World | UK
'Terror war' breeds more terror
American and British obsession with the "war on terror" is blinding them to greater global security threats, a leading UK think tank has warned.
- By Tom Clifford, Assistant Editor, International
- Published: 00:00 June 13, 2006
Dubai: American and British obsession with the "war on terror" is blinding them to greater global security threats, a leading UK think tank has warned.
Conflicts of the 21st century will centre on climate change, competition for natural resources, social and economic marginalisation and militarisation, the report, by The independent Oxford Research Group says.
In terms of loss of life and social upheaval these are potentially more dangerous than terrorism, and the findings are shared by Pentagon's office of net assessment, the group states.
"Current policies in the 'war on terror' are not only utterly failing to win the 'war', but are making the likelihood of future terrorist attacks more likely, not less likely,'' Chris Abbott one of the report's authors told Gulf News from Oxford last night.
"The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are proving to be a gift to the Al Qaida, in terms of both propaganda and recruitment; if extended to Iran, the implications would be disastrous. In addition, the Western obsession with maintaining the status quo through military might is increasing instability across the world, and will result in a violent backlash unless fundamental threats that we have identified in our report are addressed.''
The current response to insecurity is essentially about "control" attempting to maintain the status quo through military force, without addressing the root causes, and so a new approach is urgently needed, the report warns.
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Deepening global socio-economic divisions will be a serious trend, and it says "the marginalised majority is increasingly likely to support political violence against the rich minorities."
It also states that the response to climate change should not involve greater reliance on nuclear power because this would encourage the spread of nuclear weapons and increase the risk of terrorists getting hold of them.
The report cites a "sustainable security" approach to address the root causes of those threats.
This includes renewable energy and conservation as the most important response to climate change; intensive poverty reduction programmes as a means to address marginalisation and the halting and reversal of WMD development and proliferation as a main component of checking global militarisation.
The tipping point is approaching, according to Oxford Research Group.
It will be essential to encourage governments, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, to rethink their current security outlook to avoid a highly unstable global system by the middle of the century.
"Governments must seriously re-examine their approach to international security if we are to avoid a highly unstable global system by the middle of this century,'' Abbott said.
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