2008 MYE question

Has the movement towards globalization given rise to increased terrorist activities?


Globalisation is a phenomenon that dominates the twenty-first century with the help of the improvement of technology. Globalisation essentially improves communication and trade would-wide and many countries, especially the developed ones, gain a lot of economic benefits from it. We embrace it and move towards it. Therefore, the security community had ignored almost all security issues brought about by globalization in the twentieth century. However, people must remember that with globalization, not only does the world become smaller in terms of communication flows and net exports of goods and services, it also becomes smaller in terms of the reach of terror. Terrorists make use of various aspects of globalization to their advantage and the pressuring outcome is that terrorist activities have been increasing at an alarming rate. Statistics show that as compared to the 1960s, the number of terrorist activities now has increased by two hundred percent. Therefore, I believe that to a large extent, the movement towards gloalisation has given rise to increased terrorist activities.

One probable reason for the staggering increase in terrorist activities can be the fact the terrorist networks at work today make use of the technological tools of globalization. New communication methods such as the Internet has made it possible for extremist political groups to establish large organizational networks, exchange information and combine resources. A prominent example would be the works of the terrorist organization. Al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden. The organization has literally migrated online to escape detection in an atmosphere of increased vigilance. As a result, the organisation’s use of the Internet became more sophisticated, encompassing financing, recruitment, networking, mobilization, publicity, as well as information dissemination, gathering and sharing. Al-Qaeda members constantly upload videos of their terrorist activities onto the Internet to glorify the jihadist activity of suicide bombers and to romanticize participation in jihad through stylized portraits of mosques and musical scores among others. This leads to a rise in the number of terrorist activities because it becomes much easier and more convenient for the terrorists to spread their ideology worldwide. Encourage worldwide participation in their movement, and it provides them with a platform to carry out their discussions on terrorism simultaneously in different parts of the world. This greatly improves their efficiency in carrying out their attacks.

Then, the increase in the number of terrorist activities can also be the result of people being unhappy with globalization. As paradoxical as it is, it creates a sense of powerlessness for those people left on Earth where there are no viable alternatives to the orthodoxies of the World Bank. Certain communities that have been unable to gain benefits from globalization, for example, still have great pride in their own traditional cultures and cannot accept second-class status. They are also unable to accept the erosion of their cultures brought about by the multinational companies residing in their countries. Multinational countries take over their surroundings. Bangalore in Karnataka, India, for instance, is most well-known for their manufacturing of electronics and due to the western influences from the multinational companies there, the state now resembles a typical Western city, looking like Florida in America. Therefore, the inability for certain groups of people to accept these changes will in turn engender the need for expressive violence to garner attention to their discontent, be it communicative or symbolic. The expressive violence during the attack on the World Trade Centre, a global icon, on the eleventh of September 2001 shows that globalization gives expressive violence a greater symbolic force than ever.

However, it can also be argued that the movement towards globalization has not given rise to increased terrorist activities. As mentioned before, globalization will also lead to a more vigilant world. Communication flows become so much more improved that civilians also get first-hand information on possible terrorists and terrorist attacks. The cooperative efforts to stop these acts of violence all around the world was made possible by globalization. This would very well deter terrorists from attacking and they have to be much more sophisticated in their planning in order to carry out their attacks successfully. Singapore is a good example of a globalised country that is able to deter terrorist activities. The advanced technology brought about by globalization has allowed that country to prevent any form of terrorist acts like suicide bombings from occurring successfully. Hence, the number of terrorist activities may fall instead of rise due to globalization as well.

The increase in the number of terrorist activities could very well be attributed to other factors. It could be because of wars are fought. Statistics have shown that the number of terrorist activities during the Cold War increased by more than one hundred and thirty percent due to the greater desires to sabotage the enemies. Then, in recent years, the Iraq war has caused a sharp increase in the percentage of terrorist activities being held, with a twenty-five percent increase in just one year, from 2005 to 2006. The situation in Iraq at that time was particularly worrisome because the country was turning into a laboratory and training ground for future terrorist activities elsewhere. This could have given rise to increased terrorist activities and since it happened in the twenty-first century as well, it could have made it seem as if the increased terrorist activities were due to the movement towards globalization when it was actually due to other factors.

In conclusion, globalization could have provided a negative impact on the rise of terrorism, or it could have provided positive impacts. However, it is much more evident that it causes negative impacts as far as terrorism in concerned. Regardless of this, the undeniable problem is that somehow, there has been a rise in the number of terrorist attacks world-wide. Therefore, the elitist groups in our communities must take charge of the situation immediately before the rise in numbers become so overwhelming that a global man-made catastrophe is all that awaits us at the end.