The Connection between Historic Imperialism and Ethnic Strife - Essay Example

Criminal justice RUNNING HEAD: CRIMINAL JUSTICE CRIMINAL JUSTICE & Affiliated head (university etc) Criminal justice 2 ABSTRACT As an account to the shaking history of humanitarian catastrophes as well as undoubtedly horrifying awakening to the 20th century in the face of the events leading to World's FIRST WORDL WAR and the events following it, this article will look into the region most recently in headlines for its problems coming undisturbed straight from the time of start of the century, the BALKANS. The rest of the article also discusses the phenomenon that has now deeply rooted itself in the labyrinths of our minds as an everlasting memory which is being refreshed time and again by the terrorists. We will also look into the impact of the fall of soviet unionand its effect on global terrorism. Criminal justice 3 IN SOME DEPTH, DESCRIBE THE CONNECTION BETWEEN HISTORIC IMPERIALISM AND ETHNIC STRIFE AND TERRORIST ACTIVITIES IN THE BALKANS. Balkans is the transit of civilization. It is seen as a connection between three great cultures, the Asian, European and the African culture. And when we have such a strategic and delicate place to be living in, there are bound to be some rifts and discontent among the people who don't recognize themselves with respect to the region of their birth. Anything can happen right from local interests up to the global interests fighting for the domination over the whole area. And whenever we have wars resulting from the rift, we have political fragmentation and making more states. The initial ottoman empire that was thrown out of the power by the mutual wars that the surrounding countries exercised upon it could not stand up from there and was thrown out along with its rich and ancient culture (along with its historical domination with respect to culture, people and the heir). The ottoman empire left a huge gap in exercising the power and of course everybody else in terms of nations, culture jumping at the opportunity to grab that power which was left alone. Balkanization is a recurring term that is used mostly without respect of differences i.e. it now means turmoil despotism and confusion (actually it is a vindication of any foreign invasion). Separation , cruelty and hatred between small ethnic groups developed end of 18th and 19th century because that was the time when the European power: the balance between Russian and Turkish powers was very important and the small Balkan nation demanding its own authority was not given a thought and expectations from Europe to decide upon some conclusion was depressing. The Balkan word is of Turkish origin meaning rocky mountains and this area consists of five states namely Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania. The geographical condition Criminal justice 4 of Balkans divides the east from the west Europe. The Balkans is under equipped in terms of communication it is cut off from Adriatic coast, lacks fertile land and the people of the area are separated and there is a tendency towards social isolation and further complimented by divergent temperatures. The Balkan region is primarily dependent on agriculture and the industrialization is on a very small scale, and there is a scarce rainfall and larger density of population lives on cultivable land, which is very less. There is wide variety of languages, religions and races that contribute to political divisions and social schisms and historical events have resulted in perpetual minority problems. Due to this varied pedigree of people there was tension and rivalry among them but even after the balkan wars of 1912-1913, the concluding WWI peace treaties around 6 million people were under the permanent ethnic minority groups and these were the sources of tension and rivalries. Poor economic conditions have usually led to political instability, power politics and dictatorial regimes.[1] TERRORISM IN BALKANS Terrorism and the Balkan state has a long history together, the Islamic fundamentalist muslims eyed the area as a potential for terrorist base and a recruitment platform for its unholy activities.[2] the main part of the story was written in times of disintegration of soviet union because then was the time of mushrooming up of many states which were naively leaded into the world. Al qaida has been reportedly functioning from those areas with the help of rich businessmen and the jihadis with anger stacked deep down in them from a long time of destruction and the hatred that existed initially in the Balkan region because of regional rifts between people separated by language, religion and colour. Criminal justice 5 MAKE A CASE FOR A LINK BETWEEN HUMAN-RIGHTS ABUSES IN THE NATIONS OF THE PERSIAN GULF AND ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALIST-INSPIRED TERRORIST ATTACKS AGAINST U.S. INTERESTS. A notorious regime rises from the rubble of Afghanistan after years of fighting against US. Taliban, the word is synonymous with terrorism and Afghanistan. And with the name of Afghanistan on the lips all the memories come to front of how the "ally" game was played in the middle east. In 1973, king Zahir shah rules the country in dreams of