A More Accountable World?

Recently, I have been working on the question of accountability, the importance of holding peoples and institutions, public and private, accountable for their actions. Without accountability, without a sense of consequence, a certain mentality takes over these days: "I can get away with it." That is true whether you are talking about individual behavior or corporate or national reactions to bailouts, acts of genocide, and much more. Right now the issue is terrorism. So in this essay, I want to look at terrorism through the lens of accountability.

The monstrous acts of al Qaeda have now made the principle of state accountability the law of nations. After the bombings of our embassies in 1998, the UN Security Council stressed in Resolution 1189 "that every member state has the duty to refrain from organizing, instigating, assisting or participating in terrorist acts in another state or acquiescing in organizing activities within its territory directed towards the commission of such acts." ¹ On 29 December 2000, the council strongly condemned "the continuing use of the areas of Afghanistan under the control of the Afghanistan faction known as Taliban . . . for sheltering and training of terrorists and planning terrorist acts." ² Then, after 11 September 2001, the council accepted the position pressed by the United States and Great Britain recognizing the inherent right of self-defense, stressing "that those responsible for aiding, supporting or harboring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these acts will be held accountable, reaffirming that every state is duty-bound to refrain from assisting terrorists or acquiescing in their activities." ³

The legal basis for the principle of state accountability is now clear, and the right of self-defense is acknowledged as an appropriate basis for its enforcement. And our actions now must make that principle a reality.

The Basic Antiterrorist Ideas

The attacks of 11 September are grotesque reminders that freedom remains vulnerable to authoritarian ideologies. Democracies continue to face the threat of terror from those who refuse to accept the principle of tolerance and equality for all human beings. We have learned what we must do to prevail.

Then prime minister Margaret Thatcher, after a terrorist attempt on her life in Brighton's Grand Hotel on 12 October 1994, spoke about terrorism with characteristic strength and candor: "The bomb attack on the Grand Hotel early this morning was first and foremost an inhuman, undiscriminating attempt to massacre innocent, unsuspecting men and women. . . . The bomb attack was an attempt to cripple Her Majesty's democratically elected government. That is the scale of the outrage in which we have all shared; and the fact that we are gathered here now, shocked but composed and determined, is a sign that not only this attack has failed, but all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail" (emphasis added).

Speaking two weeks later in reaction to Brighton and other acts of terrorism, I developed the theme: "We cannot allow ourselves to become the Hamlet of nations, worrying endlessly over whether and how to respond. Fighting terrorism will not be a clean and pleasant contest, but we have no choice. . . . We must reach a consensus in this country that our responses should go beyond passive defense to consider means of active prevention, preemption and retaliation. Our goals should be to prevent and deter future terrorist acts."

The heads of the Group of Seven major industrial democracies, meeting in Tokyo on 5 May 1986, stated that "we strongly reaffirm our condemnation of international terrorism, in all its forms, of its accomplices and of those, including governments, who sponsor and support it. Terrorism has no justification."

This unprecedented international manifesto came about through the toughness and determination of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, but other leaders were fully on board.

These statements from the past show that terrorism is a weapon with a long history, used by states and groups hostile to free societies and operating in ways designed to make it hard to know who has committed an atrocity. They...