REALIZING full well that the United Nations is engaged in coming up with a definition of terrorism broadly acceptable to 189 member-states, it is assuredly hazardous for an individual to embark upon this quest. With a strong sense of personal insufficiency, I am venturing to spell out the essential elements in the expectation that a right chord will be touched across the splits in the international community:

a) the existence of a well-knit organization centring around charismatic leadership; b) targeting an identifiable enemy as a source of primal evil; c) symbolic sanctity of goals to be achieved; d) premeditated violence to provoke and hurt the enemy; and e) willingness to take the consequences.

This writer has no hesitation in saying that the lethal strikes against innocent human beings by terrorists in September last year caused him deep anguish and revulsion. I have viewed them as an affront to and a crime against civilization and humanity. At the same time, I have some reservations about recourse to a declaration of war which carries with it implications of a no-holds-barred contest and the expectation of a victory against a widely dispersed and elusive threat. We have to persevere in waging a sustained campaign to reduce the admittedly grave threat rather than seek to eliminate it, which is an unattainable goal. We should take preventive measures and exercise maximum precautions in the belief that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

Obsession with that menace is to be avoided for the good reason that the ideological baggage gets overloaded and major issues on the international agenda run the risk of being consigned to the back burner. The military component in the long-range campaign has to be proportional to the assaults and should not loom so large on the international horizon that humanitarian concerns and adherence to the Geneva Conventions are seen to recede into the background by world public opinion. The void created in world-view in Washington by the winding up of the cold war in a bipolar world is not to be filled by sole preoccupation with terrorism and the neglect of its roots.

The terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda, aided and abetted by the Taliban, one of the most odious regimes in the world, have defamed Islam in the West. It is incontestable that in the light of nineteen Muslim and Arab perpetrators of hijacking, a widely shared perception has been created in the United States that a jihad or holy war against non-believers in Islam is sanctioned by it.

Karen Armstrong in her insightful book, ‘The Battle for God,’ has stated: “The Quran, the revealed scripture that Prophet Mohammad brought to the Arabs in the early years of the seventh century, insisted that a Muslim’s first duty was to create a just, egalitarian society, where poor and vulnerable people were treated with respect. This demanded jihad (a word that should be translated as “struggle” or “effort” rather than as “holy war”, as westerners often assume) on all fronts: spiritual, social, personal, military and economic”.

The misperception of Islam in western circles is dismissive of the historical reality that the late twentieth century has witnessed the emergence of fundamentalism within every religious tradition, inevitably caught as it is ‘in the conflict between mythos and logos.’ What is really important is that the discernible but erroneous impression concerning the militancy of Islam is dispelled by constructive engagement and honest dialogue between the Muslim and western countries.

Instead of signs of withdrawal from the Arab-Israeli dispute, the United States in post-September 11 circumstances should be actively and visibly involved in resolving it with a sense of urgency. Left to them, the Israelis and Palestinians will sink into endless hostility and drag the region into anarchy and chaos.

The international community, with the United States in the front seat and supported by the European Community and Russia, should build on the consensus that already exists on the key elements of a comprehensive settlement within the framework of Security Council resolutions, Barak’s last September proposals and the Taba talks in January 2001 and virtually impose a solution based on peaceful coexistence between a viable Palestinian state and a secure Israel. The prolongation of the current crisis is not the sole but a principal cause of destabilization in the Middle East. We should not allow the rising generation in that region to be fed upon a diet of hatred and revenge, the primeval roots of cycles of violence in human relations.

Economic stagnation and social frustration in developing countries is hardly a justification for recourse to violence against the non-combatants but it indisputably creates hopelessness and radicalizes the disadvantaged. The reduction of poverty will be a concrete expression of our common humanity. With the benefits of globalization accruing to the affluent and the burdens falling on the low-income nations, the widening gap between the developed and developing countries has become a central issue in our age. Shrinking aid levels and rising military expenditures in western countries are a recipe for a plunge into extremism in the vulnerable countries.

