Misjudging Islamic Terrorism: The Academic Community's Failure to Predict 9/11

Most academic experts within the International Relations (IR) community and other, more specialized disciplines, failed to predict or warn government policymakers and the public of the possibility that events of 9/11 magnitude could take place on the U.S. homeland. Given that long-term investigation of trends in world affairs is one of the sources that has always informed policy analysis, this represents an interesting question to examine. The analysis contained in this assessment suggests that the ontological, methodological, and conceptual problems within and between the disciplines, combined with a skewed absorption with the prospect of developments in Asia, created a gap in the knowledge about Islamic terrorism and groups like Al Qaeda, which in turn caught most of the academic community unaware on 9/11. This article performs a quantitative study to determine the nature and scope of this apparent analytical failure on the part of academics in IR and other specialized disciplines to predict 9/11 and aims to address why this failure took place.     

Australia and the Threat of Terrorism in the Decade after 9/11

In February 2010, the Australian government released its second Counter-Terrorism White Paper, claiming that terrorism continues to pose a serious security challenge to Australia. The article critically re-examines the terrorist threat to Australia and explores the threat posed by the traditional Al-Qaeda leadership, by regional organisations like Jemaah Islamiyah and by so-called ‘home-grown’ terrorists. Arguing that it is imperative to differentiate clearly between the threat to Australia and Australian interests abroad, the article identifies the sources of threat in the Australian context. It concludes that neither Al-Qaeda nor Jemaah Islamiyah nor home-grown terrorism poses any significant objective threat to Australia. At the same time it is acknowledged that the subjective perception of the terrorist necessitates the government to develop an effective counter-terrorism strategy. However, given that the terrorism threat is objectively low, policy measures addressing the threat ought to be carefully designed to meet the requirements of proportionality and (potential) effectiveness.     

恐怖主义:威胁全球的"政治瘟疫"——"9·11"后全球恐怖主义发展趋势

恐怖主义是一个具有浓重政治色彩的概念,往往附着于某个意识形态,通常是用来描述为了特定的政治或宗教目的有计划地使用暴力或威胁使用暴力来对抗普通平民或不特定的多数人的个人或集团,因此常被人们称之为"政治瘟疫"之称.今年是"9·11"事件5周年,世界各国纷纷开展活动纪念这一人类史上空前的大灾难.     

Solving the security–democracy dilemma: the US foreign policy in Tunisia post-9/11

Abstract

Scholarly consensus postulates a sharp contrast exists between liberal values and realist interests in US foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, which finds its expression in the ‘security–democracy’ dilemma.? This means the US rhetorical determination to abide by the values of a ‘liberal’ foreign policy is neutralised by the ‘realist’ priority of maintaining US strategic interests, which requires support for friendly authoritarian rulers. Scholarship tends to apply this reasoning indistinctly to the entire region, providing an encompassing framework of analysis for understanding US foreign policy, which is valid across time and space. This study challenges this theoretical assumption and argues that while the US might indeed have a comprehensive regional approach in the MENA, the resulting foreign policy follows country-based trajectories that respond to national specificities and the perceived implications for US strategic interests. Exploring US foreign policy in the MENA after 9/11, the article demonstrates that while the US emphasis on liberalism crumbled when faced with security issues, the US liberal approach to Tunisia unfolded more consistently. Although the US continued formal cooperation with Ben Ali’s regime, it empowered at the same time a coalition of democratic opponents, solving the security–democracy dilemma and positively influencing the Tunisian democratisation.     

Speaking to the Silences: Do We Need a Sociology for the Post-9-11 World?

