Greater global role means more dangerous terror threats
By Published: Sep 14, 2011 09:36 PM
There have been two major global trends since 9/11, the US “War on Terror” and the rise of China and other developing nations. Some people link the two phenomena together, pointing to globalization as the root cause of both.
Globalization makes resources span national borders and lets capital flow to the countries that can produce goods at low costs. So Germany opens factories in Poland and the US firm Wal-Mart orders goods from China. The shape of the world system is changing. Without 9/11, globalization would still have led to the rise of the developing countries.
In Sino-US relations, 9/11 provided new pathways for cooperation between China and the US. But in fact, anti-terrorism has not become the major subject of Sino-US relation.
The most important factor in Sino-US relation is still mutual interests. Globalization ties the various interests of the two countries together.
Globalization brings opportunities and development to most countries, and in the same time, brings many troubles to the world, such as social polarization and injustice. Terrorism is one such trouble, and we can say that globalization and terrorism are twins.
The terrorists of 9/11 were modern young men who took advantages of facilitating conditions of globalization to study English and flying airplanes in the US, not Middle Eastern shepherds who never left their hometown the whole life. Food prices at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange can render millions of people far from the US hungry, and the crude oil prices in New York will decide the incomes of the people in the Middle East.
Globalization brings the ideologies and ways of thought of different countries come together, and places the US and terrorism face to face.
Terrorists achieved their goal, as the US couldn’t avoid dealing with them after the attacks. The real meaning of 9/11 was that the incident put the terrorists on the stage of world affairs, whether peopled like it or not.
The US has paid a heavy price for the war on terror over the past 10 years.
Now, the US is busy in dealing with the imbalance of the domestic economic structure. Even so, the US is still the only super power that has truly global influence and faces the biggest terrorist threat.
The terrorist threat a country faces is always proportional to its global reach. So, the US will continue the anti-terrorist operations, but strategic contraction is inevitable. The problem now is that who will fill the power vacancies caused by the strategic contraction of the US.
The international order is entering a chaotic period. The Middle East situation shows that the existing order is collapsing and new patterns have not yet formed. Chaos is helpful to terrorists. For example, Al Qaeda may control the authorities in some new governments in the chaos. The anti-terrorism situation is changing alongside the international order.
China is rising at present. However, the more benefits it gets, the more risks it has to face. If globalization continues on, as an increasingly powerful country, China will face more and more threats, including terrorism.
In the next 10 to 20 years, if the international space of the US gradually shrinks and China’s space expands, China may face more terror threats.
China’s anti-terrorism capacities are still in a defensive stage, which is far behind the capabilities of the US. It is an essential mission for China to strengthen anti-terrorism ability and at the same time, to develop in a balanced way and reduce the potential of terrorism.
Public opinion in China should not only focus on aircraft carriers and the power China will have after rising. We should begin to think about how China should act after its rise.
The author is the director of East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn
Globalization makes resources span national borders and lets capital flow to the countries that can produce goods at low costs. So Germany opens factories in Poland and the US firm Wal-Mart orders goods from China. The shape of the world system is changing. Without 9/11, globalization would still have led to the rise of the developing countries.
In Sino-US relations, 9/11 provided new pathways for cooperation between China and the US. But in fact, anti-terrorism has not become the major subject of Sino-US relation.
The most important factor in Sino-US relation is still mutual interests. Globalization ties the various interests of the two countries together.
Globalization brings opportunities and development to most countries, and in the same time, brings many troubles to the world, such as social polarization and injustice. Terrorism is one such trouble, and we can say that globalization and terrorism are twins.
The terrorists of 9/11 were modern young men who took advantages of facilitating conditions of globalization to study English and flying airplanes in the US, not Middle Eastern shepherds who never left their hometown the whole life. Food prices at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange can render millions of people far from the US hungry, and the crude oil prices in New York will decide the incomes of the people in the Middle East.
Globalization brings the ideologies and ways of thought of different countries come together, and places the US and terrorism face to face.
Terrorists achieved their goal, as the US couldn’t avoid dealing with them after the attacks. The real meaning of 9/11 was that the incident put the terrorists on the stage of world affairs, whether peopled like it or not.
The US has paid a heavy price for the war on terror over the past 10 years.
Now, the US is busy in dealing with the imbalance of the domestic economic structure. Even so, the US is still the only super power that has truly global influence and faces the biggest terrorist threat.
The terrorist threat a country faces is always proportional to its global reach. So, the US will continue the anti-terrorist operations, but strategic contraction is inevitable. The problem now is that who will fill the power vacancies caused by the strategic contraction of the US.
The international order is entering a chaotic period. The Middle East situation shows that the existing order is collapsing and new patterns have not yet formed. Chaos is helpful to terrorists. For example, Al Qaeda may control the authorities in some new governments in the chaos. The anti-terrorism situation is changing alongside the international order.
China is rising at present. However, the more benefits it gets, the more risks it has to face. If globalization continues on, as an increasingly powerful country, China will face more and more threats, including terrorism.
In the next 10 to 20 years, if the international space of the US gradually shrinks and China’s space expands, China may face more terror threats.
China’s anti-terrorism capacities are still in a defensive stage, which is far behind the capabilities of the US. It is an essential mission for China to strengthen anti-terrorism ability and at the same time, to develop in a balanced way and reduce the potential of terrorism.
Public opinion in China should not only focus on aircraft carriers and the power China will have after rising. We should begin to think about how China should act after its rise.
The author is the director of East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn
