wfn.org | The challenge of terror

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Note #6906 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

17-October-2001
01389

The challenge of terror

Analysis by John Paul Lederach
Professor of Conflict Studies and Resolution
Eastern Mennonite University

HARRISONBURG, VA - Some lessons about the nature of our challenge:

1.  Always seek to understand the root of the anger.

	The first and most important question to pose ourselves is relatively
simple though not easy to answer: how do people reach this level of anger,
hatred and frustration?

	By my experience, explanations that they are brainwashed by a perverted
leader who holds some kind of magical power over them is an escapist
simplification and will inevitably lead us to very wrong-headed responses.

	Anger of this sort, what we could call generational, identity-based anger, 
is constructed over time through a combination of historical events, a deep
sense of threat to identity, and direct experiences of sustained exclusion.

	This is very important to understand because our response to the immediate
events has everything to do with whether we reinforce and provide the soil,
seeds, and nutrients for future cycles of revenge and violence.

	Or whether it changes...

	We should be careful to pursue one and only one thing as the strategic
guidepost of our response: avoid doing what they expect.

	What they expect from us is the lashing out of the giant against the weak,
the many against the few. This will reinforce their capacity to perpetrate
the myth they carefully seek to sustain: that they are under threat,
fighting an irrational and mad system that has never taken them seriously
and wishes to destroy them and their people. What we need to destroy is
their myth - not their people.

2.  Always seek to understand the nature of the organization.

	Over the years of working to promote durable peace in situations of deep,
sustained violence I have discovered one consistent purpose about the nature
of movements and organizations who use violence: Sustain thyself.

	This is done through a number of approaches, but generally it is through
decentralization of power and structure, secrecy, autonomy of action through
units, and refusal to pursue the conflict on the terms of the strength and
capacities of the enemy.

	One of the most intriguing metaphors I have heard used in the last few days
is that this enemy of the United States will be found in their holes, smoked
out, and when they run and are visible, destroyed. This may well work for
groundhogs, trench and maybe even guerilla warfare, but it is not a useful
metaphor for this situation. And neither is the image that we will need to
destroy the village to save it, by which the population that gives refuge to
our enemies is guilty by association and therefore a legitimate target.

	In both instances, the metaphor that guides our action misleads us, because
it is not connected to the reality.

	In more specific terms, this is not a struggle to be conceived of in
geographic terms, in terms of physical spaces and places, that, if located,
can be destroyed, thereby ridding us of the problem. Quite frankly, our
biggest and most visible weapon systems are mostly useless.

	We need a new metaphor, and though I generally do not like medical
metaphors to describe conflict, the image of a virus comes to mind because
of its ability to enter unperceived, flow with a system, and harm it from
within. This is the genius of people like Osama Bin Laden. He understood the
power of a free and open system, and has used it to his benefit.

	The enemy is not located in a territory. It has entered our system. And you
do not fight this kind of enemy by shooting at it. You respond by
strengthening the capacity of the system to prevent the virus and strengthen
its immunity.

	It is ironic that our greatest threat is not in Afghanistan, but in our own
backyard. We surely are not going to bomb Travelocity, Hertz Rental Car, or
an Airline training school in Florida. We must change metaphors and move
beyond the reaction that we can duke it out with the bad guy, or we run the
very serious risk of creating the environment that sustains and reproduces
the virus we wish to prevent.

	Remember that realities are constructed - conflict is, among other things,
the process of building and sustaining very different perceptions and
interpretations of reality. This means that we have at the same time
multiple realities defined as such by those in conflict.

	In the aftermath of such horrific and unmerited violence that we have just
experienced this may sound esoteric. But we must remember that this
fundamental process is how we end up referring to people as fanatics,
madmen, and irrational.

	In the process of name-calling we lose the critical capacity to understand
that, from within the ways they construct their views, it is not mad lunacy
or fanaticism. All things fall together and make sense.

