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Lecture 2: Rephrasing 911 & Terrorism SOSC 200t – the Post-911 World Order Simon Shen 7 th February 2003 (Friday)
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Administrative Announcements Quota Sessions Class Practice Special Announcements Course Requirements
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Structure of Lecture 2: Definition of Terrorism/ Precedent Cases Pre-911 Terrorism against USA “ America Under Attack ” “ America Fight Back ”
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PART I Terrorism: Evolution on its Definitions in History
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Historical Definition “ All criminal acts directed against a State and intended or calculated to create a state of terror in the minds of particular persons or a group of persons or the general public ” -- League of Nations (1937) Emphasis: (1) Terror; (2) Against State = Political Assassination + Genocide
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Ancient Terrorism Political Assassinations “ Assassins of Mountains ” Shi ’ te Islam Genocide Spanish Acquisition Vs Inca Empire Nazi Germany ’ s “ Final Solution ” to the Jews “ I Kill you because I want to kill you! ”
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Cold War Definition (I) Terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby - in contrast to assassination - the direct targets of violence are not the main targets. Threat- and violence-based communication processes between terrorist (organization), (imperilled) victims, and main targets are used to manipulate the main target (audience(s)), turning it into a target of terror, a target of demands, or a target of attention, depending on whether intimidation, coercion, or propaganda is primarily sought.
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Cold War Definition (II) The immediate human victims of violence are generally chosen randomly (targets of opportunity) or selectively (representative or symbolic targets) from a target population, and serve as message generators. -- Schmid (1988) Academic Consensus: Terrorism as a “ Messenger ” “ I kill you NOT because I want to kill you ”
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Cold War Terrorism Irish Republican Army (IRA) Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA)
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Bush ’ s Definition The term "terrorism" means an activity that -- (i) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; and (ii) appears to be intended -- (A) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (B) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (C) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, kidnapping, or hostage-taking. -- Executive Order on Terrorist Financing (24 th September, 2001)
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Bush ’ s Terrorism Against Civilian People (instead of against the whole State) Mass Destruction Weapons (MDW) Iraq Asymmetrical Warfare Al-Qaeda Aum Shinrikya Sect of Japan
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Summary of the Evolution Against state leaders and the people of the whole state (e.g. Nazi) Against a small number of random people of a state to spread political messages with specific concerns (e.g. IRA) Against a large number of civilians to spread messages that are not easy to be interpreted (e.g. 911) Terrorism: You can have your own definition! The “ No Smoking ” Analogy
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Assigned Readings Main Text: United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. “ Definition of Terrorism ” http://www.undcp.org/odccp/terrorism_defi nitions.html http://www.undcp.org/odccp/terrorism_defi nitions.html Supplementary Text: James Hoge and Gideon Rose. “ Introduction. ” (H&R P.ix-xiv)
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PART II Pre-911 Terrorist Attack against USA
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The Neglected Messages 1979: Assassination of President Sadat 1993: WTC I & the Somalian Murders 1995: KSA Car Bombing I (Riyadh) 1996: KSA Car Bombing II (Khobar)
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Crescendo Against USA 1998: The East African Bombings 2000: The Millennium LAX Warning 2001: The Independence Day Warning
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PART III “ America Under Attack ”
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September 11 th, 2001 The World Trade Center Atrocity (WTC II) The Pentagon Attack: A Different Nature The “ 93 Heroes ”
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After September 11 th, 2001 The Anthrax Attack Chain Effects: Israel India Indonesia Russia …
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PART IV “ America Fights Back ”
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Stage I: Coalition Building (Sept-Oct 2001) Traditional Allies Untraditional Allies Sympathy is not Enough: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan
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Stage 2: War Against Afghanistan (Oct-Dec 2001) Osama Bin Laden The Taliban Regime Symbiotic Relationship Vs Involuntary Relationship
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Stage 3: Consolidation of Pax Americana (2002) International Consolidation Internal Consolidation Philosophical Consolidation
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Stage 4: War Against Iraq? (2003) “ Patron of Terrorism ” “ Development of Mass Destructive Weapons ” “ Violation of Human Rights ” “ Evil Empire ” “ Family Rival of the Bushes ”…
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Conclusion “ I can ’ t understand why the great Americans can be such hated. ” “ I can ’ t understand why they hate us so much …” – George W. Bush
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~~The End~~ Thank you for attending
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