Terrorism, Human Trafficking, and More Anti-Social Behaviors Essay

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International Relations

According to the Oxford Bibliographies research, there is not one specific definition of "nonstate actors" that fits all situations. Nonstate actors are defined in relation to international law, because they are "…often able to impact legal values and must accordingly be regulated" (Santarelli, 2005). Throughout history, nonstate actors have "impacted international law" and they have also participated in "international legal processes," which is why Santarelli believes there should be more study of nonstate actors. One scholar claims that nonstate actors include "all entities" that are different from states; or are entities that are operating outside the legal jurisdiction of the government. That definition would include think tanks in the U.S. On the one hand and violent, bloodthirsty extremists such as ISIS, the Taliban and al Qaeda on the other hand (Fisher, 2014).

A typical nonstate actor can also be viewed as a nongovernmental organization (NGO); examples of NGOs would be those organizations association with law enforcement, like the Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers, the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, to name a few. As for the nonstate actor ISIS, a terror-driven nonstate actor, they have seized control of large areas in Syria and Iraq, with a goal of establishing a "caliphate" in Iraq (Fisher, 2014). ISIS goes into a town and often separates the men from the women; the men are taken away and shot to death and the women are made into slaves and wives for the terrorists.

In Nigeria the Islamist group known as Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls, and this nonstate actor is accused of killing more than 1,200 people in less than eight months in 2013 (Fisher). The goals of terrorist-linked nonstate actors vary from group to group, but in general their goals are to: a) kidnap and demand ransoms; b) smuggle arms, narcotics and cigarettes because those items make "lucrative trade" deals; and c) simply kill, rape, burn, and conduct outrageously violent and cruel activities to cause a reign of terror (Fisher, p. 2). When a society is living in fear of violent repression, that society becomes dysfunctional, and that is the goal of many Islamist terrorists; a confused, disrupted, frightened community is more susceptible to the whims of a terrorist group.

TWO: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) explains that there is domestic terrorism and international terrorism. The FBI defines "international terrorism" as involving "violent acts" or acts that are "dangerous to human life" that are unlawful at the federal and state levels (FBI). International terrorism also appears to be meant to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population"; to impact the policies of a government; and to have a horrific impact on a government through "mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping" (FBI).

As to "domestic terrorism," these acts occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. Acts of domestic terrorism violate federal and state law and are dangerous to human life; they appear to be intended to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population and to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion" (FBI). The federal laws that prohibit terrorism include: 18 U.S.C. § 2332b (any act that is intended to retaliate against the government or intimidate the government is a "federal crime of terrorism"); § 930c (killing or attempting to kill during an attack on a "federal facility with a dangerous weapon"); and § 1114 (attempting to kill or killing officers and employees) (FBI).

Why is terrorism so hard to define? That is probably because there are so many different hostile acts by nonstate actors that qualify as acts of terror; but those acts are committed in a wide variety of ways and hence a definition that fits all acts of terrorism is difficult if not impossible. Oliver Libaw writes in an ABC News story that many Americans aren't really sure what terrorism really is. The U.S. State Department holds that "…only sub-national groups, not states themselves, can commit acts of terrorism" (Libaw, p. 1). The State Department also says violence must be "politically motivated" for it to be terrorism" (Libaw, p. 1). The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defines terrorism as the illegal use of force for "…purposes of intimidation, coercion or ransom," but doesn't mention that the act has to be politically motivated (Libaw, p. 1).

Richard Betts, the Director of the Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University in New York, explains that there has "never been any consensus definition of terrorism" because people believe that in extreme cases actions are seen as "justified"; for example, the United States bombed civilian targets in WWII (in two extreme cases, Nagasaki and Hiroshima) but those were not seen as terrorism (albeit the hundreds of thousands who were killed were terrified prior to dying).

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Because America had been drawn into a war with "aggressor nations" (Libaw, p. 2). In other words, because Japan bombed us first, we were justified in unleashing horrifically lethal bombs on the civilians; hence, this was not terrorism, it was seeking justice.

THREE: Uncivil networks form when groups take part in actions that are deemed to be less than wholesome and civil by members of the majority in any society. Conservative pundit Henry Lamb called gay rights activists "uncivil" for "…shouting down a Christian demonstration against gay marriage in San Francisco" (Glasius, 2009). On the other hand, the Cato Institute criticized environmental activists that opposed GMOs and huge dam projects as "the Uncivil Civil Society" (Glasius, p. 1). Some wear the "uncivil society" label as a badge of honor, suggesting that uncivil societies are any groups that "threatens the status quo" (Glasius, p. 1). Violence isn't always part of an uncivil society, according to Glasius; a fundamentalist organization with "inflexible doctrines" that attempts to impose its will on other groups could be considered uncivil. Why do networks form? Sometimes networks form when core leadership of another organization is destroyed or being focused on to the extreme. For example, when the al Qaeda leadership planned the attack on the U.S., it made arrangements for the hijackers through a network of cells in Germany, the U.S., and elsewhere (Arquilla, 2007). There was not one central command center, but a series of cells in a network that accomplished the terrorism on September 11, 2001.

FOUR: Human trafficking, very simply put, is a modern form of slavery. Criminal organizations that recruit, abduct, transport, harbor, transfer, sell or receive persons through "force, coercion, fraud or deception" are human traffickers (Harris, 2011). Some humans are forced into prostitution or forced to perform sexual services, or forced into "domestic servitude, bonded sweatshop labor" and other activities, and they are victims of human trafficking. The impacts on society when this shameful crime is committed are significant; one in five victims of human trafficking are children and "…two thirds of the world's human trafficking victims are women" (unodc.org). Some humans that are enslaved by traffickers are just used to have their organs removed, because selling human livers and other organs on the black market is very lucrative (unodc.org).

FIVE: Arms control treaties since the Second World War: Antarctic Treaty (1961); Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963); Outer Space Treaty (1967); Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons / NPT (1970); Seabed Arms Control Treaty (1972); Strategic Arms Limitation Talks I (SALT 1, 1972); Biological Weapons Convention (1975); SALT II (1979); Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons / CCW (1983); Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter Range Missiles -- U.S. & USSR (1988); Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe / CFE (1992); Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty / START 1 (1994); Chemical Weapons Convention (1997); Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty / CTBT (1996); Ottawa Treaty (1999); Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty / SORT (2002); Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (2007); Convention on Cluster Munitions / CCM (2010); and New START (2011) (Axworthy, et al., 2011). The major gap in arms control is small arms; hundreds of thousands of small arms (assault rifles, handguns, rocket-propelled grenades, etc.) were stockpiled and sold after WWII to third world countries and others (Axworthy, p. 24). Moreover the "widespread production of small arms makes measures to control the production and sale of these weapons unpopular with many states" (Axworthy, p. 25). Italy passed a law in 1990 that prohibited small arms manufacturers from producing small arms and shipping them overseas; but wait, pressure from Italy's small arms manufacturers resulted in Italy dropping the law from the books (Axworthy, p. 25)......

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