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Topic A:Arms Proliferation to Terrorist Organisations LIMUN HS 2017 25TH – 26TH NOVEMBER 2017 DISEC CONTENTS Introduction to the Chairs ....................................................................... 2 Introduction to the Committee ................................................................ 3 Topic A: Arms Proliferation to Terrorist Organisations ......................... 4 Introduction ................................................................................................... 4 History ........................................................................................................... 4 Discussion ...................................................................................................... 8 A Threat Analysis .............................................................................................................. 8 Compliance with Resolution 1540 ................................................................................... 10 Installing and funding support programmes ...................................................................11 Evolving threats ............................................................................................................... 12 Bloc Positions ............................................................................................... 12 Points a Resolution Must Address ................................................................ 14 Further Reading ........................................................................................... 14 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE CHAIRS Dear Delegates, Chris and I will have the pleasure to serve as your Chairs for the Disarmament and International Security Committee at LIMUN-HS. We will debate the issue of weapon proliferation to terrorist organisations. With the recent attacks throughout Europe, the Islamic State has become a prominent threat to the world. Therefore, we believe the implications of Islamic terror organisations acquiring more weapons needs to be explored. One of the tenants of the debate will be centred around weapons of mass destruction. This could potentially be a very dangerous situation, leading the world to jeopardy. We expect from delegates to read this study guide carefully and use the bibliography for their research. Reading the study guide gives you a first approach to the topics, as well as guides you towards the issues that need to be tackled during the debate. We hope to see productive debating which will lead to thorough and constructive resolutions. On that note, we look forward to seeing you all during the conference and feel free to contact us if you have any questions or inquiries. Kind regards, Camille Bigot, Director [email protected] Chris Trenk, Assistant Director [email protected] 2 INTRODUCTION TO THE COMMITTEE The Disarmament and International Security Committee or DISEC is the first committee of the General Assembly which tackles issues related to disarmament and security threatening international peace. It abides to the United Nations Charter in order to promote cooperation in dealing with matters of international security such as controlling armaments and disarmament in order to provide stability. It often works with the United Nations Disarmament Commission and works with the Conference on Disarmament based in Geneva, Switzerland. The General Assembly was built under Chapter IV of the Charter and consists of six specialized committees dealing with a plethora of different areas: ❖ First Committee (Disarmament and International Security Committee): security related issues ❖ Second Committee (Economic and Financial Committee): economic issues ❖ Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee): humanitarian and social issues, as well as culturally related matters ❖ Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization Committee): political matters and was useful during decolonization and the creation of new states ❖ Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary Committee): administrative committee dealing with budget ❖ Sixth Committee (Legal Committee): legal issues The First Committee meets every year for 4 to 5 weeks in October in order to debate security related matters. All 193 member states of the United Nations are members of DISEC and may attend these sessions through state delegations. 3 TOPIC A: ARMS PROLIFERATION TO TERRORIST ORGANISATIONS INTRODUCTION Since 9/11, a general misconception of terrorism associated to religious extremism has been propagated in media narratives throughout the world. Terrorism is however a complex and multi-faceted mode of violence which has become an increasing important issue in our contemporary societies. The relationship between globalization and terrorism is also difficult to define. Kiras states that ‘it is inaccurate to suggest that globalization is responsible for terrorism, but technologies associated with globalization have been exploited by terrorists’1. Terrorism is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, it was born in France under the Terror Regime by Robespierre. Before 1968, terrorists however remained localised. Transnational terrorism grew with the rise of technology and media. In this chapter, we aim to associate the threat of terrorism with new technology. Globalization may indeed allow terrorist groups to acquire, manufacture and use weapons of mass destruction in order to conduct catastrophic attacks. HISTORY Defining Terrorism The definitional discourse of terrorism is for one problematic. Indeed, post-modernist academics state that it is subjective as according to the popular expression ‘one man’s terrorist, is another man’s freedom fighter’. It however has often been negatively portrayed in Western media with a vilification of terrorist groups. Paul Wilkinson defines terrorism as an ‘activity or weapon which has been used by an enormous of non-state actors, regimes and governments’ (2011). There is an overall consensus in the discipline of International Relations that terrorism relies on violence or the threat of violence. However, this particularity of terrorism remains ambiguous with the emergence of cyberterrorism which could not be defined as violent. Terrorism is therefore about communication; meaning it is not violence for the sake of it but violence to promote a political message. Symbolic targets are therefore often used in terror attacks for emphasis such as the World Trade Centre representative of the United States economic power. Overall, a universal definition of terrorism does not exist with a lack of a United Nations General Assembly terminological explanation. However, national definitions have been elaborated for example in the UK Terrorism Act. The absence of an international agreement upon the meaning of terrorism proves to be problematic when tackling the issue on a global scale. 1 Kiras J. D. (2011) Terrorism and Globalization in J. Baylis et al., The Globalization of World Politcs, 5th ed., Oxford University Press. p. 397. 4 Misconceptions of terrorism are common, especially with its association to contemporary criminal groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Documented cases of terrorism go back the 1st century after Christ; it is not specific to Islamism. In the realm of war fighting, terrorism is a tactic. It is the means to achieve an end which determine terrorism, and not the end itself. The actions of terrorist are often explained in media as representative of psychological madness of the people carrying them. Louise Richardson refutes this statement explaining the rational approach to violence within terrorism (2007). Suicide attacks are for instance an economical and effective way to engage in mass killings from an organizational perspective. Furthermore, terrorists may be coined immoral but they are amoral actors justifying violence through the belief in a cause. Al-Qaeda for example explained its targeting and killing of Westerns as a quid-pro-quo act for the killings by Western soldiers in the Middle-East in the promotion of their interventionist agenda post-9/11. Bin Laden added that terrorizing oppressors was justifiable but not terrifying the innocent; linking back to a justifiable sense of morality and rationality in the thought process of terrorism. Causes of Terrorism There is not a single explanation for terrorism. Firstly, there are many kinds of terrorism: religious, political, separatist, apocalyptic, environmental and economic. Terrorism cannot be explained simply in terms of alienation or poverty, but they are both risk factors that are likely to increase the threat of terrorism. For a terror group to emerge there must be the creation of a life-minded group of disaffected individuals often resulting of relative depravation in a comparative lens to others. Furthermore, an enabling or complicit community allow for a terrorist group to last, often through the legitimization of an ideology or cause. Martha Crenshaw gives the example of a lack of opportunity for political representation explaining the emergence of political or separatist groups such as those in Myanmar2. She further adds that impatience is often a cause of terrorism with a historical moment presenting a unique momentum. Going beyond the group mentality, individual motivation is also an important component of terrorism. Lone wolf terrorism is for instance hard to predict and have various causes. This is the case of violent shootings in the United States that are often labelled acts of lone wolf terrorism. In an organization, leaders of terrorist groups are often educated and older, whereas the terror agents at the bottom of the
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