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they think like theater producers.
Because we intuitively understand that terrorism is theater, we judge it by its emotional rather than material impact.
We are the only ones who can defeat ourselves, if we overreact in a misguided way to their provocations.
To achieve their aim, they present the state with an impossible challenge of its own: to prove that it can protect all of its citizens from political violence, anywhere, anytime.
And once in a while the political storm created by counterterrorist campaigns does benefit the terrorists.
How? Why?
the legitimacy of the modern state is based on its promise to keep the public sphere free of political violence.
modern Western states have gradually established their legitimacy on the explicit promise to tolerate no political violence within their borders.
People quickly got used to this and now consider it their natural right. Consequently, sporadic acts of political violence that kill a few dozen people are seen as a deadly threat to the legitimacy and even survival of the state.
In order to assuage these fears, the state is driven to respond to the theater of terror with its own theater of security.
governments should focus on clandestine actions against the terrorist networks.
the media should keep things in perspective and avoid hysteria.
The third front is the imagination of each and every one of us.
if terrorists acquire weapons of mass destruction, the nature not just of terrorism but of state and global politics will change dramatically.
future nuclear terrorism, cyberterrorism, or bioterrorism would pose a much more serious threat and would demand a far more drastic reaction from governments.
they need to balance the fear of nuclear terrorism against other threatening scenarios.
while we must surely prevent nuclear terrorism, this cannot be the number one item on humanity’s agenda.
Never Underestimate Human Stupidity
Yet since the global financial crisis of 2008 the international situation is rapidly deteriorating, warmongering is back in vogue, and military expenditures are ballooning.
in 2018 successful wars seem to be an endangered species.
all the major powers owed their status to successful wars.
bargain of the millennium.
The Iranians finance and arm local movements from Iraq to Yemen
Israel seems to understand that in the twenty-first century the most successful strategy is to sit on the fence and let others do the fighting for you.
To realize the limitations of the Russian policy,
He seems to know better than anyone else that military power cannot go far in the twenty-first century, and that waging a successful war means waging a limited war.
