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A leaked MI-5 report says that the majority of Islamic terrorists are “religious novices”, do not practice their faith regularly and do not fit the typical “loner immigrant” stereotype. I think this shows we still lack a real understanding of what motivates things like suicide bombers - ie. it’s not just poverty/oppression/loneliness.
This is quite an interesting article on the work of Mike India in Rwanda and the Congo. He runs a radio program that regularly gets calls/sms from rebel groups trying to win them over and help reconstruct his country.
The world is a crazy place. Mia Farrow is now talking about collaborating with Blackwater about peace-keeping missions in Darfur. It’s not all crazy though, some people say Blackwater, unhampered by political problems facing governments, could provide a valuable training role for the UN/AU peacekeeping mission. I have my doubts.
This video of Thomas Barnet from TED is an interesting watch. It’s good to hear/see innovative views on structuring the military, and I think it’s true some specialisation may be in order - soldiers aren’t the best people to be doing development. However, I was a bit confused by his throwaway line that the traditional soldier in the military department could never, ever be covered by ICC jurisdiction. Not sure what his rationale is there. If the soldiers are fighting wars why wouldn’t we want them bound by international criminal law?
Anti-terrorism has given rise to some interesting companies. Including Terrogence a private Israeli company that infiltrates terrorist groups to obtain intelligence on terrorist groups. They can then sell this information to governments and other companies. It sounds like a dangerous line of work, especially balancing the fine line between the legal and illegal.
