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Africa and How It Plays Into The War on Terror

UNHCR/J.Akena

In the news African leaders met and discussed the security of the continent with particular emphasis on the issue of the war on terror. At present, the International community has been unable to formulate a universally agreed, legally binding, and criminal law definition of terrorism.  Some definitions also include acts of unlawful violence and war.

The History of Terrorist Organizations

The history of terrorist organizations suggests that they do not select terrorism for its political effectiveness. Individual terrorists tend to be motivated more by a desire for social solidarity with other members of their organization than by political platforms or strategic objectives, which are often murky and undefined.

Tight Knit Local Terrorism A Thing of The Past

Today’s international terrorism retains some characteristics of those of a previous era, but there are also important differences. Gone are the tightly knit groups of professional terrorists, often in the pay of foreign powers—the characteristic that gave birth to the term state-sponsored terror. In their place are larger amorphous groups within which people group at the local level, within a religious motivational context. Since activity is at a small local level, often around a charismatic leader, anticipation and countermeasures are extremely difficult.

Avoiding the “Root Causes” of Terror

Any effort to better understand terrorism leads, inevitably, to an approach that the international community seeks to avoid: a discussion on the ‘root causes’ of terror. In much of Africa rebels and governments alike had been terrifying civilians for years in many civil wars. For decades these had caused much more death and destruction than international terrorism. It is generally recognized that African conflicts are of an increased regional and unregulated character within which business, government, crime and conflict are often difficult to distinguish from one another.

Insecurity and Instability Has Become a Complex Problem

Flowing across borders and involving numerous national and international actors. Insecurity and stability in Africa has become a single complex and interrelated problem that can only be viewed as intrinsic part of the debate about the nature and capability of the African state. While there are only a few collapsed or failed states in Africa, most African states are weak. For a variety of reasons, both domestic and global, African governance has contracted rather than expanded in recent decades in parallel with the acute economic crises experienced by the continent.

State Leaders May Have Incentive To Tolerate Terror

Unlike the Al-Qaeda network, most [Islamic] extremist groups are not transnational, despite links with similar movements in neighboring countries. Virtually all are the products of particular states or internal and/or regional conflicts.  However the reality is at the extreme level, state and sub-state actors may have a vested interest in continued war and disorder since it allows them additional opportunities to extract and conceal rewards and thereby serve the various patrimonial networks that provide their legitimacy. In the other viable means to sustain them, there is inevitably a tendency to link politics to realms of greater disorder, be it war or crime. Violence is necessary to secure or maintain this. Disorder becomes a necessary resource and opportunity for reward. This ensures terrorism’s place in African politics.

August 28, 2010 Posted by Rus Welhelm Jedi | News | Africa, Al-Qaeda network, President Yoweri Museveni, terrorist organizations, Uganda | Leave a Comment