Bismarck once said: ?Fools say they learn from experience. I prefer to learn from others? experience.?
If books are worthy for anything, it?s to steal good quotes, and here?s one from Terrorism Versus Democracy: Bismarck once said: ?Fools say they learn from experience. I prefer to learn from others? experience.? Paul Wilkinson is Professor of International Relations and Director, Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St Andrews, Scotland. He?s written several books on international terrorism and how the western world should tackle it. His latest book, Terrorism Versus Democracy – The Liberal State Response, covers all aspects of terrorism – how it emerged in the modern world, its weapons, how law enforcers and the military can and are in fact fighting terrorism, what terrorists do – take hostages and hold sieges – and what the future might be, given international media and international governmental co-operation are only as powerful as the weaker links. It?s an academic?s book with many footnotes, but it?s bang up to date, mentioning the Fiji coup of mid-2000 in the chapter on hostage-taking. As Professor Wilkinson admits, democratic governments and law enforcers are in an acute dilemma thanks to terrorist blackmailers. He points out that terrorists are making expressive rather than instrumental – that is, they are venting hate when they demand something, rather than making a clear demand for money or release of comrades in terms that a democratic government understands and can do business with. These expressive terrorists may be so fanatical that you simply have to get to the hostages before the terrorists kill them and themselves, making ?expertise and training? at all stages – planning, intelligence, crisis management, tactical response – important. As often seems to be the case, he argues that prevention is better than cure – and involves international co-operation.
Aviation focus
One of the dozen chapters is of direct interest to security managers – a 17-pager on aviation security – so I shall focus on that. The difference between terrorism in the air and terrorist acts against the state such as Fiji?s in 2000 is that sky-jackers are not threatening the state – or any particular state. However, Professor Wilkinson makes a firm case for aviation security. For one thing, people stay away from air travel in droves if they feel the threats are too great (during the Gulf War and other Middle East crises) and for another thing terrorism is getting more serious – in the 1970s we saw hijacks, in 1988 we saw the Lockerbie disaster. Hence: ?By the end of the 1980s aviation terrorism rivalled technical failure and pilot error as a cause of fatalities in civil aviation.? He argued at the time that security measures in the 1980s were outdated, tackling only the threat of hijack, not sabotage bombs. He singles out El Al as an airline with tight security, but their Israeli passengers are prepared to put up with security-related waits. There?s some did-you-know facts; that of all hijacks since 1947 (they?ve been going that long), 61 per cent have been for refugee escapes. An explosion of such hijacks in the late 1960s led to boarding checks and baggage screening, but there are still lapses – quite recently, for example, Afghan escapees that went to Stansted smuggled weapons on board thanks to lapses in Kathmandu and Kabul. Professor Wilkinson quotes approvingly the US Director of Aviation Security in the early 1970s, one Lieutenant General Benjamin Davis, who proved critics wrong by instituting boarding-gate security that the rest of the world copied – thanks to the technology being made available and passengers accepting the security measures because they were rapid enough and thus inconvenient. How good is airport security today? The UK scores high marks, but not so the US, because there?s a lack of pressure from regulators and government to make the airlines act, who claim security costs too much (how soon the US forgets Lockerbie). Many European countries screen only five to ten per cent of airport baggage. ?Even our most modern airports are sadly lacking in an eff3ective explosives detection system to counter the sabotage threat.? Again, Professor Wilkinson blames a lack of regulation – international, this time – and a lack of an agreed technology to do the job. He suggests a security ?tunnel? rather than one machine. He asks: do governments have the will to act? He is not over-optimistic. Will airports match the next likely threat – terrorists firing surface to air missiles – or will there be a jumbo jet downed with great loss of life before the authorities act? Given that Lockerbie happened, one fears the worst.
Useful sites
The book concludes with a general tough-it-out policy against terrorists, to deny them any deals and concessions, aim to bring them to court, and to combat the governments that back them. There?s a useful glossary of terrorist groups, taking in not just the well-known ones such as IRA and ETA but the less-well-known PKK (Kurdish), ELA and November 17 (Greek), and SPLA (Sudanese). At the end is a list of internet sources on terrorism – to quote just three sites, there?s counterterrorism.com, securitynet.net and cdt.org/policy/terrorism.
– Terrorism Versus Democracy – The Liberal State Response. Part of the Cass Series on Political Violence. Published 2001, by Frank Cass, Newbury House, 900 Eastern Avenue London IG2 7HH. www.frankcass.com. ISBN 0-7146-8165-2.
