Terrorism, though, is as old as the history of mankind, has become the most dreaded word of the twenty-first century, of course, after the word Cancer. Yet, there is no concrete explanatory definition of the word, for each individual/agency has tried to define it from their own point of view. We do, however, have a vague idea of what terrorism is. It is essentially perceived as an effective tool in the hands of the weaker side in the conflict—be it nationalistic, ideological, ethnocentric, social, political, transnational, or religious conflict—to acquire power. Suffice to say that terrorism is simply all about “the pursuit of power, the acquisition of power, and the use of power to achieve political change.” Incidentally, some nation states too are found engaged in what is called ‘state terrorism’.

Terrorism has thus become synonymous with ‘violence’ or the threat of violence that is resorted to in the pursuit of or in the service of a political or even a religious aim. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a terrorist as “Anyone who attempts to further his views by a system of coercive intimidation.” The underpinning of this definition is that terrorism is a planned and calculated systematic act. And this threat transcends all countries.

Now, this posits a new question: Who is this terrorist? Surprisingly, they, much against our normal expectation of being ‘wild-eyed’, ‘trigger-happy’ fanatics engaged in an irrational spree of killing all and sundry, appear ‘normal’. Researchers aver that they are highly articulate, of course, of their own ideology, and are extremely unselfish young individuals. Importantly, they consider terrorism as a rational choice to set the things right. These ‘normal’ looking people’s deliberately choosing a path of mindless bloodshed and destruction is quite an enigma—an enigma that is equally challenging.

Interestingly, the first paper of this issue, “Understanding the Terrorist’s Mind”, by Laurent Metzger, addresses this enigma at length. The author, tracing the history of terrorism, has made an attempt to answer vital questions such as: Who are the terrorists? Why do they resort to such extreme behavior? Was there something in their upbringing that led them to choose such destructive path?

Admitting that no clear-cut answers can be provided to these questions, the paper does argue that many of these jihadis are young, bachelors, hail from religious families, mostly “brought up in families without a father”, and “do not have a popular political leader/intellectual to idealize or emulate.” The paper also avers that “often terrorism runs in the families.” The paper further observes that most of these youngsters “felt a kind of emptiness in their lives”, and driven by poverty, anguish and humiliation, and frustrated by the injustice meted out to them, often took to terrorism as an escape from the realities of their lives. This is followed by a series of thoughtful recommendations that the paper expects ‘us’ to execute to stop these youngsters from joining such criminal outfits.

Though the paper runs mostly on generalities, it does throw open new vistas for research on terrorism. For instance, as the author has observed, the role of ‘emptiness’ stemming from poverty, lack of education and the resulting unemployment in alienating people, particularly, the youth from mainstream of life, needs rigorous examination. Indeed, the role of the ills of ‘capitalism’—industrialization leading to ‘capitalism’ taking firm roots in Europe and America and the resulting ‘luddite riots’ in Great Britain—in alienating the youth merits a systematic study.

That apart, the recent concept of ‘globalization’ that has boosted the growth in the national GDPs merits examination for its role, if any, in the present crisis. For globalization has also widened the gap not only between the rich and the poor nations, but also between the already rich and the poor within the nations, thereby causing deep distress among those who are left behind by this growth. And, no wonder if this discomfiture between the two groups eventually transforms into hatred breeding extremist groups. This paper thus throws open many areas that demand immediate attention of the academia.

Moving away from terrorism to the geopolitical boundaries of South Asian nations, we have Sachin N Pardhe, arguing in the next paper, “The Geopolitical Dimension of Political Boundaries in South Asia: A Security Perspective”, that political boundaries in South Asia have failed in performing the basic functions, namely, defining the legitimate sphere of control over territory and in affording ‘identity’ to the nations. The author, observing that the political boundaries have become the crux of the prevailing tense relations between these nations, attempts to offer a solution to these problems by identifying the underlying reasons of the conflicts and advocating a pragmatic approach to address them.
Moving on to the next paper, “Mapping India’s Look North Policy: Why Central Asia Matters”, we have its author, Ramakrushna Pradhan, arguing that India must stake its claims in Central Asia by rejuvenating its policy initiatives towards it, for it helps the country in many ways: one, to gain reliable footprint on the hydrocarbon map of the region; two, to check the rise of radical Islamic agenda of Pakistan; three, to keep an eye on drug-trafficking and its impact on proliferation of weapons threatening India’s security interests, and four, to promote its business interests in the region. The paper argues at length about the need for India to revive its ‘Look North Policy’ to build economic integration and political cooperation with the North-Central Asia.

In the last paper of the issue, “Accelerating Western Sahara’s Decolonization by Unleashing Nigeria’s Experience in the Context of Global Geopolitics, Geoeconomics and Neoliberalism”, its authors, Richard Ingwe and Joseph Ukwayi, state that the issue of persistence of colonialism, perpetration of rights’ violations and economic stagnation even today, that is, after decades of democratization, is difficult to comprehend because of the multiple dimensions of the domestic challenges. In this context, the authors attempt to explicate the key concepts, namely, geopolitics and geoeconomics and their role in bettering the lot of Western Sahara by suggesting appropriate strategies.

-- GRK Murty
Consulting Editor