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582. Trends in the Incidence of International Terror Attacks on Americans After the Cold War
- Author:
- Charles Knight and Melissa Murphy
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Project on Defense Alternatives
- Abstract:
- This briefing memo addresses trends in the incidence of terror in the post-Cold War period by comparing the number of international terror attacks on American interests with the overall number of terror attacks worldwide. We present the data year by year and as three year moving averages. We use data from the U.S. Department of State which is frequently cited as authoritative and usefully summarizes annual statistics.
- Topic:
- Security and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- United States
583. The Caribbean Security Scenario at the Dawn of the 21st Century: Continuity, Change, Challenge
- Author:
- Ivelaw L. Griffith
- Publication Date:
- 09-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The North-South Center, University of Miami
- Abstract:
- The two epigraphs — one by a noted scholar and erstwhile policyactor and the other by a respected policymaker with intellectual acumen — capture core elements of the twin realities of continuity and change that define the security scenario of the contemporary Caribbean. Proximity, vulnerability, and instability are not new features of the Caribbean or of Caribbean-United States dynamics; they represent some of the continuity from times past. However, they assume special character because of the terrorism tragedy that has “cast a pall across the whole hemisphere,” to quote Barbados Prime Minister Arthur.
- Topic:
- Security and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- United States, Latin America, Caribbean, and North America
584. Was Failure Avoidable? Learning From Colombia's 1998-2002 Peace Process
- Author:
- Adam Isacson
- Publication Date:
- 03-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The North-South Center, University of Miami
- Abstract:
- Colombians had never seen President Andrés Pastrana as angry or as dejected as he appeared on television the night of Wednesday, February 20, 2002. His effort to end nearly 40 years of violence — a conflict with leftist guerrillas and paramilitary vigilantes that claimed over 3,500 lives in 2001 — had just received a fatal blow. More than three years of frustrating negotiations had come to nothing.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Colombia
585. The Rhetoric of Hegemony
- Author:
- Daniel Heradstveit and David C. Pugh
- Publication Date:
- 10-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- This paper looks at the rhetorical extension of the word “terrorism” to cover what used to be called guerrilla war, separatism, civil war, armed resistance and all other forms of political violence, down to and including non-lethal sabotage and vandalism. It begins by reflecting on how political power must be buttressed by legitimacy, which in turn involves the de-legitimisation of challengers. This is often achieved by assimilating political dissent to the “criminality” that by definition governments are created to combat. When governments use the term “order” to mean their own convenience, and the converse, this can effectively evoke the individual citizen's fear of personally suffering violence, even when he is in fact more at risk from the government itself than from its critics. In much the same way, “terror” no longer means government violence against citizens (as in the 19th century), nor solely violence against civilians by dissident groups; it has recently mutated to mean any armed resistance to the party deploying the rhetoric, even in conventional military forms. The terrorist label is the ultimate delegitimising technique, which may be employed to mobilise metropolitan populations to support a globally-coordinated suppression of resistance to the new world order.
- Topic:
- Crime, Human Welfare, Politics, and Terrorism
586. From the pre-G8 2003 Summit seminar in Stockholm on "Strengthening Cooperative Threat Reduction in the Northern Region"
- Author:
- Ian Anthony and Morten Bremer Maerli
- Publication Date:
- 05-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- In June 2002, the G8 countries pledged 20 billion dollars over ten years to their “Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction” (Global Partnership). Under this initiative, the G8 countries will support specific cooperation projects, initially in Russia, to address non-proliferation, disarmament, counter-terrorism and nuclear safety issues. Among priority concerns are the dismantlement of decommissioned nuclear submarines and the disposition of fissile materials.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, International Cooperation, Peace Studies, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Russia
587. Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: A Progress Update
- Author:
- Matthew Bunn
- Publication Date:
- 10-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- In the past year, there has been notable progress in ensuring that stockpiles of the essential ingredients of nuclear weapons around the world are secured from theft and transfer to terrorists. But there remains a dangerous gap between the pace of progress and the scope and urgency of the threat – a gap that, if left unfilled, could lead to unparalleled catastrophe. We must close the gap – to take action now that, within a few years, could reduce the danger that terrorists might turn the heart of a U.S. city into a new Hiroshima to a fraction of what it is today. This paper is intended to outline the continuing threat; summarize the progress made in addressing it in the past year, and the gaps that still remain; and recommend steps to close the gap between threat and response. The terrorists who have sworn to kill Americans wherever they can be found have undertaken an intensive effort to get a nuclear bomb, or the materials and expertise needed to make one. We need to be racing as fast as we can to stop them before they succeed. This paper is about steps to win that race.
- Topic:
- Security, Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Hiroshima
588. Russia: Grasping Reality of Nuclear Terror
- Author:
- Simon Saradzhyan
- Publication Date:
- 03-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The likelihood of a catastrophic terrorist attack against Russia is growing, as radical separatists in troubled Chechnya increasingly become more desperate, and security at many of Russia's civil nuclear facilities remains insufficient. They have already demonstrated their capability and willingness to inflict massive indiscriminate casualties by organizing an apartment bombing in the southern Russian city of Buinaksk. They have acquired radioactive materials, threatened to attack Russia's nuclear facilities, plotted to hijack a nuclear submarine, and have attempted to put pressure on the Russian leadership by planting a container with radioactive materials in Moscow and threatening to detonate it. These incidents occurred between 1994 and 1996, during Russia's first military campaign in Chechnya at a time when separatists were so overwhelmed and outmanned they believed that acts of terrorism employing nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) materials—if not weapons of mass destruction (WMD)—could be the only way to force Russian troops to retreat from Chechnya.
- Topic:
- Security, Nuclear Weapons, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, and Asia
589. Nuclear Conflicts of the Twenty-First Century
- Author:
- A.A. Kokoshin
- Publication Date:
- 02-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The author proceeds from the definition, that nuclear conflict is a situation involving one or more possessors of nuclear weapons, and in the course of which escalation reaches a level at which the practical possibility of using nuclear weapons begins to be considered. The higher phase of nuclear conflict means the use of nuclear weapons at various scales—from single nuclear explosions to the mass use of nuclear weapons.
- Topic:
- Security, Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
590. Building an Effective, Sustainable Partnership Between the Government and the Private Sector
- Author:
- James B. Steinberg and Gilman Louie
- Publication Date:
- 12-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Brookings Institution
- Abstract:
- The challenge of preventing and responding to the new security threats is very different from the one we, as a nation, faced in the Cold War. Today, the private sector is on the frontline of the homeland security effort: Its members are holders of information that may prove crucial to thwarting terrorist attacks; stewards of critical infrastructure that must be protected and dangerous materials that could be used to do harm; and important actors in responding to attacks. As we said in our first Task Force report, private sector information is essential to counter-terrorism, and government agencies should have timely, needed access to that information, pursuant to guidelines that give confidence that the information will be used in a responsible way.
- Topic:
- Government, National Security, and Terrorism
- Political Geography:
- United States