Review of European Security Issues
07 April 2006
Islamist 'insurgency' threatens Europe, U.S.; tolerance among Europe's Muslims; Rice visits Germany, France, U.K.; bioterror conference for Europe, Eurasia; Kosovo talks and Serb boycott; Bosnian constitution; disaster planning in Southeast Europe
Following are some recent U.S. government policy pronouncements, hearings and reports on security issues in Europe and Eurasia, as well as some noteworthy announcements by international organizations and nongovernmental organizations.
For additional coverage of the topics listed below and related issues, see Europe and Eurasia.
U.S., EUROPE MUST FIGHT ISLAMISM EXTREMISM AS AN “INSURGENCY”
Global terrorism can be compared to an insurgency of Islamist extremists who seek to topple moderate governments, senior U.S. diplomats told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 5.
Defeating these militants requires an international counter-insurgency strategy that includes close cooperation between Europe and the United States to win the “battle of ideas,” Henry Crumpton, the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, told the Senate committee’s panel on European affairs.
“Given that the overall terrorist threat resembles an insurgency,” Crumpton testified, “we must develop a counter-insurgency strategy that incorporates all the tools of government to attack the enemy, deny safe haven, and address the socio-economic and political needs of at-risk populations.”
Crumpton was accompanied by Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, who outlined steps the United States is taking to open up channels of communication between Muslim communities in Europe and the United States. (See related article.)
Fried stressed that in discussing extremism, he and Crumpton were not referring to “the vast number of Muslims living in Europe who, like most Muslims anywhere, have no radical agenda.” Violent extremists constitute “a miniscule minority,” he said.
Crumpton said a militant network based in Europe planned and carried out the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, followed by several large-scale terror attacks in Europe.
“We must fight the enemy in the arena of ideas,” Crumpton said, “ideas suffused with justice, integrity and virtue. … We need to counter the terrorist network by building alternative networks.” (See related article.)
NEARLY ALL OF EUROPE’S MUSLIM’S SEEK TOLERANCE, EXPERT SAYS
Only a tiny minority of European Muslims favors the radical militant philosophy of jihadism, which calls for the violent overthrow of moderate and secular governments, a U.S. security expert told Congress on April 5.
Mary Habeck, an associate professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, testified that only about 5 percent of Muslims in Europe believe Islam should have control over the government, a philosophy known as Islamism. And the “vast majority” of these Islamists believes in a gradual political and social process to achieve long-term goals, she said.
Fully 95 percent of Muslims in Europe “are moderate or traditional Muslims who disagree profoundly with this vision of Islam,” Habeck told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where she was asked to discuss Islamist extremism in Europe.
However, a radical minority -- known as jihadis -- has decided that “only violence will allow them to create the perfect Islamic state,” Habeck said. The jihadis are especially problematic because they believe democracy is a direct contradiction of how they interpret Islamic law, she said. They also claim that anyone who supports democracy - even those who consider themselves moderate Muslims -- can be killed without violating religious law. This mindset, Habeck said, helps explain why jihadis express little if any ethical concern if innocent Muslims are killed in terrorist attacks.
“Jihadism is a growing threat to Europe,” Habeck testified. “Jihadist leaders actively seek young disillusioned Muslims and work very hard to recruit them, winning them away from their traditional beliefs to a radicalism that promises answers to all their problems.”
Approximately 15 to 20 million Muslims live in Western Europe – representing about 5 percent of the population -- and their numbers are expected to double again in less than 20 years. Most arrived as “guest workers” or refugees to countries that frequently do not grant automatic citizenship to the children of immigrants.
Habeck’s written testimony, as well as testimony by other experts, is posted on the Web site of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
RICE IN EUROPE DEFENDS U.S. POLICIES ON TERROR, IRAQ
Delivering a major foreign policy speech while visiting Europe, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice defended the U.S. prosecution of the war on terrorism and the intervention in Iraq.
Acknowledging concern in Europe and other parts of the world that the United States has emphasized security at the expense of respect for the law and human rights, Rice said March 31 that “no one should ever doubt the U.S. commitment to justice and the rule of law.”
