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Friday, May 13, 2016, Baishakh 30, 1423 BS, Shaban 5, 1437 Hijri


Political economy of world terrorism
Published :Friday, 13 May, 2016,  Time : 12:00 AM  View Count : 31
Mujahidul Islam, Naim Ebna Rahman, Nefertum Mursheda and Rafsanul Hoque
Terrorism as a term of academic discussion is not new and it has huge backgrounds. The term terrorism was first coined by the French Revolutionary governments by applying systematic state terror against the population of France in 1790s, killing thousands of people. The recent rise of terrorism in Europe and its frequent practices have drawn the attention of anylysists about its economic and political dimensions.
According to the National Advisory Committee on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, there are six different types of terrorism, which are - civil disorder, political terrorism, non political terrorism, quasi terrorism, limited political terrorism and state terrorism. To define separate types of terrorism one need to know the acts which are considered as terrorist acts. The terrorist acts may be - bombing, hijacking, arson, kidnapping, assault, murder, theft, extremism, biological attacks, sabotage etc.
First of all, worldwide political system of hegemony is a root cause of world terrorism. Here a single dominant state prescribes some theories those needs to be followed or practiced by others. For example, democracy, human rights, worldwide peace are some terms frequently used by the USA and its collaborate states. So we can call the USA and its collaborators as dominant or central power of the world. But the point is that the central power decides if any nation or groups are going against the main theme of those theories. In this way a movement for independence can be colored as a terrorist movement, a freedom seeking nation can be accused as a terrorist nation. When people see a just movement is being colored as an unjust one, some of them can become violent and a long term terrorist movement may emerge from there.
Almost all the religions speak against all forms of injustice and inequality. But by misinterpreting these religious spirits, some vested groups are spreading terrorism in the name of religion. Besides, many groups have chosen a violent way of seeking freedom being influenced by the communist regime. In Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, where the communists and Tamils started violent movements in the last two decades of the previous century. Another political reason behind the progressiveness of terrorism is its worldwide success. After taking so many initiatives, the terrorists continuing to grow that inspire other groups to start violent activities.
Ever spreading weapon business is also responsible for worldwide terrorism. It is assumed that the amount of weapon is transacted in illegal ways are much higher than that of in legal ways. This availability of weapons made it easier for the terrorist groups to spread their activities in different part of the world. Many terrorist groups offer financial support to their followers. For many it's a full time job. So without being a follower of the terrorists' ideology a man can be involved with terrorism because of these compensations. This applies more to the poor people.
Frequent terrorist attacks in the past 20 years indicate that Bangladesh is not secured from terrorist activities either. Day by day, new terrorist organizations are emerging and frequency of occurrence is also increasing. Bangladesh is no more an isolated land in this era of globalization. So global phenomena like world hegemony and world capitalist system have an impact on Bangladesh like most other third world countries. Political instability and political division have intrigued to worsen the situation. The main political parties are still fighting with each other to establish an election system granted to all. The situation of freedom of speech and human rights is not up to the mark. The inequality among different economic groups is very high. Also, there is a big gap in standard of living between rural and urban people. Geographically Bangladesh is in a critical area, where it has to share a large border with India and Myanmar. So transaction of illegal weapons can be easily done through the borders.
On the other hand, if any of the political parties of Bangladesh do have any relation with international terrorist organizations, it could turn out deadly. Meanwhile, the recent reports of a Bangladeshi teenager being killed while fighting for IS in Syria has sparked new knowledge over the possible intrusion of IS in the Bangladesh territory. Even reports of IS trying to form a base in Bangladesh is not improbable anymore. The present government has continuously discredited any international terrorist activities and blamed the opposition parties for almost every incident. There might have been other reasons behind the denial as such forceful link with International terrorist groups could lead to intrusion and influence into the private dealings of the state by more powerful regions, and could also harm the export oriented manufacturing sectors and degrade the potential reputation of Bangladesh in front of foreign investors.
The economic cost of terrorism was about $52.9 billion in 2014 worldwide (2015 Global Terrorism Index). Since 2005, it is estimated that terrorism has cost Iraq $159 billion in purchasing power parity. To calculate the economic cost of terrorism , Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) measures the value of property damage, the cost of death and injury including medical costs and lost earnings. Dr Christina Schoni Liang, a senior fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, noted in a paper for the IEP that the Islamic State "the highest terrorist organization in history with an estimated wealth of $2 billion". According to different sources, IS earns about $1.5 million a day from selling oil and they sell it with least cost. The oil is smuggled through Iraq and Kurdistan by crossing borders. IS has its own underground pipelines and refineries for smuggling oil. Besides, other terrorist groups collect funds in different ways. Sources of income may be trafficking people, kidnapping, taxes on income, business revenue and looting etc. IS stole about $500 million in 2015 just by raiding state-owned banks in the territories it controls.
Terrorism has been a matter of concern for all people all over the world. It is high time global policy makers and leaders addressed this problem properly concertedly. Poverty should be alleviated from society by taking effective and strong efforts. It is usually easy to convince poor people to commit terrorist activities. There is a lot of injustice almost everywhere, especially in the third world countries. People cannot get speedy justice for different reasons, therefore people take laws in their hands. The rich are becoming richer whereas the poor are becoming poorer. We need to end this injustice in our society to stop terrorism. Lack of education usually forces young generation to join in anti-social activities. If we can provide education all people with free cost, we may reduce terrorism from our society.
So far we have talked about some technical solutions such as removing poverty, ensuring proper law and security etc. Most importantly, we should emphasize adaptive solutions. We neeed to change our views, behaviours to others people to ensure tolerance. For mitigating conflicts, we will have to come in a common ground. We will have to increase international cooperation and assistance. Religion should not be used as a tool for creating violence and conflict. We will have to accommodate all types of religious people. Diversity should be promoted and nourished by increasing social bonding and networking . Our mutual understanding and cooperation should be increased against religious fundamentalism. Socially marginalized people in our society such as women, indigenous people should be included in the mainstream development.
Terrorism is not soley an interfal affair of a country, rather is a global issue by all means. Combined efforts from the peace loving people of the world can prevent this problem. After all, qualitatative leadership should be practised to unite the people of all over the world against this menace, especially the South Asian countries should work together to develop mutual trust and cooperation to ensure a peaceful atmosphere in this region.r
The writers are students of the Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka







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