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Understanding the roots of terrorism

Issues NATO's contribution to the fight against terrorism

A NATO workshop in Prague on 26 and 27 January provided the opportunity for a group of scholars and experts in conflict analysis and resolution to explore the complex causes of today’s security threats.

Particular attention was given to the questions of whether the role of culture and religion and its relation to political violence is adequately understood, and whether cultural and religious chauvinism add a distinct and different character to political action.

The aim of the workshop, organized in one of the Priority Areas of the Security Through Science Programme, was to identify the key issues from North American, European and Mediterranean perspectives and thus reflect the diversity of the cultural and religious dimensions of these new global threats.

Oliver McTernan of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, USA, and Pavel Bratinka of the Civic Institute, Prague, were co-directors of the workshop, which allowed scholars from the Jewish and Arab worlds to come together with European and American colleagues to investigate new ways of understanding and living with cultural and religious diversity.

The ferocity and indiscriminate nature of 9/11 and subsequent attacks in Bali, Mombassa and Riyadh alerted the world to a new form of political action with international consequences that presents a new level of threat to homeland security.

The realization that an ideologically motivated terrorism transcends national boundaries underscores the urgency to re-examine the traditional approaches to conflict analysis, resolution and prevention. It was with this sense of urgency that workshop participants undertook their deliberations. The results will be published in the NATO Science Series later in the year.

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