Book Description

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: Politics has always been committed to fighting terrorism by using deterrence: Terrorists are best dissuaded from attacking through the threat of heavy sanctions and by using police and military forces to fight them. The reaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 is a striking example. The American president first declared a crusade against terrorists. This crusade was, after some thinking, changed to a War against Terrorism . This war has been widely supported by a great many democratic as well as authoritarian countries. This war on terrorism is completely based on deterrence: Actual and prospective terrorists must be annihilated by killing them without any further ado, or they must, at least, be captured, held prisoner, or (perhaps) put on trial and sentenced to long or indefinite periods of time. It is expected that such harsh treatments impose such high expected costs on prospective terrorists that no individual will engage in terrorist activities in the future. History, as well as recent experience suggests, however, that using deterrence in dealing with terrorism is ineffective and may even be counterproductive. The number of terrorist acts may well increase, rather than decrease. A policy based on deterrence also has a second disadvantage. It threatens civil and human rights in the countries engaged in fighting terrorism. Deterrence policy thus tends to undermine exactly those values it claims to protect. Even if deterrence were effective (which it is not) the world may end up significantly less democratic than before it was engaged in the war against terrorism. Many people share these concerns but they do not see any alternative to deterrence. This contribution suggests that such alternatives indeed exists and are viable and that they are applicable both at the level of society as well as in businesses. Two strategies are proposed here to deal with terrorism: 1. Decentralisation. A system with many different centres is more stable due to its diversity, enabling any one part to substitute for the other. When one part of the system is negatively affected, one or several other parts may take over. A country that is the prospective target of terrorist attacks can reduce its vulnerability by implementing various forms of decentralisation: (1) The economy, by relying on the market as the major form of decentralised resource allocation. It refers to both decision-making as well as over space; [...]