Terrorism and Political Violence
Introduction
Risk management is the process of identifying, analyzing, and coming up with various ways on how to deal with risks. Risk management involves assessing and taking measures that are necessary to approach the respective risks. These risks are the uncertainties that result from the daily activities that we engage ourselves in. Ways of dealing with the uncertainties could be mitigation or acceptance of the risks. This paper focuses on the risk of terrorism and political violence. Several articles address this risk among them being newsletter posts, books, journals as well as essays. The paper will concentrate on three different articles that discuss this issue that affects many people.
A journal on terrorism and political violence in Africa
Introduction of the article
The journal addresses terrorism and political violence in the geographical setting of Africa and was written by James J.F. Forest and Jennifer Giroux. The editor, Martha Crenshaw in the journal defines these terms as the use of violence to instill fear in people and make them face political intimidation. Specifically, political violence was witnessed in the continent when the countries were fighting for their independence and after the colonial period. This was accompanied by adverse terrorism in the region. Terrorism is not only common in Africa but in all the continents in the world. Terrorism is one of the types of political violent acts that is a disaster that threatens the security of citizens and states in the continent, Africa.
Summary of the article
The journal tries to summarize the causes of terrorism and political violence and gives the causes as the resistance movements that are rampant in the region and the irresponsible governments (Felbab, Vanda, and James 145). Some examples given to prove this are the resistance group in Uganda, the al-Shabaab group in Somalia, and Al-Qaeda located in the northern part of Africa among the Islam. Irresponsible leaders in one way or the other, lead to political violence and terrorism. Cases of inhumane presidents are witnessed in Senegal and Sudan. The article gives brief observations to illustrate the problems and ways of approaching the threat of terrorism and political violence in Africa through the article Perspectives of Terrorism. Africa receives security threats from these illegal groups leading to many people’s death. The leaders who always want to maintain their political power, an example in Zimbabwe, on the other hand, cause political violence.
Africa, being one of the continents that are developing, faces great challenges in fighting terrorists. Thus, this calls for some response from the government as well as the citizens. Citizens run away from their countries and escape to neighboring countries where they become refugees. The government, on the other hand, forms armies that fight back these groups. Response to political violence by citizens is also running to other countries but the government calls for international mediators to bring peace resolutions in the country that is affected by the disaster. The state recovers by bringing back the citizens who run away to other countries and giving them some capital that they use to build themselves (Felbab, Vanda, and James 212). The state also calls for joint military training with the Western countries to ensure that its security body is well equipped to fight political violence as well as terrorism. This information is accurate and timely because it addresses security issues that are there today in Africa.
A newsletter post on terrorism and political violence in West Africa
Introduction of the article
This was an article published on 1 August in 2010 in Washington. The article states that terrorism is an organized attack by terror groups and other terrorism networks (Smith). These organizers of these attacks mutually benefit from each other and usually join their power to bring down a certain state at a time. The collaboration makes their power overcome the target enemy state despite the many attempts that the state may make to fight them. On the other hand, political violence results from misunderstandings from political leaders and makes citizens fight each other due to the different political views they have. Political violence gives room for terrorism because terrorists know that at this condition, the security of the state is threatened by the wars, and thus, fighting the state would be easy.
Summary of the article
The article focuses on the differences in the institutionalization of politics, the nature of governance, the performance of the economies, and the general trends that a state shows in building itself as the cause of political violence as well as terrorism. The article concentrates on these differential factors and analyzes the disaster in the geographic setting of the Western part of Africa. For example, the article states that political, social, cultural as well as economic factors in Ghana are not the same factors in Equatorial Guinea. The trends that Senegal has shown in its development are not the same trends that are shown by Cote d’Ivoire.
The differential gap in these factors is what develops enmity among the West African countries, thus, they compete with each other for the resources that are in the region. In the process of the competition, they indulge themselves in conflicts that lead to wars. For instance, they compete for oil reserves in the region, and this results in wars that in turn give way for the terrorists to execute their plans with the terrorist networks. Citizens respond by fighting back, making the condition worse leading to political violence.
The state, on the other hand, responds by fighting the terrorists by its security forces. To recover, the state enforces its law with the help of the international communities that educate citizens on how to manage their resources. Corrupt leaders that are coercive in their leadership are replaced with democratic leaders. From the news that we receive, many African countries have adversely been affected by this disaster. By addressing it, it poses to the African leaders the challenge they are facing, thus, to pull up their socks in responsibly representing citizens, marking its relevance, clarity, and timeliness.
Africa on the war of terrorism and political violence
Introduction of the article
This is an article in the book written by John Davis to give detailed information on how Africa has been affected by adverse political violence as well as terrorism in the region. The author describes Africa as a good setting for these disasters and gives an example of the Rwanda wars that qualified to be called Genocide. Many people were killed and many were left wounded permanently until today. The author states that poverty in the region gives an opportunity for terrorists to accomplish their missions. On the other hand, corrupt leaders who are selfish with power act as foundations of political violence.
Summary of the article
The author concentrates on al-Qaeda terror groups that view Africa as a ripe scene for their crimes (Davis 103). The extensive poverty among the inhabitants of the region motivates them and gives them more power and assurance that they will always be successful in their evil acts. The book gives a detailed image of Africa as not only a scene for terrorism but also a scene for political violence. Most of the leaders in the region are corrupt and compete for power among themselves thus, they influence citizens to have political divisions among themselves. For instance, the two main tribes in Rwanda, which were involved in critical wars leading to genocide, resulted from power selfishness among the leaders of the two tribes. Due to the political differences that citizens held, they started attacking each other, making the situation worse.
On the other hand, terrorists took advantage of the poor country and manipulated citizens. Citizens responded by looking for safety in other places and others could not witness the murder cases and suicidal cases became rampant during that period (Davis 123). The country, after many years, tried to recover by looking for help from the international community. This information is relevant and accurate because it helps African leaders get tactics for dealing with this disaster that is currently affecting their countries.
Conclusion
The article in the journal was most informative because it does not only give details of the disaster event but also briefly looks at the causes, solution, effects of the disaster. The articles have different communication styles. The articles manipulate a journal, newspaper, and book to pass the information to the desired audience. For instance, the journal and the newspaper are effective in reaching many people, who have the ability to read and make them aware of their countries’ security situations. This will make many people get the information and be alert of anything that may arise. The book on the other hand is long-lasting and will act as a preservation for the upcoming generation on the security history of their countries. These articles are clear and hide no information to avoid the audience from panicking. This will make them aware of all that surrounds them. The media manipulated technology like TVs, cell phones, Internet to gather information all over the countries where these disasters happened, making it reach the international community, who intervened to help the citizens.
Works Cited
Smith, Malinda, S. “Securing Africa; post-9/11 discourses on terrorism. (Brief article) (Book review).” Ed. Reference & Research Book News [Washington] 1 Aug. 2010: 18. Print.
Davis, John. Africa and the War on Terrorism. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate Pub, 2007. Internet resource.
Felbab-Brown, Vanda, and James J. F. Forest. “Political Violence and the Illicit Economies of West Africa.” Terrorism and Political Violence 24.5 (2012): 787-806. Print.