Terrorism is defeated by breaking the cycle of recruitment and regeneration that sustains it, and it is not just military force that is involved, says Bruce Hoffman
What 9/11 demonstrated was that the US was a prime, vulnerable target. Following this attack, the US took several measures to strengthen its capability to deal with terror, of which a major one was the setting up of a new intelligence architecture though the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. As a result, there has been improved co-operation among Federal agencies and between Federal, state and local agencies. In terms of technology systems, there has been much more surveillance, lot of data-mining, and greater integration of intelligence systems.
The single most important anti-terror weapon, in my view, is excellent relations with the minority population from which terrorists emerge, and from where they are recruited. Also, in India, which has a federal structure and policing is under the purview of the states, a centralised agency would help, especially as terror organisations don’t have the centre-state kind of bureaucracy holding them back. This was exactly the problem that Germany faced in the 1970s and 1980s, when most of the powers resided in the states, and it made co-ordination and avoiding duplication quite difficult.
As to whether it is appropriate to use the word ‘war’ to describe a terror attack such as the one in Mumbai this week, I would say it is a bad idea. Using the term ‘war’ implies that there is a military solution to the problem. But terrorism is defeated by breaking the back of the terrorist organisation, by breaking the cycle of recruitment and regeneration that sustains the terrorist movement, it is not just military force that is involved
Regarding the role of the media, the electronic media in particular should avoid getting drawn into the more lurid aspects of the terrorist attack. Showing the deployment of the security forces is certainly not on. They need to exercise some for of self-censorship until the incident is over.
Bruce Hoffman is a professor at the Security Studies Program of Georgetown University, Washington DC. He is the author of Inside Terrorism. He spoke to
G Sampath.
