St. Andrews Students
Study
Terrorism and Political Violence
By Chris Pang
The
events of September 11th changed the way the world viewed terrorism.
In one sense, the attacks have led to a growing public interest in terrorism as
a political phenomenon. Yet at the same time, 9/11 instantly brought the issue
of terrorism to the forefront of many nations’ foreign policy
agendas—particularly that of the United States. Thus in the last few years, the world has not only
seen significant global efforts to combat terrorism, but also an increasing
importance of terrorism-related think tanks.
Here
in St. Andrews, Scotland, one such think tank continues to make its mark in the world. By
helping to broaden our understanding of terrorism through in-depth research and
open-source analysis, the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political
Violence (CSTPV) continues to break new ground in the study of terrorism
and political violence. Established in 1994 and based at the University of St. Andrews Department of International Relations, the
CSTPV was founded by Dr. Bruce Hoffman, renowned scholar on terrorism who is
currently with the RAND Institute in the United States. The essential aims of the Centre are the following: to investigate
the roots of political violence, to develop a body of theory spanning its
various disparate elements, and to study the impact of violence, and responses
to it, at societal, governmental, and international levels. The Centre achieves
these goals through a wide-ranging and intensive research programme with
several projects headed by different staff members. Many of the staff are also
lecturers in the Department of International Relations, and include, Prof. Paul Wilkinson
(Chairperson), Dr. Magnus Ranstorp (Director), Dr. Oliver Richmond (Senior
Research Associate), and Dr, Rohan Gunaratna (Research Fellow).
While
the staff’s core research is at the heart of the CSTPV’s
work, a great deal of the Centre’s output is in fact done by students currently
studying here at the University of St. Andrews. The CSTPV is home to one of the world’s most sophisticated
databases which monitor incidents of political violence and terrorist activity
around the world. The CSTPV Database Project, headed by Senior Honours
IR Jonathan Ross-Harrington, is an ambitious project created as a tool to
assist in the study of terrorism for both the CSTPV staff, and for officials
and academics around the world. The Database is made-up of over 30
undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Department of International
Relations who serve as Academic Analysts throughout the year. As Academic
Analysts, students are responsible for monitoring all incidents of violence and
terrorist activity that occur worldwide as a way of identifying major trends
and developments in that field. The Database staff is
divided into seven different Regional Teams: North America and Oceania, Latin America, Europe, the Former Soviet
Union, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Basically, each team is responsible for following events in their
respective region through open-source research (mostly through the internet),
and are expected to detail trends and developments observed during that time.
The analysis that each team produces is presented in the form of “briefings”
which take place on a bi-weekly basis, and on occasion, attract a range of
media and government officials.
As
one of the six members of the Middle-East Regional Team, I have been responsible
for following events of violence and terrorism throughout the year in the Gulf
States of Yemen and Saudi
Arabia. Last
December, I had the opportunity of presenting a briefing to the Centre on the
situation in Yemen. The briefing basically described the changing nature of the US-led
War on Terrorism following the end of the war in Afghanistan.
In
November 2002, geopolitical events in the region had reached a climax when
US-Yemeni cooperation in the war against terror was made public. In that month,
the United States launched a missile attack from a CIA-operated aircraft killing six
suspected al-Qaeda members within Yemeni territory. In the months leading up,
the United States and Yemeni government had been working closely together to root-out
al-Qaeda operatives who they believed had fled to the region following the
collapse of the Taliban government in Afghanistan. The event was therefore significant in that the attacks revealed,
for certain, the US’ determination to move beyond Afghanistan and “go-global” with its war on terror.
Briefings
of this kind reflect much of the work done by students here at the Centre.
However, as analysts working for the Database, we are expected to produce more
than just a chronological account of events in our respective regions. Most
important of all are that briefings provide in-depth analysis, emphasizing the
wider implications of the events on the region as a whole. Furthermore, as
analysts, we are encouraged to give our own personal assessments of the events and
provide future trends and long-term predictions for the region. Of course,
while we can never be 100% accurate in our predictions, this kind of work has
nonetheless made the CSTPV Database an attractive source of information and
intelligence for both government officials and academics from around the world.
The CSTPV continues to work closely with the U.K.
government as well as several businesses that it assists in monitoring trends
in terrorism. As Dr. Ranstorp, Director of the Centre points-out, “ninety-percent
of all intelligence is open-source data—information often readily available on
the internet. However, the ability to distinguish fact from fiction remains the
greatest challenge to effective intelligence gathering.”
Today,
the Database continues to distinguish itself from other databases in the world.
Unlike others focussed almost entirely on international incidents of terrorism,
the CSTPV Database breaks new ground by covering domestic terrorism and
guerrilla activity, as well as international terrorist incidents. The vast
amount of information within the CSTPV Database is among three such databases
of its kind—the others being the RAND Institute and the United Nations
Terrorism Research Unit.
On
Thursday May 2nd, the Centre held its final meeting of the academic
year with briefings from the Latin American and Asian Regional Desks. The
gathering marked the end of a successful and productive year for the Database
Project. Throughout the last eight months, over 30 briefings were given,
highlighting major incidents of violence and terrorist activity from around the
world. Notable were briefings on situations that arose in Columbia, Indonesia,
the Balkans, Russia, Kenya, the Soloman Islands, Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Looking
back on my year in St. Andrews, my experience with the CSTPV has definitely been among the most
rewarding and enjoyable. The CSTPV has taught me a great deal about effective
research and analytical skills—especially critical analysis of news reports.
But above all, working for the Centre has brought me closer with a great group
of people who definitely made the experience what it was. The group atmosphere
throughout the year was positive and closely-knit—especially within my own
regional group where we met regularly for discussion. Thus, as the second
semester comes to an end, we at the CSTPV look back on a year of fond memories
and interesting stories, while having made a valuable contribution to the
worldwide study of terrorism and political violence.
*If
you wish to know more about the CSTPV, please visit our website at:
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/academic/intrel/research/cstpv/
Pictures:
courtesy of Chris Pang.
St. Salvator's
Quad, University of St. Andrews:
Home of the Department of
International Relations and
the
Centre for the Study of Terrorism and
Political
Violence.
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