Terrorism and the UN: Before and After September 11

1 Whither Terrorism and the United Nations?

1 Whither Terrorism and the United Nations? Jane Boulden and Thomas G. Weiss Terrorism is a global menace. It calls for a united, global response. To defeat it, all nations must take counsel together, and act in unison. That is why we have the United Nations. —Kofi A. Annan, September 1 The fight against terrorism cannot be used as an excuse for slackening efforts to put an end to conflicts and defeat poverty and disease. Nor can it be an excuse for undermining the bases of the rule of law—good governance, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. The long-term war on terrorism requires us to fight on all these fronts. Indeed, the best defense against these despicable acts is the establishment of a global society based on common values of solidarity, social justice and respect for human rights. —Kofi A. Annan, October 2 This volume explores the situation of the United Nations in the wake of the events of September , , and international responses to them. On that basis, it looks ahead to possible problems and issues for the world organization in its continuing attempts to counter terrorism. To this end, two interrelated analytical frameworks are used. The first addresses the issue of whether or not the UN now finds itself in a new international environment. In the immediate aftermath of September , it was commonplace to hear that the world had changed irrevocably, that a paradigm shift had occurred.Is that the case? If so, why and how is this manifested? If not, why not? The second analytical framework looks directly at the specific role of the UN as both an arena where governments make decisions and as an independent operational actor in its own right. How has the UN dealt with the question of terrorism, both before and after September ? Two different approaches are used within this framework. One examines the specifics of various measures debated and taken by the two main organs, the Security Council and the General Assembly. The other is issue-oriented, detailing the world organization’s efforts to deal with terrorism through its perceived sources and resources. This 3 4 Jane Boulden and Thomas G. Weiss second analytical framework thus complements the first by highlighting the extent to which international thinking on terrorism at the United Nations is as much a product of past experience as it is a product of September . Two points of clarification are necessary. First, the attacks of September  may be characterized as acts of terrorism and evidence of trends in terrorism, but they are considered separately from the concept of terrorism itself. From the vantage point of the UN, the events of September  and terrorism as an international phenomenon have different sets of implications and impacts, so they are treated accordingly. Second, this is a book that is primarily about the United Nations. It is not an analysis of terrorism per se. The starting point for the analysis is the question of how the world organization has sought to deal with terrorism. The fact that the UN has taken action against terrorism, even while not being able to agree on how to define the phenomenon, is an important part of the story. The lack of consensus—many observers point to the aphorism that “my freedom fighter is your terrorist”—exposes the depth of the problem terrorism poses for the world organization. The conclusion of one group of practitioners about this lacuna is noteworthy: “Action in the absence of an agreed-upon definition exposes the United Nations to the charge of double standards, thus undermining the very legitimacy and universality that are among its most precious assets.”3 In recognition of the extent to which efforts to define terrorism are part and parcel of the analysis, this volume does not put forward its own definition of terrorism, even though the absence of such a definition is a persistent theme in this book specifically and in international relations more generally. The essays in this collection explore how the United Nations and the community of states generally have sought to deal with terrorism (including the struggle to define it), how the dramatic events of September  have affected those efforts, and what all of that says about how we deal with international security in the twenty-first century. The purpose of this first chapter is to outline the framework and substance of the volume as a whole and to draw conclusions based on the information and analysis in the chapters that follow...