Using a sociology of knowledge framing, this essay highlights how and why the sociological imagination presented by leading European and American scholars showcased in this special issue offers a relatively hopeful assessment of recent transformations. It then questions the extent to which the same optimism prevails for scholars – and citizens – of the poorer, less advanced countries of the world. It not only suggests that many of the fundamental sociological transformations associated with the contemporary era – ranging from globalization of economy, the rise of internet technology, the decline of the nation state, and the rise of more cosmopolitan identities – are unevenly distributed around the world. It also argues that their political, social, and economic impact will vary, depending on history and developmental context. The essay further suggests that precisely because of the statist and protectionist legacies of late development, many of the same transformations that bring positive gains in the advanced capitalist world, signal troubles ahead for the developing world and its future. The essay draws to a close with a more focused examination of the dark side of recent transformations, evident in such problems as unchecked violence and regional or ethnic fragmentation across major swathes of the global south. Such developments, the essay concludes, should sustain the call for a more “pluralist” sociological imagination for the new millennium, one that can take into account differences within and between various countries around the globe, while also advancing our normative understanding of what it would take to make “global society” possible.     

The Journey to September 12th: A 9/11 Victim's Experiences with the Press,the President,and Congress

Carie Lemack, the co-founder of Families of September 11, alongside other 9/11 family members, had a unique perspective working with Congress, the White House, and the media after her mother was killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks. This article outlines some of those experiences and looks at the organization, execution, and effectiveness of the 9/11 families in changing their government, enacting new counterterrorism policies, and interacting with the press. The author shares her perspective on the post—9/11 legislative events that have taken place between 2001 and 2004 and offers lessons she learned in the process.     

Post-9/11 Responses to Mass Casualty Bombings in Europe: Lessons,Trends and Implications for the United States

This report analyzes the actions taken by emergency responders in three case studies of post-9/11 terrorist attacks in Europe (Istanbul [2003], Madrid [2004] and London [2005]). It also assesses the targeting and tactical information gleaned from three European plots that either failed or were foiled by authorities. The focus of this report is on mass casualty, complex attack scenarios involving explosive or incendiary materials. Although such attacks are not limited to one particular strand of terrorism, the case studies assessed in this report are linked to or inspired by the global jihadist movement spearheaded by the al Qaeda network, since this currently constitutes the most significant threat of mass casualty bombings to the United States.     

From extractivism towards buen vivir: mining policy as an indicator of a new development paradigm prioritising the environment

This article analyses mining policy as an indicator of a larger question: are some Third World governments starting to steer away from plunder ‘extractivism’ towards a paradigm that prioritises the environment? We begin with the cases of El Salvador and Costa Rica, which have major mining bans in place. We then present the results of our research in which we find five other countries with noteworthy mining-policy shifts: Panama, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and New Zealand. A sixth country, Honduras under President Zelaya, stands as a recent historical case of how sensitive such a policy change can be. A key take-away from our article is that critical development scholars and practitioners need to look more closely at the mining sector – not simply to analyse case studies of specific mining protests and resistances to extractivism, although these are of course important. Rather, there is a need to investigate policy changes that just might be indications that the era of unquestioning extractivism has ended and that at least some governments are initiating policies to incorporate environmental externalities, policies that suggest a changing development paradigm in the direction of environmental – and concomitant social and economic – ‘well-being’ as envisioned in buen vivir.     

The introduction of public–private partnerships in the Netherlands as a case of institutional bricolage: The evolution of an Anglo‐Saxon transplant in a Rhineland context

In this contribution, the introduction of contractual public–private partnerships (PPPs) in the Netherlands, more specifically the use of Design, Build, Finance, Maintenance, and Operations (DBFMO) contracts in Dutch infrastructure management, is analysed using a specific strand within the policy transfer and institutional transplantation literature: that of ‘institutional bricolage’. This perspective states that policy transplants come to fit their new institutional context stepwise. This contribution reconstructs the adoption process by which the Anglo‐Saxon‐inspired PPP practice is incorporated into the traditional ‘Rhinelandic’ practice of infrastructure management in the Netherlands, identifying four waves of PPP initiatives. It concludes that these waves and the difficulties that emerge in them stem from an ongoing struggle between actor coalitions, one aiming to preserve the transplant in its original shape, and others making attempts at bricolage. Shifts in power relations explain the progress and outcomes of the process of institutional transplantation.