Counterterrorism and Economic Policy

• Author: Lloyd J. Dumas
• Position: University of Texas at Dallas
• Pages: 83-97

Counterterrorism and Economic Policy

Lloyd J. Dumas

•

I. INTRODUCTION : DEFINING TERRORISM ........................................... 83

II. TERRORISM AND CRIME .................................................................... 85

III. ADDRESSING THE UNDERLYING CAUSES : THE CONNECTION

BETWEEN TERRORISM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ................... 87

IV. “AID” VS. “TRADE” AS MEANS FOR ENCOURAGING DEVEL OPMENT .. 89

A. Aid ............................................................................................... 90

1. The Importance of Context ..................................................... 90

2. The Value of Collaboration ..................................................... 91

3. Minimizing Resource Dive rsion ............................................. 92

B. Trade ........................................................................................... 93

V. ESTABLIS HING BALANCED, MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL TRADE

RELATIONSHIPS ................................................................................ 94

A. Micro-Lending ............................................................................. 94

B. Reducing Trade Barriers ............................................................ 95

VI. CON CLUSION ..................................................................................... 96

I. INTRODUCTION : DEFINING TERRORISM

In political speech, the word “terrorist” is often used to refer to someone

who uses violence to further a cause with which the speaker disagrees, while

“freedom fighter” is used to refer to someone who uses violence to further a

cause that the speaker considers more worthy. This may be effective political

rhetoric, but it will not help in understanding the phenomenon of terrorism

or, more importantly, developing policies to effectively counter it. For that, we

need a more precise and less subjective definition.

There are many definitions of terrorism extant.1 The U.S. Sta te

Department, while admitting that “[n]o one definition of terrorism has gained

universal acceptance,” 2 relies on the definition written into U.S. statutory

• University of Texas at Dallas. (Pre pared for the Transnational Law and Contemporary

Problems symposium, “Ten Years after 9/11: Rethinking Counter-Terrorism”, University of Iowa,

Feb. 10–11, 2011).

1 See, e.g., MARC MILLER & JASON FILE, TERRORISM FACTBOOK (2001).

2 U.S. DEP’T OF STATE, PATTERNS OF GLOBAL TERRORISM, 2001 xvi (2002), available at

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/10286.pdf.