DISARMAMENT AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY – TAKING ACTION TO PREVENT TERRORISTS FROM CROSSING INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES
Terrorism has existed since the Roman Empire, where people have attacked innocent civilians in order to express and idea or revenge an action taken by a country or leader. However, this issue is becoming more and more common with the rise of new international militant organizations and individuals who are posing a threat to national and global security. Terrorism has massively increased from 2002 to 2016, as eight of world’s nine regions have experienced more terrorist activity according to the Global Terrorism Index, and only area that did not report an increase was North America. Actually, deaths due to terrorism have declined in 2015 and 2016, as there have been “only” 25,673 killings in 2016, 22% less than in 2014. However, more and more countries are being affected by the issue, as 65 nations related at least one death due to terrorism in 2015, and the number has increase to 77 countries in 2016. The states that are the most impacted by terrorism rank Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria and Pakistan, where there have been almost ¾ of the total global deaths of 2016. Other countries that reported numerous deaths due to terrorism are Yemen, Somalia, India, Turkey and Libya. Iraq – where there have been the most deaths recently – is facing serious challenges due to ISIS, that caused a 40% increase in killings to try and maintain the territories that they took control of from the government. Instead, countries where the number of deaths has decreased include Nigeria (3100 less deaths from 2015 to 2016), Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria.
PROBLEM
Worldwide, while the rate of murders might have declined from 2014, attacks against civilians have increase by 17%, and the number of terrorism-related deaths in 2016 was still 67% more than in 2006 – more than the double. This is partially due to the fact that there have been more attacks against nontraditional targets with unusual tactics especially in OECD countries (nations that are part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development that aims at stimulating world trade and development). ISIS is mainly responsible for these unconventional but deadly attacks and, together with Boko Haram (equivalent of the Islamic State in West Africa), Al-Qaeda (Sunni Islamist organization founded during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan) and the Taliban (Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan), these organizations are responsible for 59% of the deaths linked to terrorism. A reason why there might me be terrorist attacks in developed countries such as in Europe (the most affected in Europe are Turkey, Ukraine and France) is that it is difficult for all states to have secure maritime, land and air borders. Besides, if there are insufficient financial and human resources employed for professional equipment and experts, the terrorist threat rises.
The map below shows the impact of terrorism around the world dating 2017, highlighting the areas that are more at risk (mostly in the Western and Southern Asia):
CROSSING BOUNDARIES
The Security Council and its Counter-terrorism committee are in charge of monitoring the spread of terrorism in different countries. According to the Security Council, one way to prevent the entry of dangerous people is reinforcing border-security checks limiting FTF (Free Travel Forum) trips, where there is no control of who leaves and enters a country. To protect flights, the United Nations also suggest the implementation of API tools (Advanced Passenger Information), that collect information about flight passenger and communicate these to border-security authorities. API is recommended to all airlines in every country, but only 51 states use this system, and only 12 established interactive API in order to obtain details about passengers in real-time. This means that few countries are protected from terrorist risks by air. Moreover, inside a country, the Security Council recommends that checks are strengthened for identity papers and travel documents as to avoid the free movement of terrorists. Here again, the issue with many countries is that they have not clear policies and measures to make intense checks and guarantee the security of their citizens.
By land and sea, it is also complicated to make effective border checks because the boundaries are large and consist of open spaces or areas that are hard to control for their morphology. Terrorists can try to avoid checks by crossing these areas that are vulnerable. Thanks to coordinate border management (CBM), authorities from different governments can control boundaries at different locations and regulate the entry in a country through policies, programs and agencies that solve security problems and limit FTFs.
U.S. – MEXICAN BORDER
While we have mainly focused on issues in the Middle East with terrorist groups like the Islamic States, another threat is with illegal border crossers from Mexico to the United States. Usually, the people who attempt to traverse the American border are called “exotic” because they are not Mexicans or Latin Americans but usually Pakistanis or Bangladeshis. Although the risk of terrorism for this cause is quite small, the number of immigrants coming to the US from Mexico is increasing, posing a threat to American national security and frightening the population. Some people are afraid that those illegal immigrants coming from dangerous areas (such as Pakistan) could have been trained by ISIS, as the organization claimed they would infiltrate in the United States to harm Americans. However, there are few cases of terrorist attacks in the USA due to illegal immigrants coming from the Southern border and there are no known international terrorist organizations working in Mexico, so there is no real evidence that these two borders are the cause for harmful attacks. Illegal immigrants crossing borders are certainly an issue that should be solved, but it is still uncertain whether these unlawful entries in the United States put the American population at risk.
SOLUTIONS TO THE SPREAD OF TERRORISM – USEFUL SOURCES
LINK TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
One of the main goals of the UN Charter is maintaining international peace and security, which is highlighted in the 16th goal of the SDGs, which aims at achieving peace, security and strong institutions. Unfortunately, terrorism is a threat to international security, it weakens institutions and causes conflict, so it impedes the achievement of the United Nations’ general targets and their goals for 2030. Moreover, in areas frequently affected by terrorist attacks, Goal N°9 is also compromised (Industry, innovation and infrastructure) because new and ancient buildings are destroyed or damaged. If terrorists were confined to one region because they are unable to cross boundaries illegally, forces could focus on eliminating terrorist nuclei, thus eliminating the risk of attacks to international security.
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