|
Background
International Centre for Peace Initiatives (ICPI) was established in 1990. From 1995 to 2002, senior ICPI functionaries had extensive interaction with stakeholders of various conflicts in South Asia, including leaders of militant movements. This provided ICPI with practical exposure to the mindset of militants, who are considered terrorists by some and freedom fighters by others. ICPI launched Strategic Foresight Group (SFG) at the beginning of 2002, with preparation leading to its creation in 2001. SFG has specialized in forward-looking analysis of security environment in many parts of Asia.
The establishment of SFG coincided with shift in global agenda towards an apparent conflict between the West and Islamic societies linked to threat of terrorism and related aspects of global security. This was a result of terrorist attacks on 9/11 and the consequent response by a coalition of nations led by the United States. Since the 9/11 attacks were planned by Al Qaeda, many scholars have identified terrorism with extremist Islamic groups. This is despite the fact that in the past terrorism has been pursued by groups belonging to many different religions, including the Ku Klux Klan in the United States, the Red Army in Europe and Japan, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, various guerilla movements in Central America and several others. Even presently, besides affiliates of Al Qaeda, which are Islamic, many other terrorist groups operate including Maoists in Nepal, Eta in Spain and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. According to the Rand-MITP online database on terrorism, out of 91 terrorist attacks in the US from 1997 to 2004, 55 have been conducted by the Earth Liberation Front, the Animal Liberation Front and their associates- American groups that firmly believe in democracy and ecology. Thus empirical evidence shows that terrorism is not a monopoly of any particular religion. On the other hand, the response to recent terrorist attacks of and since 9/11, has resulted in curbs on human liberty and trust.
The war on terror, led by the United States, has not yielded results, despite substantial improvement in military and intelligence coordination among several countries. Terrorist groups have continued their onslaught unabated, resulting in the M-11 episode in Madrid. The rate of terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia has been doubling every year since 2001. For instance, there were a dozen attacks on Saudi territory in 2003, and about the same number in merely the first half of 2004. The rate of success in freezing terrorist funding has declined from 100 million dollars in 2001 (October-December) to 25 million dollars in 2002 to 11 million dollars in 2003. Under the circumstances, the current strategy against terror simply does not seem to be working. It is therefore necessary to develop new approaches to deconstruct terror and build sustainable global security.
Any new efforts will succeed if they are jointly conceptualised by leading thinkers and practitioners from the Western, Islamic and other countries affected by terrorism. It is necessary to have common standards and a common intellectual framework for new rules of the game. While it is the responsibility of the states to introduce and implement any new rules, it should be possible for scholars and thinkers to present new ideas and develop an intellectual consensus. When the post World War security architecture was constructed, the states had to take responsibility for conceiving ideas as well as practices. The world has changed in the last 60 years. It is now possible for thinkers to take an initiative in the realm of ideas and for the practitioners to convert good ideas into laws, treaties and practices. With this background, Strategic Foresight Group undertook research and assessment of perspectives across the world with input from around 50 of the world's best-known scholars from different continents in 2003. The observations derived from this process was published as an essay by SFG President in Global Agenda, Magazine of the World Economic Forum for their annual meeting at Davos in 2004. The reaction to the essay indicated that the global business community was much concerned about the deteriorating security situation on account of the apparent conflict between West and Islam and its implications for the world economy. It was therefore decided to collaborate with Essar, an Indian business group with global activities, and other entities to organise an international round table in New Delhi to bring together leading thinkers to develop a common intellectual framework to construct peace, deconstruct terror.
|
First International Roundtable