| The 1358th. Meeting of the Connecticut
Academy of Arts and Sciences was held on Tuesday, February 15,
2005 at 5:30 p.m. in the McKelvey Room of the Admissions Office
of Wesleyan University in Middletown. Some 60 people attended
the lecture and some 45 members and their guests stayed for the
reception and dinner. At 5.30 p.m. President, Ernest Kohorn, welcomed the audience and since there were several visitors present he gave a short history of the Academy. He said he was very pleased to see some members who were not from Wesleyan and noted that in the 1800's Academy members traveled large distances by horse and carriage in order to attend meetings but with the advent of the automobile it would appear to be more difficult to traverse such distances. He announced the election of one new member, Lane Ameen, M.D. from the Elmcrest Psychiatric Clinic in Portland and a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Yale Medical School. Professor Peter Frenzel, Vice President of the Academy and also Vice President of Wesleyan University introduced the speaker for the evening, Martha Crenshaw, the Campbell Professor of Global Issues and Democratic Thought and Professor of Government at Wesleyan University. The title of Dr Crenshaw's talk was "Why is the U.S. Targeted by Terrorism?" Professor Crenshaw's goal was to put terrorism into historical perspective by analyzing its root causes as well as defining the purposes for which it is used. She described four main underlying conditions or root causes: 1. asymmetrical warfare, that is a conflict between the haves and have-nots; 2. psychological issues such as grievances, humiliation, anger and resentment all of which are fueled by the forces of globalization via the media; the cultural argument used by President Bush, "they hate our values," meaning the secular and democratic nature of our society. Clinton considered terrorism a global epidemic for which there was no cure. We would just have to live with it; and finally, 4. the United States' policy abroad in which we supported poor regimes or were not active enough as in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, this theoretical framework explains a variable with a constant that Dr. Crenshaw said does not work. Also there are still relatively few terrorists and the present arguments paint too broad a picture and lack historical perspective. The present Administration only talks of international terrorism and gives the impression that it is purely anti American. In the 1970's and 80's West Germany and Italy spawned Marxist-Leninist terrorist groups that attacked other groups besides the United States. So the question becomes, why is it useful to attack the United States and what social support do the terrorist groups want from their audience and from their rivals? This led Professor Crenshaw to describe the strategies used by terrorists. They considered that without U.S. support some governments would topple and that by attacking the U.S. they would embarrass the local government. Terrorism was also a way in which to make governments change their policies. Violence is one way to achieve goals when you are tired of talking! She described imitation and strategic differentiation as opposing strategies. When hijacking, suicide bombing and attacking schools is seen to be effective then different groups will imitate this strategy. However, devising totally different strategies as surprise tactics also works. Either strategy works to unite different groups with local allegiances. She commented that it is not easy to change the habit of violence. Finally, Professor Crenshaw gave an historical overview of terrorism. There has been an evolution of violence. The Vietnam War taught that a big country could be expelled from a country that it is fighting. Then kidnapping became the vogue as a tool for bargaining for concessions and governments usually gave in. With the reemergence of nationalism the Palestinians had great influence on the style of terrorism. Today the new terrorism is based on religion and has apocalyptical goals so that the use of nuclear weapons becomes scarier. Although Al-Quaida has a religious base it has political goals as well as aiming at conflagration. When considering the problem of terrorism one must have historical perspective. Suicide bombers are not unique; martyrdom is an ancient concept. However they must have popular support and sometimes "they do themselves in by going too far." One of the difficulties of defending against terrorist acts is the element of surprise. Once you have figured out what they will do the terrorists know that and find another strategy. Defense may not be foolproof but having historical perspective is of essence. |