Terrorism and World peace - 10 Mints Seminar Notes

Terrorism and World peace - 10 Mints Seminar Notes

 

•    Terrorism, the calculated use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective. 

•    Terrorism has been practiced by political organizations with both rightist and leftist objectives, by nationalistic and religious groups, by revolutionaries, and even by state institutions such as armies, intelligence services, and police.

Definition:

•    Terrorism is not legally defined in all jurisdictions; the statutes that do exist, however, generally share some common elements. Terrorism involves the use or threat of violence and seeks to create fear, not just within the direct victims but among a wide audience.

•    In order to attract and maintain the publicity necessary to generate widespread fear, terrorists must engage in increasingly dramatic, violent, and high-profile attacks. These have included hijackings, hostage takings, kidnappings, mass shootings, car bombings, and, frequently, suicide bombings. Although apparently random, the victims and locations of terrorist attacks often are carefully selected for their shock value.

•    Schools, shopping centres, bus and train stations, and restaurants and nightclubs have been targeted both because they attract large crowds and because they are places with which members of the civilian population are familiar and in which they they feel at ease.

•    Generally, the term terrorism indicates a criminal and violent activity performed by an individual or group of individuals or an organisation in order to strike terror among the general public and send messages to the public and governments, to fulfil a goal.

•    Although the victims of the terror act maybe a few people (depending upon the event), the intended target is usually larger than the number of victims alone.

•    The terrorists’ purpose is to send a strong message to the larger public and the government. They generally claim responsibility after conducting a violent act so as to let people know of their power and capabilities and thus, inflict terror upon the people.

Terrorist Activities:

Terrorists indulge in a variety of activities for primarily three things:

•    Generate fear among people.

•    Create publicity for their goals/causes.

•    Try to convince people that the government is powerless against them.

Types of Terrorism:

Although there are several types of terrorism, we can classify terrorism into the following broad types:

Dissent Terrorism:  

•    Groups that rebel against the government of a country. 

For example, the LTTE in Sri Lanka.

Left-wing/right-wing terrorism: 

•    Terror groups that adhere to ideological leanings on the extreme end of the left-right political spectrum. Read more on left-wing extremism in India.

Religious terrorism: 

•    Terror groups based on religious ideologies. 

For example, ISIS.

Criminal terrorism:  

•    Terror groups engaged in terror acts for criminal profit.

Terrorism in India:

•    India faces terrorism from secessionists in Kashmir, the north-east and to an extent in Punjab, from left-wing extremist groups in central, east-central and south-central India.

•    India is one of the countries most affected by terrorism in the world. According to the Institute for Economics and Peace, India was the seventh-most affected country in 2018.

•    It reported that from 2001 till 2018, more than 8000 people have died in terror attacks in India.

•    Jammu & Kashmir is the region most affected by terrorist activities in the country.

•    The Global Terrorism Index 2019 also places India on the 7th rank in terms of the most-affected country by terrorism.

•    It was after the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai by terrorist groups that the government formed the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

World Peace

•    World peace, or peace on Earth, is the concept of an ideal state of happiness, freedom, and peace within and among all people and nations on Planet Earth.

Global Peace Index (GPI):

•    Global Peace Index (GPI) 2020 has been released. 163 independent states and territories were ranked for their level of peacefulness.

•    India climbed up 2 places to be ranked at 139 in GPI 2020. In 2019, it ranked 141.

Most peaceful country in the Global Peace Index 2020?

•    Iceland is ranked as the most peaceful country in the Global Peace Index (2020). It was ranked the same in GPI 2019 too. The other countries ranked in the top as the most peaceful are New Zealand, Austria, Portugal, and Denmark.

least peaceful country in the Global Peace Index 2020?

•    Afghanistan has been ranked as the least peaceful country, the second year in the row. It is followed by Syria, Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen.

Key Highlights in Global Peace Index :

•    Russia and Eurasia region are stated as the regions to show maximum improvement.

•    North America is stated as the only region to show improvement in all three domains:

               Ongoing Conflict

               Safety and Security

               Militarisation

•    The largest and second-largest deterioration was seen in South America and Central America and the Caribbean.

•    The largest number of protests, riots and strikes have been witnessed in Europe.

•    Global Peace Index 2020 also focusses on the impact of COVID-19 on the peacefulness.

•    In GPI, the focus has also been shared by the IEP’s newest research report – the Ecological Threat Register (ETR).

•    In South Asia, Bhutan has been ranked as the most peaceful country. Its overall rank is 19 in GPI 2020. (The only country from outside of Europe and Asia-Pacific to be in top 20.)

•    In South Asia, the largest number of events including riots, protests, strikes were seen in India between 2011 and 2018

Presented by

Prasadh

SSC

Magme School of Banking