Economic Terrorism Essay Example for Free

Economic Terrorism Essay This refers to the act by any group of people or state to destroy a society for military, social, political and religious purposes. This is done for the sole and illegal purpose of creating chaos and collapse of the target (Small Wars journal. July 2005). Economic terrorism based on environmental issue, can be viewed as illegal actions that can be taken against individuals, corporations or states that are accused of undermining proper environment of a given society in conscious pursuit of profit . The main purpose of such actions is directly aimed at the protection and preservation of the environment to prevent further environmental degradation. Environmental degradation has been increasing, resulting to potential crises that need collective action coupled with the motivation for the good of the world community. The challenges that have led to the crises include; global warming, damaged ozone layer, water contamination, nuclear weapon proliferation and increased income inequalities within and among nations. Economic terrorism though illegal can be justified in several ways. There is a classical principle implying that, when markets are functioning properly, there are uncoordinated actions of self-interested groups or agents. This consequently result to an efficient outcome, where those who earn huge profits do so by making others lose severely . In circumstances where huge companies either privately owned or state-owned are involved in polluting the environment (for instance through emissions, chemical released into the water bodies) in the process of optimising their production, the societies that live around the degraded environment are the great losers. Illegal actions against such companies reduce efficient outcome. The companies cannot benefit hugely while the society loses through environmental degradation. Economic terrorism prevents â€Å"unhealthy† development. Many nations make efforts to become more developed, in an effort to improve the living standards of its people or citizens. Unfortunately, this may result to reduced living standards when the environmental consequences of this development outweigh the economic gains. Where legal channels of addressing this problem may fail, illegal actions may be the best option. Terrorism may be considered an effective way of preventing environmental degradation in countries where options are more limited for improving environmental quality. Expanding populations demand economic growth to support them. This may pressure such countries to undertake development activities that severely affect the environment. Limited options to prevent this type of development in such circumstances may result to economic terrorism against the country. Proliferation of nuclear weapons may give particular nations a sense of security and autonomy to pursue their own interests even when these interests affect the world community. This makes the countries so rigid, such that they cannot follow the set global guidelines to curb environment depletion as required. Some may therefore view economic terrorism against such nations as the only solution to stop them from further environmental devastation. In most cases, environmental degradation affects the weak in a society. Those who are not well equipped to take legal actions against the state for causing degradation, are usually convinced that they can still do the same through terrorism For instance, terrorism more often provides an advantage to the weak, especially when they are confronting the state The advantage is as a result of the terrorists’ use of secrecy and minimal resources needed for the attack. The market for the produced commodities is very crucial to the growth of any company. Lack of market for the commodities will mean huge losses for the producer. Where the producer fails to follow an environmental code, as required, legal action should be undertaken against them. Sometimes, this may fail. Environmental activists may have no other option other than sabotaging the market of the goods . For example, an activist minority group resulted to attacking anything and everyone associated with the entire production and distribution of Salmon fish that was found to have potential dangerous levels of cancer causing PCBs in the fish. Consumers were also targeted, which affected the market of the fish adversely (Key. W. 2004). Terrorist actions cause great costs for the industries that cause pollution or environmental degradation, compared to the costs they would incur if legal actions were taken against them. Result of illegal actions on their property will be taken very seriously, hence they will be more obliged to curb pollution to prevent future losses from such actions. Industries, companies or factories work very efficiently to protect against activities that may jeopardise their profits. Damage to property or commodities through terrorism are unacceptable to them. Legal actions that may be undertaken against them may be counteracted very easily. Environmental activists are very aware of this possibility. It will be very easy for them to undertake an action that is difficult for the institution to protect against- and that is economic terrorism. Economic terrorism enjoys more attention as compared to legal channels. â€Å"When a terrorist attack in one country involves victims, targets, institutions, governments, or citizens in another country terrorism assume a transnational character†(Sandler, T. 1997). It means a solution is likely to be sought, which will work towards curbing further environmental depletion. Finally, the fear of the developed countries that environmental degradation in the poorer countries may spill over to them may encourage trade war. This is whereby, these nations may impose ever more restrictive trade practices on the developing countries. This may be looked at as economic terrorism. Developed nations may reject commodities from developing nations that encourage environmental degradation, affecting the economy of that particular nation. References Key. W. (2004). Washington Fish Growers Association. The Farmed Salmon Debate. Accessed on 2008-04-14 from; http://www. growfish. com. au/content. asp? contentid=1263 Sandler, T. 1997. Global Challenges; An Approach to Environmental, and Economic problems. Books. google. com Small Wars journal. July 2005,volume of the SWJ magazine. Accessed on 2008-04-14 from; www. smallwarsjournal. com