Security: What’s the Problem Now?
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A new kind of threat
The state of the Arab world
Lack of research and development in Arab world
Causes of terrorism
Making matters worse
The Palestine connection
The glorious history of the Arab world
A strategic vision
Different kinds of terrorists
Are the FBI and CIA enough? Warning signs
Two administrations - two approaches - two points in time
The problem
At war for democracy
A new kind of threat
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9/11 presented Americans with a new kind of threat. Historically, the threat to our security came from specific governments or territories - nation states with visible borders and leaders. The U.S. could negotiate with these nation states and curb outlaw behavior through sanctions, diplomacy, and conventional war tactics, and warfare usually happened abroad.
We are now living in a different era, in which the impact and importance of boundaries has diminished. Terrorist groups are not necessarily governed by or loyal to a specific government or geographic location. They are part of a borderless global network that is much harder to track.
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The state of the Arab world
The Department of Homeland Security is most concerned with the terror threat posed by radical groups like Al Qaeda. To understand such groups, it is valuable to consider the context from which they have arisen. Al Qaeda is a response to the condition of the Arab world and to the relationships between the Arab world and the Western world. The UN Development Program has explored the former extensively through the 2002 and 2003 Arab Human Development Reports.
The 2002 Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) challenged the Arab world to overcome three primary obstacles to development: lack of freedom, lack of women’s rights, and lack of knowledge. Further, the report set up a strategy for attaining these prerequisites to development by suggesting that the effort be built upon five pillars:
- The key freedoms of opinion, speech, and assembly
- Quality education for all
- Greater investment in science, research, and development
- A shift towards a knowledge-based economy
- Development of a knowledge-based society
The 2003 AHDR is a follow-up to this proposal; it tracks the progress made towards these goals and examines the new and continuing difficulties of the Arab world. Like the 2002 AHDR, the 2003 report is written by Arab intellectuals for the Arab world itself.
The 2003 AHDR concentrates on closing the knowledge gap in Arab society. To the authors, the ultimate objective of both the Report and of development efforts is to create a society in which "knowledge diffusion, production and application become the organizing principle in all aspects of human activity: culture, society, the economy, politics, and private life" (2).
The Report recognizes several obstacles that must be overcome in the development of an Arab knowledge society. The Arab world has much weaker media than the Western world: "there are less than 53 newspapers per 1000 Arab citizens, compared with 285 papers per 1000 people in developed countries" (3). In many Arab countries, there is no guaranteed freedom of the press, and journalists risk harassment, physical threats and censorship. The Report claims that there has been improvement in the diversity and freedom of the Arab media since 2001, but that the press is still gravely restricted, resulting in a less-informed population.
The absence of freedom of speech also limits access to books and art. On average, a publisher is "forced to submit to the moods and instructions of 22 Arab censors and this prevents a book from moving freely and easily between its natural markets" (4).
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Lack of research and development in Arab world
The AHDR finds that scientific research is held back in Arab countries. Research and development are meagerly funded as well, stifling innovation and entrepreneurship.
Although Arab countries import technology, it is not fully adopted and integrated into society because there is no knowledge infrastructure to support it: "[there is] the mistaken belief that a knowledge society can be built through the importation of scientific products without investing in the local production of knowledge..." (5). If the population is not trained in such technologies, importing them can create a disadvantage, instead of an advantage. Companies struggle to integrate new technologies, and once they do, they’ve become outmoded and need to be replaced.
The Arab world has very little access to digital media. "There are just 18 computers per 1000 people in the region, compared with the global average of 78.3 percent per 1000 persons and only 1.6 percent of the population has Internet access" (3).
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Causes of terrorism
The AHDR states that there are few "peaceful and effective political channels for dealing with injustices in the Arab world, at the country, regional, and global levels, some political movements identifying themselves as Islamic have resorted to restrictive interpretations and violence as means of political activism" (7). This has created a divide between the Arab world and the West and within Islam itself.
The Report identifies September 11 as the culmination of these tensions and labels the tragedy as a "loss of innocent lives in violation of all man-made and divine laws..." (1). But along with its condemnation of terrorism, the Report says that the invasion of Iraq and other U.S. policies have actually exacerbated problems in the Arab world.
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Making matters worse
The War on Terror has interrupted cultural exchanges between the Arab world and the West, most notably, by "cutting off knowledge acquisition opportunities for young Arabs" (2).
After 9/11, the number of Arab students studying in the United States dropped by an average of 30 percent. By limiting the number of student visas for Arabs, authorities have effectively cut off a means for mutual understanding between the West and the Arab world.
Further, the lack of quality education in many Arab nations requires many promising students to study abroad, and limiting their ability to do so eventually causes further social and economic damage to the Arab world, which slows development and may fan the flames of Islamic fundamentalism.