The strongest and most economically advanced country in the world will inevitably attract envy and protest. With the demise of communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States is undeniably the sole superpower. Some influential members of the European Community have commented upon trends towards unilateralism in Washington. The recent tragic events have given an impetus to multilateralism and coalition building. American exceptionalism is to be blended with Wilsonian internationalism. The liberal values and generous impulses of the United states require a credible expression in this decade.

Terrorism is rooted in an inner malaise created by fundamentalism which is to be equated with fanaticism. A fundamentalist cast of mind is keyed to a feverish pitch and gets targeted on enemies and villains to be eliminated. The search is not for the underlying causes to be tackled to bring about progressive improvement in human affairs but for a mythic reversion to dignity and entry into a golden age that has vanished. Myth becomes the basis of action and rejects deliberate choice of means to move towards a desired end. Identity crisis and a unique kind of fascination exercised by martyrdom on educated individuals belongs to the realm of alienation. ‘Gaze not too deeply not the abyss, lest the abyss gazes into you.’

Winston Churchill, as a subaltern in the British army assigned to the Afghan border in 1897, made insightful comments about the character and psyche of the Pathans and warned of the perils of peacekeeping in a violence-ravaged country. Reproduced below is an extract from his book, My Early life: “Except at harvest time, when self-preservation enjoins a temporary truce, the Pathan tribes are always engaged in private or public war. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian. Every large house is a real feudal fortress... Every village has its defence. Every family cultivates its vendetta, every clan its feud... The numerous tribes and combination of tribes have their accounts to settle with one another. Nothing is ever forgotten and very few debts are left unpaid.”

In rebuilding a failed state in Afghanistan and for a proper disbursement of aid funds, a large-scale international military presence in that country far exceeding the envisaged level of a couple of thousand troops is required. The involvement of the international peacekeeping forces on a sustained basis is indispensable for a creating a secure environment of confidence for good governance and for providing a shield against a relapse into warlordism. Aid and security are good to be delivered here and now.

The international community has responded positively to President Musharraf’s speech of January 12, rejecting terrorism and theocracy, bringing religious schools into the educational mainstream and banning the preaching of hatred in mosques. Commendable as these measures are in the campaign against extremism, they have to be accompanied with tackling the structural factors linked to good governance and plugging the leaks in the delivery of public good to the socially deprived.

As has been highlighted in reports circulated to participants in a recent Human Development Forum in Islamabad, the reduction of poverty and broadening access to social services for the disadvantaged are seriously handicapped by lapses and failures of governance manifested in deficient accountability, a weak sense of participation, leaks in the delivery system and the capturing the benefits of public works programme by patronage politics.

If the number of poor earning less than a dollar a day is increasing, the high level of illiteracy continues to be a big drag on the productivity of the economy, and joblessness is rising, the country becomes a breeding ground for extremism. The swamp has to be dried for releasing and increasing energies for peaceful and productive pursuits. The restoration of an authentic and functioning democracy will fill the space in our national life that has been occupied by fundamentalist forces and create a climate congenial to an inclusive civil society.

The writer is a former ambassador of Pakistan. e-mail: Karachi@sensei-international.com

BRIGHT orange suits, large black goggles, turquoise surgical masks, bizarre hand gloves, knit caps and earmuffs — these are all part of the attire the Americans have selected for their Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees at Camp X-ray in Guantanamo Bay.

All these accessories are meant to mask the inmates’ senses of sight, touch, smell and hearing. The photographs depicting their plight were released by the US authorities and got extensive coverage in the world media. With shaved heads, manacled arms, and shackled ankles, they were seen kneeling down in open-air cells behind three fences and coils of razor wire.

The hastily built 8x8 cells with chain-link fence walls on a concrete slab topped by a corrugated roof could be called cages. These cages are no different from the ones