Wars, internal conflicts cater fertile ground for terrorist orgs. settlement

Shaimaa Hefzy

Wars and internal conflicts serve as a fertile environment for terrorist groups to spread and recruit fighters, threatening global peace and security.

The jihadist movement, through its various embodiments, starting from Al Qaeda [1988] until Daesh that followed it 24 years later, showed significant flexibility throughout the twists and turns of the last two decades.

Jahidist groups took advantage of civil conflicts by allying with the local rebels who may be attracted as much to the terrorists’ resources as they are to their religious principles. In addition, some local groups tend to turn violent when jihadists enter the scene.

Martha Crenshaw, a terrorism expert at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, wrote in an article in the Foreign Policy last month that al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb managed to co-opt or join forces with Mali’s Tuareg rebels, ethnic separatists with a long history of resisting the authority of the weak Malian government.

“The coalition was on the brink of bringing down the regime when French forces came to the rescue. They saved the Malian state but pushed violence over its borders. Now, the conflict has spread across the Sahel to Chad, the Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, and Niger.”

Crenshaw added that in hybrid conflicts like these, where transnational terrorists have embedded among local rebels with legitimate grievances, it is impossible to distinguish counterterrorism from counterinsurgency or to separate either strategy from the formidable task of state-building.

The Islamic State still has something like 30,000 fighters in Iraq, according to Crenshaw. But its most enduring contribution to the jihadi cause may well be its declaration of the caliphate, however ill-fated, because it inspired terrorism and drew in foreign fighters around the globe.

“Now, although the rebel cause is in sharp decline in Syria, jihadis are still major players. Affiliated groups have strong presences in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Tunisia, Somalia, and Yemen, among others,” Crenshaw added.

The increase in terrorist operations reduces the Global Peace Index, which measures the state of peace using three thematic domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarisation. The results of the 2018 GPI find that the global level of peace has deteriorated by 0.27% in the last year, marking the fourth successive year of deteriorations.

According to the 2018 Global Peace Index, 92 countries deteriorated, while 71 countries improved; Syria remains the least peaceful country in the world, a position it has held for the past five years. Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq and Somalia comprise the remaining least peaceful countries. Moreover, Europe, the world’s most peaceful region, recorded a deterioration for the third straight year.