Opinion
Defeating the Taleban may be the first major step in crushing the Al Qaeda organization, but the USA’s broader concern is to formulate a new security dogma which will be able to deal with asymmetric threats. Even if Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network is dismantled, fundamentalism will continue to pose the threat of terrorism, for, apart from political opposition to the USA, there is also a deeply rooted anti-American bias, and a religious and political hostility to the Western model. The attacks on the USA consolidated the view that security is a broad concept that needs to be redefined. Until that day, terrorism was a somewhat marginal threat… The consequences of the strike at the heart of the empire are far-reaching. Asymmetric warfare has resulted in instability and insecurity invading the core of the international system, the USA, from the various hot spots on the periphery. The threat is no longer as clear as it was before September 11. In essence, the terrorist assault transformed – at least temporarily – the way Washington perceives these issues. The traditional approach, which emphasized threats to hegemonic interests from potential rivals such as a restructured Russia and an emerging China, has taken a back seat because of the need to assemble the global anti-terrorist alliance… Of course, it would be premature to say that the traditional geopolitical interpretation of the global balance of power and the corresponding hegemonic policies are history… Even if we adopt an optimistic interpretation of the changes, it could not apply to the typical phenomenon whereby new ministers tend to change the heads of the organizations and the corporations they are in charge of en masse, regardless of their skills.
