By
Wil ShaneLyon College News Bureau
Photo Eric Stewart
Spreading the rule of law and helping form new Democratic governments in nations around the world is the best way to combat the modern scourge of international terrorism, Dr. Bradley Gitz said Tuesday.
Gitz, the William Jefferson Clinton Professor of International Politics at Lyon College, speaking before a packed room in the Mabee-Simpson Library, presented his lecture, “International Terrorism,” addressing the new form of terrorism and ways to combat it on the world’s stage.
The former chair of the Humanities Division and of the Pre-Law Advisory Committee, Gitz is the faculty adviser for the Model United Nations and of the Washington Center Internships. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana, and he publishes a twice-weekly op-ed column in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He joined the Lyon faculty in 1994.
The use of terrorism on civilian populations to achieve political or ideological objectives is a centuries-old tactic, but it has become the “most urgent priority” of modern society, Gitz said
“Why now?” he asked. “Why is terrorism such a pressing question now? I don’t think 9/11 can explain it. That was more of an effect than a cause.”
Gitz suggested the reasons are multi-layered and complex, involving several primary factors. The first of those factors is the advancement of technologies such as communication systems, nuclear power plants and electrical grids to name a few.
“As society becomes more complex, it becomes more vulnerable,” he said.
Other factors contributing to the rise of international politics include enhanced capabilities of terrorists, the rise of global mass communications, and a shift in the motives behind the terror attacks. Those motives once centered on political objectives but now focus on religious objectives.
In years past, terror groups such as the Irish Republican Army, the Red Brigades in Italy, China’s Red Army and even the Symbionese Liberation Army in the U.S. were more likely to be in the news than Islamic terrorists. But that’s changed, Gitz said. Now, Islamic fundamentalists commit 90 percent of all terror attacks perpetrated worldwide.
“When religion becomes the primary motivating factor for terrorism, it becomes more ferocious and dangerous,” Gitz said. “It acquires a fervor that’s unparalleled by political motives.”
That fervor has given rise to suicide bombers, a phenomenon “unheard of a decade ago.”
“Suicide attacks reflect the shift from political to religious motives,” he said.
But of all the factors contributing to the rise of international terrorism, the “most significant” is state-sponsored terrorism, Gitz told the audience.
“Every major terrorist group receives support from some government,” he said. “Terrorists used to operate within their own borders and against their own governments. International terrorists get money, weapons and bases of sanctuary from different countries and governments, and they operate outside their own borders.”
It’s only a matter of time before a terrorist group gets control of weapons of mass destruction, and when they do, they will use them, Gitz said.
“If Iran develops nuclear weapons, terrorists will get them and they’ll use them,” he said.
Gitz said the single best way for civilized society to combat the rise of international terrorism is to impact state-sponsored terror.
“That’s done with economic, and probably military, pressure to influence governments to stop supporting terror,” he said. “And that may require regime changes.”
The most effective way to eliminate state-sponsored terror, he said, is by helping form and support emerging new Democratic governments around the world.
“Democratic governments don’t fight other Democratic governments,” Gitz said. “And Democratic governments don’t sponsor terrorism.”