Friday, July 15, 2005

Being tough on terrorism or respecting human rights: a false dilemma of authoritarian and liberal responses

Müllerson, Rein
American Behavioral Scientist. Vol. 48, issue 12. pp. 1626-1656
"Today the world has become too small to remain too different - liberal-democratic and authoritarian-totalitarian, rich and poor, healthy and mired in epidemics. Such variations also constitute a fertile ground for terrorism. The concepts of East and West, South and North have all emerged as Homo sapiens, starting from an African village, spread throughout the world. Today we are creating the global village of planet Earth. In this village, differences acquired during the millennia of separation and isolation not only enrich humankind but some also can serve as a cause, a catalyst, or a pretext for conflicts, including terrorism. Having dissimilated for millennia, humankind is slowly and often reluctantly assimilating. However, sustainable integration, whether economic or political, is not possible without some kind of assimilation taking place (ie. integrating entities becoming in some respect similar to each other)." (Full text available from CSA.)