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Lessons of the Past: In Foreign
Affairs (September/October 2004), Lawrence D. Freedman writes of Steve
Coll’s Ghost Wars: The
complex story warns of how measures that make sense in the short term (in
this case, arming the anti-Soviet mujahideen with advanced weaponry and
acquiescing in the rise of the Taliban) can have dire long-term consequences
(the rise of fervently anti-Western Islamic militancy). Coll is severe in his
criticism of U.S. policy, which often failed simply by not paying enough
attention to detail, and of the roles of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in
creating a movement that eventually came to threaten them. As al Qaeda began
to use Afghanistan to launch terrorist attacks, the Clinton administration
(including counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, who cultivated an air of
"sinister mystery" but was right on the big issue of the danger
posed by Osama bin Laden) found itself bereft of options. The book closes
with the murder of one of the more promising anti-Taliban warlords, Ahmed
Shah Massoud, just as final preparations for September 11 were being made. Course Challenge: Our task is to gather the lessons from this experience for
future policy. Our groups are: 1)
Drug trafficking 2)
Weapons trafficking 2)
Weapons of Mass Destruction 3)
Strategy of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency 4)
Ideology Each
group should take into account the lessons of Ghost Wars and begin to
develop an information and data gathering plan to craft new policies. Each group should develop an explicit
statement of the relationship between security threats and terrorist
financing. Group Goals: The Drug trafficking group should develop
a plan for reducing the production of drugs and identify the extent to which
drug revenues finance terrorism; The Weapons trafficking group should develop
a plan for interdicting or controlling weapons; the Weapons of Mass
Destruction group should identify the dangers of WMD or improvised WMD and
develop a plan to contain this threat;
the Strategy of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency group should identify
appropriate counter-strategy; the Ideology group should identify the means
for undermining support for terrorist activities. Deliverables: Each group should prepare a written form of the group
statement of goals and submit this to the instructor no later than July 12th. Each member of the group should receive a
copy of this statement of goals. |
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