Georgetown U. professor calls for new anti-terror strategy

Criticizing the Bush administration's lack of a holistic foreign policy, Georgetown University's John Voll spoke on "Fighting Terrorism Effectively: Networks and Netwars" Wednesday evening. Voll is a professor of Islamic history and the associate director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

Voll's speech explained the differences between terrorist organizations now, during the 1990s, and during the Cold War. While he did not propose a definitive new strategy for fighting terrorism, Voll did outline certain aspects that must be part of a successful grand strategy.

The current American war on terrorism is failing against the expectations of the American public, Voll said. "Why, since billions and billions of American tax payer dollars are being spent, does it seem like we're losing?" Voll asked. He then said that according to CIA reports, al Qaeda may be twice as strong now as on Sept. 11, 2001. "We haven't made much progress on winning the war on terrorism," he said.

Voll gave two specific reasons for the failure of American policy. First, the US is ignoring "the general religionization of many of the conflicts," Voll said. "Fighting terrorism effectively requires recognizing it for what it is _ a religionized conflict."

Secondly, Voll said, "we are fighting the terrorist organizations like they are old-fashioned communist parties." According to Voll, modern terrorist organizations are not organized by a vertical hierarchy, but rather by a horizontal structure.

"[During the Cold War] revolutionary, radical, small groups tended to be structured around specific individuals...and you could get rid of the organization if you got rid of that person," he said.

The Israeli approach to Hamas is one example of the outdated method, Voll said. The targeted assassinations of Hamas leaders have "done nothing to Hamas as a horizontally structured organization," Voll said.

Voll outlined the five binding aspects of modern terrorist organizations: the organizational level, the narrative level, the doctrinal level, the technological level, and the social level.

The most important of the five, Voll said, is the narrative level _ "the story that is being told" _ and any successful battle against terrorism must recognize this point. The narrative level consists also of how an organization is portrayed and the image they are presenting to others.

It is on the narrative level that terrorist recruitment efforts focus the most. Al Qaeda videos stress that "the raw power of the world's only superpower is out to get Muslims," Voll said. The inherent message, then, is "join us _ if you don't like getting beaten up, join us."

"People do not by choice choose to blow themselves up," Voll said. It is more a reaction to indoctrination by either of the parties.

The narrative presented by the US must promote the virtues of Americanism _ such as free markets and civil liberties, Voll said. The question the US should be spreading, according to Voll, is "do you want to blow yourself up with this dynamite or do you want a nice house with a swimming pool?"

The American education system is another virtue that must be included in this narrative. "The biggest weapon in our narrative is our access to knowledge and information," Voll said. "Education is universally desired."

"The narrative, itself, has to be global," Voll said. "It has to be multi-national, and it has to be inclusive rather than exclusive."

Voll harshly criticized the opinions of many policy makers and pundits that terrorists hate the US because of its freedom. "That is one of the dumbest analyses I've seen," he said. Voll reasons that the hatred exists because "we are afraid to and unwilling to export [freedom]."

"The US has not been willing to take the risk of democracy anywhere outside of the US and Western Europe," Voll said.

The lecture _ the second in a series sponsored by the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, the International Relations program, and the Middle Eastern Studies major _ was attended by approximately 50 students and professors from Tufts as well as the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.