There are Those Who Argue That the International System Has
by There are arguments both for and against that assertion that can be fitted into concepts relating to International Relation theory. In some respects the September 11th attacks could be viewed as representing a continuation of ongoing trends within the international system or arguably in different aspects the attacks did change that system. International Relations theory had tended to stress the relationships between nation states rather than that between nation states and non-state terrorist or political groups. The international system had already changed with the end of the bipolar system of Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The United States has to rely on influence and economic might to operate in the Middle East. The Americans did succeed in establishing strong links with Saudi Arabia and Iran to secure its oil supplies. Resentment of the United States is strong throughout the Middle East because of its support for Israel, a motive for radical Islamic groups to attack its interests. The United States is not liked because the liberal democratic values it tries to spread globally are seen as un-Islamic, plus it is seen as hypercritical when backing undemocratic regimes whilst claiming to spread neo-liberal democracy. Terrorist attacks by groups such as the IRA, ETA and even Hamas or Hezbollah led to relatively few victims. These groups tended to campaign for national liberation often tinged with left wing or Marxist concepts of the armed struggle. Hamas and Hezbollah are motivated by religious or ideological zeal with the willingness to take part in suicide bombings to advance their jihad against Israel.
Al-Qaeda were different from other groups in that they wanted to change the international system by waging war against the United States and its allies, Osama Bin Laden gave them a Weltanschauung or world view that required them to act on a larger scale. Al-Qaeda is amongst the groups that wish to reverse the process of globalization or more accurately counter the American dominance of the process and use it for their own ends. Waltz for one argues that the process is still adaptable or reversible and that a change in globalization equates to a change in the international system. Islamic radicals tend to view Islam as a global movement itself that transcends nationalism and rejects secular culture.
It can be argued that the September 11th attacks changed the world order or international system because of the symbolic as well as the brutal nature of the attacks. Al-Qaeda was behind the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. Al-Qaeda strategy and ideology shows not only the traditional element of Islamic notions of jihad or holy war but also revolutionary Marxist notions of the armed struggle although it would not admit to such a link given the atheist nature of Marxism. Marxism usually stresses the competition between differing economic systems or political ideologies, which was more the case between capitalism and communism than the theological and ideological conflict between liberalism and radical Islam. Marxism however has waned in ideological value and usefulness. In attacking the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Al-Qaeda struck a devastating symbolic blow as well as a physical blow against the United States. The twin towers of the World Trade Center symbolized economic might and prestige, whilst the Pentagon represented the military nerve centre of the world’s only remaining superpower. Bin Laden has a wide view of history and politics, he fully appreciates the role of symbolic acts in promoting change and altering the course of international conflicts and relationships. If using the concept of world-systems analysis then September 11th represented a change in the international system as any major change in one part of the system changes the over all system.
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