15 MARK QUESTIONS

intro - terrorism is the use of violence for furthering political ends, creating fear and uncertainty to all innocent people involved. Terrorism has increased the threat on global security by events such as 9/11 proving even a global hegemon could still be attacked by terrorism, which therefore gives the impression that no one is safe.

1st - threat of nuclear terrorism on the rise and there have been 3 nuclear security summits since 2010 where 53 countries attended. Terror attacks are sporadic and impulsive, so the reality of them getting hold of nuclear weapons is very slim

2nd - even the most powerful state is vulnerable to a terrorist attack, e.g. 9/11 where the USA, a global hegemon, was attacked. Terrorists use low level technology to devastating effect. However, not a threat because the news makes it seem a much bigger issue than it really is - government's exaggerate the problems 

3rd - the west approach to terrorism may actually cause more terrorism due to us wanting to impose our values on living standards and human rights all over the world. One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. However, not a threat because terrorism could be reduced if we leave them alone because they will then not retaliate and leave us alone. terrorists cannot hope to overthrow governments, they just create fear.

intro - clash of civilisations is a hypothesis made by Samuel P. Huntington that describes conflict in the post Cold War as being between civilisations instead of states.

1st - 9/11 is clear evidence that there is a clash as global terrorism is a symptom of the clash between the west and Islam. Everyone is in trouble if even a hegemon like the USA can get attacked. However, it may not be an issue because some states within diffrent civilisations coexist peacefully together, such as the USA and Saudi Arabia 

2nd - The break up of Yugoslavia happened because of 3 fault lines proving that there is a huge clash with the Srebrenica massacre being a prime example of how different civilisations can't get along. However, some say the break up of Yugoslavia was actually due to the growth of racism in the power vacuum of the cold war.

3rd - the war on terror caused many western muslims to fight against the USA meaning that it is not the civilisations such as all muslisms that want to fight with the USA, just a select few extremists, rather than the whole population. The war on terror has increased the amount of extremists and radicalised them to not want to be muslim anymore, increasing the fault lines between Muslims and the west. However, states are the global actors and civilisations can't go to war with eachother as they are not powerful enough. Terror attacks are only sporadic and therefore can not create war, leading to the clash of civilisaitons not being that big of a threat.

intro - terrorism is the use of violence for furthering political ends, creating fear and uncertainty to all innocent people involved. The great war on terror started off with the 9/11 attack in the USA and involves attacks between Muslims and the west. It has also included wars such as in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

1st - human rights abuses in the great war has led to increased detentions of terrorist suspects in facilities such as Bagram, Abu Ghrain and Guantanismo Bay. With the USA being one of the main actors in the GWOT they feel as though they can do as they like and remove all prisoners of war's rights and freedoms.

2nd - cost of war is a hige factor in the GWOT and there are huge discrpancies between the different death tolls, but the deat rate is around 500,000 in Iraq, 150,000 in Afghanistan and the financial cost of the GWOT is expoected to be around $5 trillion. 

3rd - is there even a war on terror as some argue that terror is not a tangible enemy and it is misleading to call for a war on terror, particularly as there has been no effort made to combat the causes of terror, only the sympotms. This is similar to the war of drugs which began in the 1960s.

intro - terrorism is the violence for furthering political ends, creating fear and uncertainty to all innocent people involved. Global terrorism however, is aimed at damaging and humiliating a global power.

1st - the USA is even vulnerable to terrorist attacks and therefore every state has now become susceptible to the threat of an attack. The 9/11 attack has become so significant due to the 3000-people dead and 6000 injured that it has led to the term “catastrophic terrorism”. The aftermath of the attack has done good things such as increasing multilateral cooperation, but has also led to things which have bought about a divide in the world, such as intervening in Afghanistan and targeting Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

2nd - globalisation and the advancement of technology and social media have made the simplicity of an attack to be carried out with ease. It iis becoming increasingly more difficult to prevent an attack as attacks are committed by individuals who in modern day regularly use suicide bombs, such as the Oklahoma bombings in 2005 where a bomb was dropped onto 84,000 people watching a football game. However, it is more likely to die from a virus outbreak such as Ebola which killed over 10,000 people in 2014, a lot more than in 9/11, which is the biggest terror attack to have taken place.

3rd - extremists could get their hands on WMD or nuclear weapons. There have been 18 reported incidents of theft/loss of dangerous chemicals and in 2007 terrorists attacked the Pakistani nuclear facilities three times. Also, in 2006, MI5 warned that Al Qaeda were planning on using nuclear weapons against cities in the UK, even though this has not yet occurred, some say it is only a matter of time.  

intro - there are three types of WMDs such as chemical, which uses the toxicity of the chemicals rather than an explosive reaction, biological, which is germ warfare, and nuclear, which uses nuclear reactivity to kill. Currently, there are 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world, with America having the biggest. 

1st - states believe they keep the peace due to mutually assured destruction such as if one person lets one off, they will be attacked in return and this will have catastrophic consequences. In this case, North Korea refuse to give up their weapons, so no one else can or else it will gove North Korea all the power in the world.

2nd - they are difficult to get rid of as many WMDS are in the form of submarines and are under the sea, which would be very time consuming and costly to get rid of, essentially making it easier to keep them. Pressure groups such as ICAN work to ban nuclear weapons around the world, but as soon as a country such as the USA give them up, other countries such as Saudi Arabia will want to get them as they are not under the protection of the USA any more.

3rd - they are difficult to uninvent since the information on how to make a WMD is already out there, anyone can make one, especially terrorists. The ingrediants that a WMD may be difficult to get their hands on, but once they do they can make what they want. This is the same for countries who may find it easier to get their hands on the ingrediants.