SURAYA, ANOTHER REQUEST FOR YOU

Running head: TERRORISM

TERRORISM

Terrorism

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Introduction

Terrorism is a term that has posed challenges to many when trying to define it. It has been defined as the act that involves threats, force or violence, it is primarily influenced by the political actions with it intentions of causing fear and terror in order for the enemy to achieve. Terrorism is not new to the present centuries (20th and 21st century), despite its existence from the 18th century (Laqueur, 1987). The historical kingdoms through their leaders; conducted terror attacks in their neighboring countries in the time of a conflict among the kingdoms. For example, the 18th century France revolutionary terror reign. Another example of terrorism is the roman rule opposition among the zealots of Palestine that occurred 2000 years ago (Hobsbawm, 2007).

Today terrorism can be found in a number of countries in the whole world. Countries such as United States, Sri Lanka, Colombia, United Kingdom, Israel, Kenya, Somalia, and Indonesia are some of the few countries that are currently affected by the terror attacks as a result of terrorism acts.

Effects of terrorism

Modern day terrorists are determined in causing sufficient harm to the societies making the targeted governments to concede to their demands. The acts that are caused by the terrorist often cause detrimental effects in terms of human and economic losses (Pyszczynski et al., 2003). These kinds of loses exposes the government’s inability to protect its citizens and the legitimacy of the government therefore causing the loss of confidence of the citizens to their government. Economic growth of a country can be thwarted through a number of channels. Economic growth can be hindered by terrorism through raising the costs of establishing a business in terms of larger insurance premiums, higher wages and greater security expenditures, these costs are very high and the result net profit is very low. Infrastructure destruction as a result of terrorism is also felt (Chen & Siems, 2004).

Homeland Security

Americans defines homeland security as "the concerted national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive to the national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce the vulnerability of the U.S. to terrorism, and minimize the damage from attacks that do occur”(Kettl, 2013).

Homeland security was formulated after the 2003 reorganization of the various U.S government agencies to form the United States department of Homeland security after the terrorist attack that was conducted by the Muslim terror group on the 11th of September in the American World Trade Centre. The security department was entitled to protecting the sovereignty of the US territories, domestic population and critical infrastructure. Homeland security therefore targets to control terrorism from occurring in the U.S. Other countries have also adopted the homeland surveillance and security system to foster increased information sharing concerning the security matters.

Why do you feel the problem has not already been solved?

Despite the establishments of homeland security system in U.S and other countries, terrorism is still a major cause of calamity in the 21st century with various religious groups standing against each other in terms of religion. In other cases, information sharing in terms of predicted terror attacks has not been effectively disseminated to the concerned security agencies within the adequate time and duration for proper preparedness. Lastly, most disaster management units in various institutions have not been capacitated to recruit and train more personnel in the field of disaster preparedness and response. As much as the establishment of homeland security is of great importance, however, more has to be done in terms of conflict management and resolution in the world.

REFERENCES

Chen, A. H., & Siems, T. F. (2004). The effects of terrorism on global capital markets. European journal of political economy, 20(2), 349-366.

Hobsbawm, E. J. (2007). Globalisation, democracy and terrorism. London: Little, Brown.

Kettl, D. F. (2013). System under stress: Homeland security and American politics. SAGE.

Laqueur, W. (1987). The age of terrorism (p. 174). Boston, MA: Little, Brown.

Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & Greenberg, J. (2003). In the wake of 9/11: Rising above the terror. American Psychological Association.

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