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Annual Report 2001

Insights:
Will the World Learn from September 11?

That September 11th marks a turning point in world history, ushering in a new world order remains a debate. This assertion, pundits say, is another Western drive to determine history and to author civilization. Osama Bin Laden’s dream that war in Afghanistan would turn million of Muslims against the West and its protégé, Israel is yet to fulfil. What remains a fact about September 11th, however, is that America’s myth of invulnerability ended when the twin towers came tumbling down like the biblical walls of Jericho, at the view of billions around the world.

Those responsible for the barbaric acts against humanity should be brought to justice was the immediate cry. Ironically, the perpetrators claim to speak for and to justice. Behind the terrible scenario of September 11th has been the continuing plight of billions in third world countries since the Super Powers ended their proxy war, abandoning their allies-of-convenience.

Since then many of these war-ravaged societies have not recovered. Instead, they have frequently relapsed into bloody conflicts among themselves, continuing the terror they learned from their former masters. The dejection and sense of abandonment did certainly produce disaffected people for whom death instead of life is more appealing.

The US policy of cynical disengagement in the former Zaire (DR Congo), Liberia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Angola... resulted in the instability and its consequent impact, outstanding amongst which has been failed states, a haven for terrorists and guerilla war-lordism.

As it stands, America may have escaped two World Wars and the misery that followed those terrible wars. She cannot escape the new wars. In these wars, there are no battlefields, no uniformed soldiers, no declaration of war. It is not necessarily true that these wars can only be waged with state sponsorship. In fact, they (new wars) breed their soldiers in stateless, disaffected communities.

Ugly and unacceptable as September 11th was, it has taught us some lessons:
· Security is a mutual phenomenon. No country is safe when billions languish in unbearable human misery · Instead of spending billions of dollars to develop sophisticated weapons like antiballistic missiles it is prudent to rethink world politik and the world’s economy.
· The new world order despises so-called super powers. No powers can shield itself from this force. Therefore, unilateralism is unlikely to prevail. To cooperate with others is no longer optional for any state including the World’s known Super Power. It is a must for all.
· Social injustice creates the ground upon which violence germinates. Systematic prevention must address the root sources, instead of reacting to its symptoms.
· A question arises: Are there bad terrorists (Bin Laden) and “good terrorists” (Jonas Savimbi)?

Professor John Paul Lederach of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies talks of the posing paradoxes of terror as the world engages terrorism. His approach permits us to frame three core questions:
· How can we pursue rigorous accountability for the atrocity committed and at the same time promote systemic prevention that stops this phenomenon from recycling into our children’s generation?
· How can we increase personal responsibility for the individual leaders that promote this use of violence and at the same time change the social, economic, political, and cultural milieu that produces generations of recruits?
· How can we (U.S. and West) strategically respond as outsiders in the Middle East and Central Asia and at the same time support and encourage internal agents of change and the elimination of terrorism within the cultural, religious and political milieus of the region?

In conclusion, September 11 reminds us of the reality of interdependent world and its transnational issues such as terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundrying, illegal arms trade, migration, poverty, AIDS which must be globally tackled. Marshall McLuhan’s Global Village is here!
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