. Terrorist gain access to another
nation as a result of corrupt officials at the national boundaries. They issue fake travel
documents to these terrorists which clears any doubt of terrorism in them. As a result, the
terrorists set strongholds in several parts of the country. The terrorist also acquires guns and
other firearms through corrupted individuals. Corruption also enables terrorist to gain access
to country’s military information which assist them to strategically plan a successful terror
attack. Generally, corruption is the root cause of the increase and spread of terrorism across
the globe.
Another reason for the increased terrorism is the lack of corporation between nations to
fight terrorism. There are some countries which are not members of the United Nations. This
makes it difficult to come up with a strategy that can counter terrorism globally yet some
countries are not part of the strategy20. Lack of collaboration between different countries has
therefore led to an increase in terrorism.
19Dreher, Axel, Martin and Siemers, The Journal of Law and Economics, 87
20 Pillar, Mediterranean Quarterly, 10

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Despite several measures that have been put across both by several countries and the
United Nations to fight terrorism and political violence, more cases of the same have been
reported since the year 2001. This has mainly been due to increased rates of corruption
especially in the developing countries and lack of collaboration between the different
countries to fight terrorism and political violence. These unsocial acts can be mainly reduced
by putting measure that can reduce the corruption rates such as strict regulations and
punishing the corrupt individuals, encouraging social and economic developments among
nations and joining hands to fight the terrorism and political violence.
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