Carrots or Sticks? A Commentary on Military Force as an Effective Response in Counter-Terrorism

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue VIII, August 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Carrots or Sticks? A Commentary on Military Force as an Effective Response in Counter-Terrorism

Oko, Edidiong¹, Ufomba, Henry^2
1The Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queens University, Belfast, United Kingdom
²Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, Graduate School Esgc Erasmus, University of Freiburg, Germany

Abstract: – Terrorism in its operational sense refers to the purposive adoption of lethal violence aimed at human or non-human target with the objective of making the state or an agency of the state to act in line with the demands of the perpetrators. While there is a degree of disagreement among scholars on what terrorism itself implies there is a higher intensity in the debate on the most effective strategy for counter-terrorism. Situated within the latter front of the debate this commentary argued for the use of military force as an effective first-approach counter terrorism measure. It argued that negotiation create a sense of credibility to terrorist organization among the populace- which have a negative impact on the political capacity of the state while validating the demand of the terrorist organization. Hence military force was advised as first line of action against lethal terrorist attacks so as to reinforce the status of the state as the legitimate monopoly of the apparatus of force. Furthermore military force when successful creates collateral cost on the limited human and material resources of the terrorist organization which reduces its capability in the short and long run.

Key words: Terrorism, Counter-terrorism, military force, Boko Haram, terrorist organization, State

I. INTRODUCTION

Since the 9/11 terrorist attack on the United States there is an increase in the amount of scholarship that focuses on the concept of terrorism in its entire ramification and one of such focus is mirrored on state responses and counter-terrorist effectiveness. Fundamental to this quest is the need to understand the extent to which military force acts as an effective response to terrorism as an alternative to dialogue and negotiation.

As a concept, terrorism have been used to describe a particular distinctive kind of political violence. According to Virginia (2015), terrorism is the use of indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror among masses of people or fear to achieve a religious or political aim. For a political action to be labelled as terrorism, it has to fulfill the following requirements:

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