|
Dubai: A leading expert on terrorism believes Osama Bin Laden has already won the war against the West and warned if politicians fail to come up with a coherent plan to deal with the threat, the future was bleak.
Nikola Zlobin, Director of Russian and Asian Programmes at the Washington-based World Security Institute believes attempts to contain the threat of terrorism had been botched.
"Social and financial resources allocated to fight terrorism are depleting quickly. The quality of life for people in the western world is declining steadily and the war seems to be endless," he said.
"The influence of Al Qaida is expanding geographically and demographically and negotiations with Al Qaida might be necessary rather than fighting its ghost fighters across the globe."
Expansion
In an exclusive interview, Zlobin told Gulf News the growing power of terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Morocco suggests the expansion of Bin Laden's ideology is gaining pace.
"Democracy is shrinking everywhere in the world, including in the United States, while the policies of combating terrorism have been condemned as strategies adopted by the US and its allies around the world," he said.
"The world has dealt with Nelson Mandela in South Africa and with Yasser Arafat in Palestine so why not with Bin Laden. For those who argue Mandela and Arafat were freedom fighters while Bin Laden is a terrorist, the answer is the first two men were considered terrorists by the governments ruling their countries. It's also true Bin Laden and his group is different but the world of the 21st century is different too," he added.
Zlobin said the world is currently in a state of bankruptcy. "We have reached a stage of questioning the concept of a sovereign state on a daily basis. The issue now is not of sovereignty but the concept we need to put in place instead?"
Zlobin added: "We are entering a stage of the gradual demise of sovereign states which might even cease to exist altogether in the coming years. The world is witnessing the beginning of a new political geography."
Globalisation has posed a serious threat to traditional states, Zlobin claims.
Mastered
"Bin Laden managed to attack the US on its soil because he mastered the weapons of globalisation. What we see in our war against terrorism today is the outcome of globalisation."
During the Cold War, he said there were two basic political systems. It ended without any formal peace treaty.
Currently, the United States can act unilaterally and does not need the international system created after the Second World War.
Zolbin said it is no longer clear what constitutes security and cites the UN Security Council as an example which has become outdated.
"Most of the international organisations developed during the Cold War do not provide any kind of security either. They are outdated too," he said.
|
