Joseph S. Nye, Jr., a former US assistant secretary of defense and chairman of the US National Intelligence Council, has some sensible comments:
Terrorism is a form of theater. Terrorists are more interested in capturing attention and putting their issue at the forefront of the agenda than in the number of deaths they cause per se.
Terrorism is not the biggest threat facing people in advanced countries. It kills far fewer people than auto accidents or cigarettes. One is likelier to be struck by lightning than to be killed by a terrorist.
Global terrorism is not new. It often takes a generation for a wave of terrorism to burn out.
Terrorism is like jiu jitsu. The smaller actor uses the larger actor’s strength to defeat it.
Nye concludes:Smart power is needed to defeat terrorism. Smart power is the ability to combine hard military and police power and the soft power of attraction and persuasion. That is why attention to narrative and how US actions play on social media is as important and as necessary as precision air strikes
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