Terrorism in the 2Oth and 21st Century - Essay Sample

Terrorism is an act of aggressive or violent attacks towards a sovereign people based on extremist views and ideology, a modus operandi that characterized by the intended use of extreme violence to achieve politically motivated goals (Henderson, 2001, p. 116). Terrorist behavior relies on irrational behavior, and radical ideas either misinterpreted for the justification of the violent actions. 20th and 21st century have had their fair share of the terrorists attacks. Many of the victims of terrorists attacks are mostly innocent people who cant protect themselves, and usually, they are unarmed or unguarded. Terrorism takes various forms from the mental brainwashing of unsuspecting people to bombing attacks of innocent civilians in a night club or a foreign embassy (Gupta, 2009, p. 43). The radical behavior has been due to various reasons, but religion has been a significant justification by terrorists. This paper will discuss terrorism as an act of war and social and economic damages that it causes to the targeted communities. It will show how terrorism affects the daily lives of innocent civilians and why it should be prevented using all available mechanisms. Timely response and stringent prevention measures should be put in place to ensure that terrorism is put at bay and eradicated from any society. No community should be allowed to bear the massive losses and burdens that the terrorist attacks charges put on the people. Although terrorists claim to follow a cause of justice in their actions and create an extreme view of something to act as a compass all through, usually this is just a displaced fact far from the truth.

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In most of the cases, radicalizers use corrupted facts or biased arguments based these corrupted truths. In most cases the instigators of most acts of terrorism target maximum damage and the highest number of casualties. Terrorism has been declared a global threat as of 2016 by UN General Assembly and the Security Council (Matheson, 2006). It is important to note that terrorism according to international law is an act of war and recently it is leading cause instability of world affairs (Gupta, 2009, p. 68). As an act war, terrorism is a significant threat to global peace and progress. The inhumane acts by these propagators lead to both physical and mental damages of those affected. In 2001, the world witnessed the most brutal act of terrorism of the 21st century that happened in the America. 9/11 attacks on the two twin towers after a plane hijacking destined for Washington DC restructured the foreign relations of world matters. Two of the world's largest towers were brought down by terrorist and caused substantial loss of life and damage of property worth billions of dollars ("September 11 Attacks," n.d., p. 22). The massive losses that accompany terrorist attacks become huge setbacks for both social and economic developments. This single terrorist attack is the best case study to refer to when trying to understand terrorism because it just shows how bad terrorism is and why it should not be allowed to flourish especially as the world became more interconnected and globalized into a global village. A single terrorist attack is strong enough to shake the established systems of either social nature or economic nature.

As stated earlier the primary causes of terrorism are corrupted ideology and extremists beliefs popularized by opportunists of circumstances. The terror-opportunists seek to capitalize on conflicts of social and economic ideologies to create conflicts to further their interests. The masterminds of terrorism prey on unsuspecting individuals and feed them corrupt ideals and beliefs. These vulnerable personalities become subjected to radical beliefs and religious brainwashing which manipulate them into acting in a way that helps achieve the interests of masterminds of the terrorist's networks ("Roots of Terrorism?," n.d., p. 11). In the 20th century, terrorism was mainly subject to nationalistic views mostly stemming from the two historic world wars that sparked a passion and a deep rooted desire to challenge the legitimacy of world political, social and economic order supported by world governments and international bodies.

A systematically arranged order of events that closely followed the end of world war two and the creation of Israel as an independent state was in the middle of this. Nationalistic ideologies tied to racial and ethnic concepts began to develop among those countries that had been absorbed or integrated as part of the larger states started to emerge to achieve nationalist ambitions using terror as their primary weapon. The nationalistic events are another of the leading causes of what later became terrorism and a significant world threat. The Macedonian and Irish uprising and conquest for independence became the founding stones of modern day terrorism.

In a historical context, war practices and aggressive combat nature of the WW2 offered the best justification of the view that terror is justifiable and totally disregard the rule of law and legal mechanisms of settling conflicts. This disregard of law accelerated a de-sensitive nature of people towards the use of violence as a means to accomplish national interests and as the intensity of conflicts grew so did the stark contrasting views and ideologies (Ingram & Reed, 2016, p. 18-25). Terrorist tactics pursued and supported by partisan world powers to achieve their interests became more and more evident and misunderstood as a way of making the use of terror as a legitimate and at the center of this conflict was the use of civilian target to get things done according to the wishes of the terrorists. The bi-polar cold war politics and economic ideology supremacy wars was also another historic event of the 20th century that significantly fueled terrorism with the superpowers risking an escalation of full world chaos. However, during this period terrorism was tactfully supported in the disguise of revolution and nationalistic insurgencies to successfully stage a global shift from colonial occupation to sovereign independence ("6. Civil War and Terrorism after the Cold War," 2013, p. 74). However, terrorism came in handy as a supporting tactic within the framework of larger political and social movements. For instance, resettlement of Israel in Palestine land sparked nationalist approaches which were pursued using terror as one of the key tactics in the campaign for the full independence of Palestine. To date, the definitions of the Israeli-Palestine conflicts is defined using terrorism as the descriptive word.

Terrorism in Modern History has diversified both the political nature and geographical areas with the threat significant advancements of their nature. Today there exist terrorist attack modes that range from cyber-attacks to suicide bombing missions (Janczewski & Colarik, 2011, p. 143). All these are based on cost-benefit analysis of the impacts that they create and perceived to be the most efficient ways to leaving a mark and achieving the political objectives.

In conclusion, the current trends of terrorism characterized by the rise of suicide bombings across all continents demonstrates why there exists a stiff competition of terrorists global networks and the security agencies to combat. In this regard, the threat of Jihadi terrorism is quickly becoming the biggest threat and weapon applied to create fear and widespread anxiety and as such prompt response measures must put in place to ensure the safety of civilians. Terrorism is an imminent threat, and the underlying fact is that should the terrorism threat is significant of world progress, and unity is not about to go away anytime soon.

References

Gupta, D. K. (2009). Understanding terrorism and political violence: The life cycle of birth, growth, transformation, and demise. London: Routledge.

Henderson, H. (2001). Terrorism. New York: Facts on File.

Matheson, M. J. (2006). Council unbound: The growth of UN decision making on conflict and postconflict issues after the Cold War. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press.

Roots of Terrorism? (n.d.). No End To War : Terrorism In The Twenty-First Century. doi:10.5040/9781501301070.ch-001