CIAO DATE: 08/04

Report on Working Group II: Transnational Security Issues

Jeffrey Boutwell, Jo Husbands and Sverre Lodgaard

Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

March 12-16, 2002

Working Group 2 of the 51st Pugwash Conference focused on the increasing importance of transnational security issues in a globalizing world: terrorism, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, and transnational crime, and concluded with a discussion of the dangers of unilateral military action, possibly against Iraq, under the guise of preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and combating international terrorism.

Terrorism

In the wake of the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, DC, the international community confronts a wide array of complex challenges emanating from the threats posed by terror groups willing and capable of carrying out large-scale attacks and from the global socio-economic-political conditions that facilitate the rise of such groups.

Recognizing the difficulty of formulating a precise, legal definition, the group instead considered a working concept of 'terrorism' ("politically motivated violence, generally directed against non-combatants, intended to cause shock and terror and achieve a strategic outcome") as an aid to exploring the various causes, manifestations, and acts of terrorism, as well as the appropriate response of the international community to this phenomenon.

Root causes that can give rise to terrorist attacks include socio-economic inequity, racial/ethnic/religious conflicts, global clashes of interests and values, and the psychological thrill of causing terror, death and destruction. While terrorist acts have historical antecedents dating at least to the Jewish Sicarii of Roman Palestine, there is no question that globalizing technologies have greatly increased the destructive threat posed by terror groups.

The subjective and politicized nature of terrorism is such that concepts such as legitimate/illegitimate or justified/unjustified terrorism will lie in the eye of the beholder. What the group did agree on was that, while the political aims from which terrorist attacks spring may be considered legitimate, acts of terrorism, whether carried out by individuals, groups, or states, by their very nature are illegitimate.

In the international climate spawned by September 11, of equal importance are the ways that the international community responds to terrorism. The group agreed on the importance of effective but measured responses to neutralize terror groups that neither contravene civil liberties and individual rights nor exacerbate the socio-economic-political-religious fissures that are the breeding grounds of terrorists. Pugwash itself should be especially concerned with those who are calling for a mobilization of the scientific community in the 'war on terrorism', given the potential dangers of politicizing scientific and technological research.

To be sure, there are grave and potentially catastrophic threats posed by international terrorism, especially in the use of nuclear, biological and other weapons of mass destruction. Unprecedented levels of international cooperation in the fields of intelligence, law enforcement, finance, customs, and other activities will be needed to prevent such disasters. In the end, however, the most effective strategies will be those that address and remove the root causes of global violence among and between peoples.

In discussing future roles for Pugwash in this area, specific recommendations included: more in-depth analysis of the many root causes that give rise to terrorism; exploring modes of international cooperation, especially through the United Nations, to respond to both the causes and manifestations of terrorism; how changing concepts of national sovereignty, expressed as a 'responsibility to protect', assume greater obligations on the part of states to ensure that international terror networks do not operate from their territory; and analysis of the danger that over-reactions to international terrorism are being expressed through increased defense budgets, more traditional Cold War patterns of security assistance, and infringements of domestic liberties and civil rights.

Small Arms and Light Weapons

Discussion began with a review of the evolution of the international campaign against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, highlighting the importance of the role played by those countries most affected by the violence associated with small arms, by domestic and international NGOs (including Pugwash), and ultimately by the United Nations. The complexity of small arms proliferation was noted (requiring international cooperation in such areas as intelligence, law enforcement, banking and finance, shipping and transportation, customs, and commerce), as was the nature of the small arms issue with its security and human development components, particularly regarding post-conflict reconstruction. The obvious links between proliferating small arms, transnational crime, and international terror networks were also noted.

The group also considered the special case of anti-personnel landmines, which, despite the Ottawa Convention with its more than 140 signatories, continue to be a scourge affecting innocent civilians around the world. A related issue is that of fragmentation bombs and unexploded bomblets that likewise kill and main innocent civilians.

Despite global attention to the problem of small arms and landmines, there continues to be a severe lack of resources being devoted to their control and, in the case of landmines, elimination. Examples illustrating the problem are the ECOWAS moratorium on small arms in West Africa that has failed to receive adequate material support from the Wassenaar supplier countries, and the failure to achieve universal adoption of the Ottawa Convention on landmines.