U.S. policies that compromise American civil and political freedoms encourage freedom-constraining measures in Arab countries as well (2). In order to combat terrorism, Arab countries followed America’s lead and as a group adopted an expanded definition of terrorism called "The Arab Charter against Terrorism." The Charter creates a much broader definition of terrorism that, according to the AHDR authors, "opens the door to abuse. It allows censorship, restricts access to the Internet, and restricts printing and publication [all in the name of fighting terrorism]. Moreover, the Charter neither explicitly prohibits detention or torture nor provides for questioning the legality of detentions" (2).
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The Palestine connection
To many Arabs, the war in Iraq is merely an extension of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Many Arabs, Iraqis in particular, see Bush as a supporter of Israel who is attacking Islam. By contrast, most Americans do not connect the Israel/Palestine conflict with the Iraq war.
The Israel/Palestine conflict drains the Arab world of resources and energy that could be used for development.
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The glorious history of the Arab world
In the 9th and 10th centuries, Arabs led the world in philosophy and science and were responsible for preserving Greek philosophy and science, which they literally transmitted to the Western world. In the 19th century, Arab culture opened up to innovations in the Western world, and "the outcome of this encounter was a renovation and modernization of the Arab cultural heritage..." (8). These interactions with Western civilization resulted in advancement of both cultures.
Today, however, Arab culture, like many other cultures, is struggling to maintain its identity while still engaging with the West. Arab people have "concerns about the extinction of the language and culture and the diminution and dissipation of [Arab] identity..." (8).
The AHDR scholars write: "The truth is that Arab culture has no choice but to engage again in a new global experiment. It cannot enclose itself, contented with living on history, the past and inherited culture alone in a world whose victorious powers reach into all corners of the earth, dominating all forms of knowledge, behavior, life, manufactured goods and innovation" (8).
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A strategic vision
At the close of its executive summary, the Report reiterates that an Arab knowledge society must be created through support of the five pillars mentioned above. In addition, the AHDR authors suggest the following:
- Religious institutions be restored their independence from political authorities.
- The advancement of the Arabic language through research and linguistic reform and translating scientific terms.
- A reclaiming Arab cultural heritage.
- The promotion and celebration of cultural diversity within Arab countries and the protection to subcultures.
- An opening up to other cultures through promotion of cultural exchanges with non-Arab nations.
The Arab Human Development Report envisions a flourishing Arab society in which knowledge, women, and freedom are respected and Arab culture, language, and history are maintained. The authors suggest that developing the Arab world in this way would be the most effective strategy against terrorism.
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Different kinds of terrorists
It is a mistake to lump together all kinds of terrorism. Some terrorists have specific goals, such as killing leaders in the government. Other terrorists have broad nationalistic ones, such as Osama bin Laden’s avowed goal of toppling the Saudi government and creating waves of fear that produce economic and political fallout - as 9/11 did in the United States.
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Are the FBI and CIA enough? Warning signs
How can we know in advance who is planning to hurt us, what their plans are, and how they expect to pay for what they want to do?
Before 9/11 many Americans treated attacks as crimes and the network of potential attackers as if they were an international mafia. Infiltrate, wire tap, wait for a crime to be committed and then capture and punish the individuals who carried it out.
Others believed that the best strategy is to infiltrate and kill the planners before they carry out their plans. This view carries with it the concerns of a free society in which intention to commit a crime is not the same as actually carrying it out.
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Two administrations - two approaches - two points in time
In the Clinton administration both approaches were used. The planner of the car bomb that went off in the World Trade Center was put on trial and went to jail. Missiles were used, albeit unsuccessfully, to try to destroy Osama bin Laden’s training camps in Afghanistan. However, the American public was occupied with the Clinton impeachment and there had not yet been the dramatic 9/11 to marshl their support for action.
The George W. Bush administration did neither before 9/11, but evidently made plans for a possible attack on Iraq as part of a larger plan to change all the governments and the political cultures of all the countries in the Middle East to be democratic - in the American way. After 9/11 the Bush policy stated that the U.S. would send troops overseas to any country that allowed avowed terrorists plotting against us to live within their borders.
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The problem
What is the difference between tracking possible attackers and then catching them when they commit the attack, which the FBI has done, and gathering information without the ability to arrest anyone, as the CIA has done? How can we act to know whom to stop before they do damage? How do we prove that they are potential criminals? What if everyone that looks as if he/she might commit a crime was arrested or worse yet imprisoned or killed without a trial?
Some have suggested the creation of a new U.S. security service similar to the UK’s MI5. It is worth noting that the MI5 is jealous of our system because the FBI has both intelligence and police functions. But the dual functions of the FBI seem to create an inherent conflict of interest.
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At war for democracy
President Bush wants to create a successful model of democracy in Iraq, but democracy is a long process, and ours took a civil war to settle differences. Would we settle for a democracy in Iraq where we cannot control the outcome?
There are different levels of debate: Should the U.S. be installing its governing system all over the world? Of course we care if the region is increasingly enveloped in chaos, but why do we care? Is it for democracy? For oil? For power?
What is security and can it be had - how much, at what price?
WomenMatter will monitor continuously the many factors that are woven into the idea of security and the debate over what our collective political will can or should do.
