diaspora mobilization.^30 In their campaign to reduce domestic vul-
nerability to the terrorist menace, conservatives often contended that
the effectiveness of the means mattered more than their legitimacy.
They maintained, accordingly, that the success of the fight against
terrorism required a policy of strict confidentiality, and that, for
security reasons, a good deal of information simply could not be made
public.
The left, in contrast, tends to consider that the terrorist threat has
been greatly exaggerated. John Mueller, for instance, argues that in
most places the probability of someone becoming a victim of a ter-
rorist attack remains “microscopic.”^31 Except in 2001, he notes, in
the United States, “fewer people have died from international ter-
rorism [than] have drowned in bathtubs.”^32 Progressives also insist
that terrorism ought not to be reduced to a security problem whose
solution can be achieved only through a military approach. Terrorists,
explained UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2003, “thrive on
despair,” and “there needs to be more on the horizon than simply
winning a war against terrorism. There must be the promise of a
better and fairer world, and a concrete plan to get there.”^33 Con-
vinced that peace and democracy cannot be imposed with bombs,
liberals and socialists think that the use of force actually plays into the
hands of extremists, and fuels hatred of the West. According to their
analysis, the fight against terrorism must give greater consideration
to its underlying economic and social causes, rely more heavily on
diplomacy, and respect international human rights and norms.
Having given its mitigated support to the military intervention
against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the left consistently disputed
(^30) Peter Chalk and William Rosenau,Confronting the “Enemy Within:” Security
Intelligence, the Police, and Counterterrorism in Four Democracies, Santa
31 Monica, RAND Corporation, 2004, p. 25.
John E. Mueller, “Terrorism, Overreaction, and Globalization,” in Richard
N. Rosecrance and Arthur A. Stein (eds.),No More States: Globalization,
National Self-Determination, and Terrorism, Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield,
32 2006, p. 47.
Ibid., p. 48; John E. Mueller, “Is There Still a Terrorist Threat? The Myth of
the Omnipresent Enemy,”Foreign Affairs, vol. 85, no. 5, September/October
2006, 2–8.
(^33) Kofi Annan, “Remarks at the Conference ‘Fighting Terrorism for Humanity: A
Conference on the Roots of Evil’,” New York, September 22, 2003 (www.un.
org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=511).
208 Left and Right in Global Politics