Fighting Terrorism in Southern Asia: The Lessons of History

The upsurge of international terrorism in an age of globalization and information revolution is a reminder of the integrating and dividing force of the present trends. At a time of greater international ouidity and uncertainty, the coexistence of religious orthodoxy, ethnic or local afaliation, jingoism, and even xenophobia in some societies with supposed internationalism and a single “global village” raises troubling questions about international peace and stability. So does the location of four-afths of the world’s oil resources in politically troubled areas when international competition for oil and other natural resources is sharpening. Terrorism could become even a bigger scourge in the coming years without greater international cooperation and sustained antiterror operations. First, the diffusion of advanced technology is facilitating acts of terror and rearing new forms of terrorism. Second, regimes that murder, maim, and menace the innocent are employing export of terrorism—like classical national power projection—as an indispensable component of state power. Third, substate actors, some promoted by regimes and some operating with the connivance of elements within the national military, intelligence, or government, will continue to employ religion or ethnic or sectarian aspirations to justify their acts of terror. Fourth, terrorists and their backers will always seek to rationalize their actions as a response to an asymmetrical situation so inoperably weighted against them as to preclude conventional methods. Fifth, the growth of extremFighting Terrorism in Southern Asia Brahma Chellaney