	When this is connected to a long string of actual experiences wherein their
views of the facts are reinforced, (for example, years of superpower
struggle that used or excluded them, encroaching Western values of what is
considered immoral by their religious interpretation, or the construction of
an enemy-image who is overwhelmingly powerful and uses that power in bombing
campaigns and always appears to win,) then it is not a difficult process to
construct a rational world view of heroic struggle against evil.

	Just as we do it, so do they. Listen to the words we use to justify our
actions and responses. And then listen to words they use.

	The way to break such a process is not through a frame of reference of who
will win or who is stronger. In fact the inverse is true. Whoever loses,
whether tactical battles or the "war" itself, finds intrinsic in the loss
the seeds that give birth to the justification for renewed battle.

	The way to break such a cycle of justified violence is to step outside of
it.

	This starts with understanding that TV sound bites about madmen and evil
are not good sources of policy. The most significant impact that we could
make on their ability to sustain their view of us as evil is to change their
perception of who we are by choosing to strategically respond in unexpected
ways. This will take enormous courage and courageous leadership capable of
envisioning a horizon of change.

3.  Always understand the capacity for recruitment - the greatest power that
terror has is the ability to regenerate itself.

	What we most need to understand about the nature of this conflict and the
change process toward a more peaceful world is how recruitment into these
activities happens.

	In all my experiences in deep-rooted conflict, what stands out most are the
ways in which political leaders wishing to end the violence believed they
could achieve it by overpowering and getting rid of the perpetrator of the
violence. That may have been the lesson of multiple centuries that preceded
us. But it is not the lesson from the past 30 years.

	The lesson is simple: when people feel a deep sense of threat, exclusion
and generational experiences of direct violence, their greatest effort is
placed on survival. Time and again in these movements, there has been an
extraordinary capacity for the regeneration of chosen myths and renewed
struggle.

	One aspect of current U.S. leadership that coherently matches with the
lessons of the past 30 years of protracted conflict settings is the
statement that this will be a long struggle. What is missed is that the
emphasis should be placed on removing the channels, justifications, and
sources that attract and sustain recruitment into the activities. What I
find extraordinary about the recent events is that none of the perpetrators
was much older than 40 and many were half that age.

	This is the reality we face: Recruitment happens on a sustained basis.

	It will not stop with the use of military force.  In fact, open warfare
will create the soils in which it is fed and grows. Military action to
destroy terror (particularly as it affects significant and already
vulnerable civilian populations) will be like hitting a fully mature
dandelion with a golf club. We will participate in making sure the myth of
why we are evil is sustained and we will assure yet another generation of
recruits.

4.  Recognize complexity, but always understand the power of simplicity.

	The key in our current situation that we have failed to fully comprehend is
simplicity. From the standpoint of the perpetrators, the effectiveness of
their actions was in finding simple ways to use the system to undo it. I
believe our greatest task is to find equally creative and simple tools on
the other side.

	I believe three things are possible to do, and will have a much greater
impact on these challenges than seeking accountability through revenge.

5.  Energetically pursue a sustainable peace process to the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

	Do it now. The United States has much it can do to support and make this
process work. It can bring the weight of persuasion, the weight of nudging
people on all sides to move toward mutual recognition and stopping the
recent and devastating pattern of violent escalation, and the weight of
including and balancing the process, in order to address historic fears and
basic needs of those involved.

	If we would bring the same energy to building an international coalition
for peace in this conflict that we have pursued in building international
coalitions for war, particularly in the Middle East, if we lent significant
financial, moral, and balanced support to all sides that we gave to the
Irish conflict in earlier years, I believe the moment is right and the stage
is set to take a new and qualitative step forward.

	Sound like an odd diversion to our current situation of terror? I believe
the opposite is true. This type of action is precisely the kind of thing
needed to create whole new views of who we are and what we stand for as a
nation. Rather than fighting terror with force, we enter their system and
take away one of their most coveted elements: The soils of generational
conflict perceived as injustice used to perpetrate hatred and recruitment.

	I believe that monumental times like these create conditions for monumental
change. This approach would solidify our relationships with a broad array of
Middle Easterners and Central Asians, allies and enemies alike, and would be
a blow to the rank and file of terror.