prosperity. But over the next 6 years, massive political upheaval causes the king to go into exile and then after number of rulers coming and going until soviet union came into Afghanistan (because of its inner turmoil). In 1979, soviet leaders are ceased with cold war paranoia the Kremlin fears that US can use this afghan land to place missiles aimed at the Soviet Union home land. .Hence the soviets moved to take control over afghan land to ensure their domination against US. However, eyeing the capability of afghan people to fight the oppressions on them, US decided to supply arms and money in order for Afghans to fight soviets, hence causing more destruction. The afghan was getting new recruits too against the increasing number of soviet deployments. And among them was one recruit who came to fight the jihad war., Osama bin laden, and it was the start of a dream called AL QAIDA. And due to these wars one third of the population was made homeless and diseases poor economic state and the wars complimented the numbers. And eyeing such a movement of population from afghan toward Pakistan, a number of MADRASSA were opened to educate the children moved because of the war. The actual motive of these madrassas (as it came out after all during the war in Afghanistan) was to fill hatred and a motive of taking revenge from the western nations for what the people there have gone through. These madrassas provided Criminal justice 6 training in every brutal assault necessary to take down the trained army of the west nations. After the victory of mujahideens in the war, osama returned to his home town to rally Islamic militants through out the world in jihad motivation. after The afghan people were surprised to see the US shut mouthed when a civil war was going on in their land (after the war with soviets), the same US who helped them with ever increasing money and high tech arms to fight Soviets. This act of US triggered a hatred feeling in the hearts of people and Osama took profit of this feeling to stage his rally at a still higher level. Calling upon all the muslims around the world to join the fight against US. The rest is just the detail and the whole world knows what the osama bin ladens al qaida did with US interests specially the September 11 attack on world trade center after which US in shear revenge devastated more of the afghan by air and land strikes. Killikng more innocent people amist the global criticism of the event. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXPLAIN HOW THE COLLAPSE OF THE SOVIET UNION CONTRIBUTED TO TERRORIST ACTIVITIES AND TO THE THREAT OF TERRORISM GLOBALLY. We will consider the situation at two places during the fall of Soviet Union, one is inside the soviet union and the other outside it but under its sphere of influence. The victory of communism in 1945 assured the Soviet Union's domination of Eastern Europe during the Cold War and for more than 40 years, but the international Communist movement was anything but united. Tito's Yugoslavia refused to be part of the Communist bloc in 1948. Instead, it embarked on a more flexible Communist experiment, with firmer links with the West and less rigid economic controls. In 1958 Soviet Union relations with Communist China deteriorated sharply at the moment when Mao launched the Great Leap Forward to modernize the Chinese economy. By 1960 Criminal justice 7 there was an open rupture between the two powers. Albania and a number of Communist movements in the developing world followed Mao's lead, and the Communist world divided between allegiance to either Moscow or Beijing. When in 1989 Gorbachev prompted the other Communist regimes to accept change, there was widespread upheaval. A non- Communist regime emerged in Poland in August 1989, and over the following four months every Soviet bloc regime collapsed. That fall the Berlin Wall was breached, and in 1990 the divided halves of Germany were united again in a single state. In 1990 the Soviet Union itself began to crumble as the separate republics demanded independence, and in 1991 the Union was scrapped. The Communist parties were at least nominally dissolved and parliamentary systems were adopted throughout the former Soviet bloc, bringing to an end a long era of European dictatorships. And as we all know whne the milk vessel is left open, its very difficult to control the cats. Hence, the Islamic fundamentalists feasted upon the lack of proper governance and unaccountable resources. The terrorist framework working in the Balkan area was trained for deployement all over the world. However, the defeat of soviet union and its disintegration also triggereg local border area disputes which gave the Islamic fundamentalists to seep through the borders and spread the virus of terrorism. It is indeed in such times that the importance of unity comes along for peaceful coexistence of us all. Criminal justice 8 REFERENCES [1] Madan gopal gupta, International relations since 1919, page:283, published 1968. [2] Steven Woehrel, Islamic Terrorism and the Balkans, CRS Report for Congress, July 26, 2005 [3] Tom Lovell, A PERSONAL PROLOGUE, The Fall Of The Soviet Union: Whys And Wherefores, presented to The Raleigh Tavern Philosophical Society. Read More