Today's terrorists are often part of a global network of highly sophisticated, methodical, comprehensive, well funded terrorist organizations whose perversions of their faiths allow them to justify even the most heinous of acts. It stands to reason that our response must likewise be global, sophisticated, methodical, comprehensive and well funded. We have at our disposal an arsenal of the finest, most powerful weapons available to fight terrorism. Not bombs and bullets, but people: experts in diplomacy, intelligence gathering, computers, anthropology, economics, communications, crisis management, arbitration, languages, foreign relations, and dozens of other fields that can contribute to the all-important task of identifying, stopping and preventing terrorism. If there were a "right" answer to how best to deal with global terrorism, surely we would have found it by now. But just as surely, finding the solution must lie in asking the right questions.
Terrorism is an -old scourage. as long as there have been governments there have been those in opposition whose deliberately violent actions fall outside the purview of the state sponsored military attack. So it is somewhat surprising that after centuries of witnessing terrorist acts, people still cannot agree on a proper definition. No such objective definition exist. Our own State Department`s guidelines are sufficiently vague as to make it impossible to easily distinguish some military actions from acts of terrorism.
About Leon Newton
Dr. Leon Newton is a Professor of Political Science currently teaching at Jackson State University, and has taught courses on International Politics, International Conflict Resolution, Terrorism, among others. Former Director of the Newton Institute for International Affairs and Humanitarian Policy, an independent think tank, Dr. Newton has been selected for numerous honors and prestigious roles: member, Speakers bureau for the United Nations Association and The United States Association (Southern Region); Researcher-Resident Program at the Prague Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; lecturer on Global Terrorism, Academic Scholar's Program in the People's Republic of China, Beijing Union University, 2003; visiting scholar to conduct research on Bosnia for the American Political Science Association Centennial center for Political Science and Public; and Fellow at Clarion University. In addition, he has earned several certificates from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research on Global Terrorism, International Conflict Resolution and Peacekeeping Operations, International Humanitarian Law and the Law of Armed Conflict, and has attended international conferences in France, Mexico, Norway, Brazil, Bosnia, and Russia, as well as Summer Institutes at Yale, Amherst college, and American University. He also served as a Legislative Analyst for Raymond Murphy, State Representative, Michigan House of Representatives. Besides his work in the field of political science, Dr. Newton also enjoy writing fiction, and his works as a literary artist include (The Village Poet and Collection of Writings (which includes two plays and two short stories), (The Newspaper Boy (a novel)), (Psycho-Politics in government: A Dramatic Dialogue (philosophy and political theory), The Tragic Death of Emperor Titus (a two-act play), and Oscar (a screenplay).
leonnewt@aol.com
Today's terrorists are often part of a global network of highly sophisticated, methodical, comprehensive, well funded terrorist organizations whose perversions of their faiths allow them to justify even the most heinous of acts. It stands to reason that our response must likewise be global, sophisticated, methodical, comprehensive and well funded. We have at our disposal an arsenal of the finest, most powerful weapons available to fight terrorism. Not bombs and bullets, but people: experts in diplomacy, intelligence gathering, computers, anthropology, economics, communications, crisis management, arbitration, languages, foreign relations, and dozens of other fields that can contribute to the all-important task of identifying, stopping and preventing terrorism. If there were a "right" answer to how best to deal with global terrorism, surely we would have found it by now. But just as surely, finding the solution must lie in asking the right questions.
Dr. Leon Newton is a Professor of Political Science currently teaching at Jackson State University, and has taught courses on International Politics, International Conflict Resolution, Terrorism, among others. Former Director of the Newton Institute for International Affairs and Humanitarian Policy, an independent think tank, Dr. Newton has been selected for numerous honors and prestigious roles: member, Speakers bureau for the United Nations Association and The United States Association (Southern Region); Researcher-Resident Program at the Prague Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe; lecturer on Global Terrorism, Academic Scholar's Program in the People's Republic of China, Beijing Union University, 2003;