The Future of Terrorism, Debated at NYU

July 25, 2005 10:59 AM

New York, NY – A panel of experts on terrorism and global security convened July 21, 2005, at New York University (NYU) to kick-off a nationwide dialogue on the U.S.’s evolving role in the international arena. The discussion, “Building a Safer World: Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction,” came in the wake of a second day of terrorist attacks in London.

“We really have to understand that they’re not a group of crazy people – the terrorists – but [that terrorism] is a bigger ideological issue we are facing,” said Zeyno Baran, Director of International Security and Energy Programs at The Nixon Center, a non-partisan public policy institution located in Washington, DC.

The debate was part of The People Speak, a series of community-based discussions about the United Nations and the U.S.’s role in the world. The debate about terrorism and weapons of mass destruction was sponsored by NYU’s Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response, the International Debate Education Association, and The People Speak, and moderated by NYU professor Dr. Paul C. Light. Along with Baran, the panel featured Patrick Lamb, a Senior Political Affairs Advisor at the United Nations’ Department for Disarmament Affairs, and Ambassador Juan Larrain, Advisor to the Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate at the United Nations.

The panelists tackled issues raised by Dr. Light and the audience ranging from civil liberties to the future of warfare. At the heart of the debate was the question of the UN’s involvement in combating future terrorist attacks. Larrain, the former Chilean ambassador to the UN, stressed that the UN cannot operate without the full participation of participating countries.

“You need to consider that the UN is the member states – the political will and the action have to be taken by the member states,” Larrain said. “We [the UN] cannot go further.”

Lamb, previously an official in the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, also provided an insider’s view into how governments and international organizations were evolving in their approach to fighting terrorism and dismantling weapons of mass destruction. In the late 1980s, Lamb said, intelligence officers began to realize they were no longer dealing solely with traditional nation-states, but instead with complex networks of individuals who did not pledge allegiance to any one government. The UN has taken important measures towards arms control and non-proliferation since then, but Lam cautioned that resolutions don’t necessarily result in change.

“National conventions are only as good as their national implementation,” Lamb said.

Baran, who has conducted research into why people turn to terrorism, said most terrorists were primarily seeking justice for the inequalities between the Middle East and the Western world. Terrorism is unlikely to decrease in the near future, Baran said, because the major terrorist attacks of the last decade were followed by sudden political attention to the Middle East.

“If the terrorist attacks stop, there’s the idea the U.S. will stop caring about the Muslim world. After 9-11, the G-8 started talking about how we treated the Middle East, now [President] Bush and [Condoleezza] Rice are talking about it – but it was neglected for 40 years,” Baran said.

She also emphasized that the U.S. would have to stick to its message of freedom, democracy, economic development and education opportunities for several decades to convince people in the Middle East of their intentions. Baran pointed to legacies of colonialism and U.S. support of dictatorial regimes in the Middle East in the past as reasons why many doubt the sincerity of the U.S.’s current foreign policy.

To find out more information about fall 2005 “The People Speak” activities, visit http://www.thepeoplespeak.org/