CHAPTER FOuRTEEn • FOREign POliCy 323
Terrorism
A systematic attempt
to inspire fear to
gain political ends,
typically involving the
indiscriminate use
of violence against
noncombatants.initially at least, the rebels were winning. Championing popular movements increased the
chances that we would be on good terms with the new governments in these countries.
Libya proved to be a special challenge, however. In that country, the rebels were
immediately successful in taking power only in the eastern region. The United States and
its European allies eventually intervened with air power to assist the rebels. By doing so,
these nations were able to demonstrate that their support for Arab popular movements
was serious and not just rhetorical.Problems with intervention. Most Libyans had a highly positive view of U.S. interven-
tion, but that country also contains a number of radical Islamists. Some of these radicals
launched a terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, killing four
Americans. The incident touched off an ongoing political dispute, with Republicans claim-
ing that the Obama administration had mishandled the affair.
The United States government has not always been willing to intervene abroad. In
Syria, a rebellion against the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad began in 2011, resulting in a
civil war that by late-2013 had caused the deaths of more than 100,000 people. Not until
August 2013 did the United States consider taking action in Syria.TERRORiSm And WARFARE
The foreign policy of the United States—whether idealist, realist, or both—must be for-
mulated to deal with world conditions. Early in its history, the United States was a weak,
new nation facing older nations well equipped for war. In the twenty-first century, the
United States confronts different challenges. Now it must devise foreign and defense poli-
cies that will enhance its security
in a world in which it is the global
superpower. In some instances,
these policies have involved the
use of force.The Emergence
of Terrorism
terrorism is a systematic attempt
to inspire fear to gain political
ends. Typically, terrorism involves
the indiscriminate use of violence
against noncombatants. In years
past, terrorism was a strategy gen-
erally employed by radicals who
wanted to change the status of a
particular nation or province. For
example, over many years the Irish
Republican Army undertook ter-
rorist attacks in the British province
of Northern Ireland with the aim
of driving out the British and unit-
ing the province with the Republic
of Ireland. In Spain, the ETAA Syrian rebel loads his machine gun in 2013 during a battle with regime
forces in the city of Aleppo. Why should the United States be concerned about the
fighting in Syria? (Guillaume Briquet/AFP/Getty Images)LO2: Describe recent foreign
policy challenges that involve the
use of force, including terrorism
and the wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq.Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
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