Use of Diplomacy Against Islamic Terrorism

Amongst the international community in the fight against terrorism, there are a number of different ideas and strategies about the best way to counter terrorism. These counterterrorism strategies and ideas range from military force in a theatre of war, such as in Afghanistan, to other methods such as diplomacy, nation building, intelligence sharing and the use of law enforcement. However, there is no one perfect counterterrorism option, instead a grand strategy combining parts of all of these separate strategies must be used (Lutz & Lutz 2004, p239). This combination of different counterterrorism strategies must also be tailored to suit the particular terrorist threat that is being fought and the country that it is being fought in. There is particular debate over the best strategy to counter the popularity and recruitment of terrorist groups in Muslim countries. The current strategy of military intervention, as used in Afghanistan an Iraq, may actually be doing more harm then good, and it is argued that a policy of diplomacy should be used instead (Pape 2010).
The military intervention in Afghanistan, and later Iraq, as part of the Western worlds war on terror, has raised a number of contentious issues regarding the best way to combat terrorism in a foreign, Islamic country. The military campaign has been deemed a success by the USA and its allies, having removed both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein from power, and in Afghanistan having removed the political and geographical space needed for al Qaeda to operate effectively. Even though these military objectives have been met, it is still unclear what future ramifications they will have. Since the beginning of military operations in these two countries, there have been considerably more terrorist attacks on both Western forces and other Muslims throughout the middle east (Pape 2010). Military attacks, especially those that hit stray targets, include innocent civilians as part of their collateral damage, or stray

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