There are numerous policy and technical issues in need of further study and elaboration to which Pugwash could contribute. Examples discussed were: (1) promoting greater transparency in both the supply of and demand for small arms, especially through the creation of regional arms registers that can be tailored to the particular characteristics of weapons flows (for example, in West Africa, southern Africa, and the Horn of Africa); (2) promoting the development and dispersion of low-cost means of destroying small arms collected in the field; (3) supporting technical research into new methods of demining and ways to ensure the natural decay of fragmentation bomblets so they no longer pose a threat to civilian populations following conflict; and (4) examining new methods for the marking of weapons and ammunition in order to better follow their life-cycle flows, with an aim to facilitating international cooperation in prosecuting suppliers, arms brokers, shippers, and others who engage in the illegal trade in weapons.

Transnational Crime

International criminal organizations have utilized advances in communications, transportation, the global financial system, economic liberalization, and even democratization to become large complex organizations that in many cases rival multinational corporations. Such criminal enterprises, whether dealing in narcotics, small arms, gems, human trafficking (slaves, child labor, prostitutes), wildlife and endangered species, or natural resources such as timber, have developed a complex web of relationships with other criminal groups, subcontractors, and legal commercial companies. Noted as well were the obvious relationships between international criminal groups, small arms traffickers, and international terror groups. In many cases, all three activities may be undertaken within the same organization.

A particular problem helping to facilitate the rise and expansion of transnational crime is that of corruption, whether at the local, state or international level. The ironic fact that economic liberalization and democratization have been abused by international criminal organizations means as well that greater accountability in both spheres could do much to constrain the ease with which such organizations operate around the world.

The group acknowledged that transnational crime is not an area of expertise for Pugwash, but recommended nonetheless that the linkages that exist between international criminal organizations and small arms traffickers and terrorist groups provide a means for Pugwash work in the latter two areas to be applied to transnational crime. This is particularly true in those points of leverage provided by increased international cooperation (e.g., in intelligence, law enforcement, customs, banking, commerce, etc.) that can prove effective strategies in combatting all three threats to international stability and security.

Terrorism, WMD, and Iraq

Given uncertainties regarding what will follow the US-led operation in Afghanistan to destroy the al-Qaida network in that country and to bring down the Taliban regime that harbored al-Qaida, Working Group 2 considered it important to add an extra agenda item for discussion, focusing particularly on reports that the US will initiate military action against the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Several general principles were enumerated by participants regarding the conduct of anti-terror operations. These included the importance of providing proof of complicity in terrorist actions; of mobilizing an international coalition under UN auspices to combat such groups, especially when military action is needed; and of implementing anti-terror policies in such a way that they are proportionate to the dangers faced and do not result in excessive harmful side effects (injury to innocent civilian populations; infringements on basic civil and human rights; unnecessary increases in defense budgets and security assistance, etc.).

In the particular case of Iraq, fears were expressed that the US intends to deal with the problem of Saddam Hussein and Iraqi efforts to acquire nuclear, biological, and/or chemical weapons under the guise of the broader anti-terror campaign. It was readily acknowledged that military action against Iraq could have severe consequences, not only for the people of that and neighboring countries, but for Arab-Israeli relations, Middle East stability, US relations with its allies and with Russia and China, and for global non-proliferation efforts.

In addition to desiring an end to the repressive regime of Saddam Hussein, sentiments were expressed supporting the need for achieving Iraqi compliance with UN ceasefire resolutions and of ensuring the timely return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq. But other means short of military conflict, especially military action lacking UN authorization, must be found to achieve these aims.

One alternative discussed was that of 'enhanced containment,' with the strengthening of border controls around Iraq to prevent the entry of conventional weapons or WMD weapons components or technologies. A strengthening of military sanctions coupled with an easing of sanctions on civilian goods could be pursued in tandem with increased international pressure on Saddam Hussein to allow a resumption of UN weapons inspections.

It also needs to be made clear to the international community that the sanctions against Iraq, while much criticized for various reasons, have been effective in severely limiting Iraq's conventional military capabilities and in its attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

In conclusion, there was general sentiment in the group that Pugwash should issue a statement pointing out the dangers of unilateral military action against Iraq and of the US using concerns over WMD proliferation as a pretext for regime change in Iraq. What is needed now is a sober assessment of global security challenges in the post-September 11 environment that produces policies commensurate with the challenges and avoids excessive reactions that ultimately lead only to greater insecurity and conflict in the international system.