Speaking at a Chatham House-sponsored lecture in Blackburn, a town in northern England, Rice said the United States does not tolerate torture. "We also have no desire to be the world's jailer," she added. "We want the terrorists that we captured to stand trial for their crimes."
However, the secretary said, “we also recognize that we are fighting a new kind of war, and that our citizens will judge us harshly if we release a captured terrorist before we are absolutely certain that he does not possess information that could prevent a future attack, or even worse, if we meet that terrorist again on the battlefield.” (See related article.)
Rice also met with leaders in Germany and France and made an unannounced visit to Iraq.
EURASIAN, EUROPEAN SCIENTISTS COUNTER BIOTERRORISM THREAT
More than 50 leading scientists and biotechnology industry representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan plan to participate in the Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual conference in Chicago April 9-12. (See related article.)
This is part of the BioIndustry Initiative (BII) that grew out of the 2001 commitment between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin to pursue cooperation to counter the threat of bioterrorism. The BII, a program of the State Department’s Office of Cooperative Threat Reduction, helps support the transformation to civilian functions of former Soviet biological research and production capacities.
The BII is working with the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) in Moscow and the Science and Technology Center of Ukraine (STCU) in Kiev to support attendance of the Eurasian and European scientists at the conference, which is called BIO 2006. (See BII fact sheet).
THIRD ROUND OF KOSOVO TALKS; END TO SERB BOYCOTT URGED
A third round of negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo Albanian officials on Kosovo’s future status ended without agreement on April 3, and the next round is scheduled for April 28, the Southeast European Times reported. The talks took place in Vienna, Austria, and have focused on ways to provide greater freedom for local governments to manage their own affairs.
According to U.N. officials, Serbs continued to insist on autonomy for their municipalities and strong ties to Belgrade. The Kosovar Albanian delegation was opposed to what it viewed as a bid to create a Serb entity in the province.
Meanwhile, Kosovar Albanians, as well as international officialls, continue to urge Kosovar Serbs to end their two-year boycott of Kosovo politics. Kosovar Serb leaders claim their presence is only “decorative” and gives the incorrect impression that they play a meaningful role in governing the province.
The United States has been encouraged by the initial status talks, but U.S. diplomats also urge the two former warring parties to start discussing more difficult issues soon. (See related article.)
The first round of talks took place in February. (See related article.) The U.N.-sponsored talks could lead to either independence or autonomy for Kosovo, which is a province of Serbia-Montenegro. Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since U.S. and NATO forces drove out Yugoslav troops in 1999 following human-rights abuses. (See related article.)
U.S. WELCOMES BOSNIAN CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM AGREEMENT
The United States welcomed the March 18 constitutional reform agreement reached among the leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina's major political parties, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement March 20.
"The agreement follows months of hard work by the parties towards fulfilling their commitment to Secretary Rice made at events commemorating the Dayton Peace Accords on November 22, 2005," McCormack said. (See related article.)
On that date, Bosnian leaders met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the State Department and pledged to undertake constitutional reform and to complete their work by March 2006. Rice urged the Bosnians to modernize and strengthen the weak, divided state with its three-member presidency created by the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995. “To seize the opportunities of the 21st century,” she said, “we must now transform Dayton." (See related article.)
The new constitutional reform agreement streamlines the Bosnian presidency and creates a stronger and more effective national Council of Ministers and parliament, said McCormack. "These are significant first steps towards modernizing the structures established by the Dayton Peace Accords and towards creating a more functional state ready to take its place in Euro-Atlantic institutions," he said.
U.S. PROMOTES DISASTER PLANNING IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE
If countries talk to each other while planning for possible natural disasters, the increased cooperation also can have enormous political benefits by helping reduce long-standing cross-border tensions, a U.S. diplomat says.
“Working together to prepare for disaster can lead to working together for a better future,” U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Ralph Frank told a regional conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The Southeast Europe Disaster Preparedness Conference took place March 20-24. (See related article.)
Participating countries included Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovenia and Turkey. Southeast Europe is an active earthquake region, and many of the countries attending the conference have suffered severe earthquakes in recent decades. (See related article.)
The United States can make a contribution to the region by offering a “cross-border perspective,” Frank said on the opening day of the conference, which was co-sponsored by the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies and the European Union’s Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. (See Marshall Center Web site.)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