	The biggest blow we can serve terror is to make it irrelevant. The worst
thing we could do is to feed it unintentionally by making it and its leaders
the center stage of what we do. Let's choose democracy and reconciliation
over revenge and destruction. Let's do exactly what they do not expect, and
show them it can work.

6.  Invest financially in development, education, and a broad social agenda
in the countries surrounding Afghanistan, rather than attempting to destroy
the Taliban in a search for Bin Laden.

	The single greatest pressure that could ever be put on Bin Laden is to
remove the source of his justifications and alliances. Countries like
Pakistan, Tajikistan, and yes, Iran and Syria should be put on the radar of
the West and the United States with a question of strategic importance: how
can we help you meet the fundamental needs of your people?

	The strategic approach to changing the nature of how terror of the kind we
have witnessed reproduces itself lies in the quality of relationships we
develop with whole regions, peoples, and world views. If we strengthen the
web of those relationships, we weaken and eventually eliminate the soil
where terror is born.  A vigorous investment, taking advantage of the
current opening (given the horror shared by even those who we traditionally
claimed as state enemies) is immediately available, possible and pregnant
with historic possibilities.

	Let's do the unexpected. Let's create a new set of strategic alliances
never before thought possible.

7.  Pursue a quiet, diplomatic, but dynamic and vital support of the Arab
League, to begin an internal exploration of how to address the root causes
of discontent in numerous regions.

	This should be coupled with energetic ecumenical engagement, not just of
key symbolic leaders, but of a practical and direct exploration of how to
create a web of ethics for a new millennium, that builds from the heart and
soul of all traditions, but that creates a capacity for each to engage the
roots of violence that are found within their own traditions.

	Our challenge, as I see it, is not that of convincing others that our way
of life, our religion, or our structure of governance is better or closer to
truth and human dignity.
It is to be honest about the sources of violence in our own house and invite
others to do the same.

	Our global challenge is how to generate and sustain genuine engagement that
encourages people, from within their own traditions, to seek that which
assures the preciousness and respect for life that every religion sees as an
inherent right and gift from the Divine, and how to build organized
political and social life that is responsive to fundamental human needs.

	Such a web cannot be created except through genuine and sustained dialogue
and the building of authentic relationships, at religious and political
spheres of interaction, and at all levels of society. Why not do the
unexpected, and show that life-giving ethics are rooted in the core of all
peoples, by engaging a strategy of genuine dialogue and relationship?

	Such a web of ethics, political and religious, will have an impact on the
roots of terror far greater in the generation of our children's children
than any amount of military action can possibly muster. The current
situation poses an unprecedented opportunity for this to happen, more so
than we have seen at any time before in our global community.

A Call for the Unexpected

	To face the reality of well?organized, decentralized, self-perpetuating
sources of terror, we need to think differently about the challenges. If
indeed this is a new war, it will not be won with a traditional military
plan. The key does not lie in finding and destroying territories, camps, and
certainly not the civilian populations that supposedly house them.
Paradoxically that will only feed the phenomenon and assure that it lives
into a new generation.

	The key is to think about how a small virus in a system affects the whole
and how to improve the immunity of the system. We should take extreme care
not to provide the movements we deplore with gratuitous fuel for
self-regeneration. Let us not fulfill their prophecy by providing them with
martyrs and justifications.

	The power of their action is the simplicity with which they pursue the
fight with global power. They have understood the power of the powerless.
They have understood that melding and meshing with the enemy creates a base
from within.

	They have not faced down the enemy with a bigger stick.They did the more
powerful thing: they changed the game. They entered our lives, our homes and
turned our own tools into our demise.

	We will not win this struggle for justice, peace and human dignity with the
traditional weapons of war. We need to change the game again. Let us take up
the practical challenges of this reality perhaps best described in the Cure
of Troy, an epic poem by Seamus Heaney, no foreigner to grip of the cycles
of terror. Let us give birth to the unexpected.

	So hope for a great sea-change
	On the far side of revenge.
	Believe that a farther shore
	Is reachable from here.
	Believe in miracles
	And cures and healing wells.
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