1
46
th
Annual ISA Convention, Honolulu ( Hawaii ), March 01.–05. 2005
Convention Theme: “Dynamics of World Politics: Capacity, Preferences and Leadership”
Panel Theme (Saturday .March 5
th
,1.45-3.15): “Unruly Capacities/Uncertain Preferences:
The Shifting Policies of Security, Normativity, and Ethics”
Panel Paper No.2, presented by Eberhard Reusse, Rome,
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:
“Murderous Anarchists” or “Members of Civil Society”?
- Towards a holistic approach to the international terrorism phenomenon –
Abstract: The craving for short-term risk aversion must not blind the view of an entire
conflict situation, embracing the ‘terrorists’ (their motivations, their ethics) as well as the
institutions (their goals, covetous interests, aggressions, hypocrisies) attacked by them.
A one-sided security parameter tends to harden the frontal conflict positions, at high
social and economic costs for the societies under threat, while a constructive, ruthlessly
self-critical process towards empathic understanding of the underlying causal situations
may unearth new inroads to peace.
Introduction: “War on terrorism” – a self-fulfilling prophesy ?
“Don’t paint the devil on the wall!”, German folk-wisdom warns those overly dwelling in
the anticipation of evil. – The ‘war on terrorism’ campaign inflated the Western Public’s
imagination to a phobic degree that gave the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq the quality of
a self-fulfilling prophecy. – The ‘war on terrorism has hardly met, much less defeated, its
targeted enemy. Instead, it has unlashed two wars of aggression, plunged a stabilized
society and a functional state into long-term chaos, produced tens of thousands of new
‘terrorists’ and widespread, if not global, anti-American sentiment.
Before launching this ‘War’, had it not been wiser to analyze impassively the basic
discontent that had led to the attack of 9/11 and the West’s, mostly the US and Israel’s
role in its culmination ? – Instead of nursing a belligerent friend/foe doctrine, might it be
worth considering whether not gaining love and respect as a protector of the international
peace- and development-regimes is in the medium- to long-run the more effective
security policy ?
And the love for a peace-minded West, living up to its classic
commitment to a free, democratic and hospitable society harboring unlimited opportunity
for everyone to shape his/her fortune, should not be hard to gain or maintain, as long as
the West can tame its missionary obsession and its greed for privileged access to global
resources.
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