By
HRH Princess
Basmah bint Saud bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.
These are trying
times – times when you would think that diplomacy might be the strongest
currency we have to meet the price of peace. Examples of divisive
social pressure are all around, whether it is the waves of migration from south
to north, the continued conflict in many parts of the Middle East, the election
of Donald Trump, or Brexit. Communities
are at breaking point, and countries are divided with trust levels among
erstwhile united populations at historically low points. The signs of
reconciliation are few.
Yet the threat
of terrorism casts a shadow over this all. This should be the one thing which
spurs us to cooperate because the goal is simple and common to us all: the
security of our people to go about their business in safety and without fear of
attack.
But
international security – and the intelligence-sharing that goes with it – is a
double-edged sword. To reveal strategies to protect yourself is also to reveal
your weaknesses to a potential enemy. And in the margins of this paradox,
knowledge that could help protect against attacks goes unshared and the threat
of terrorism remains strong. The sad fact is we fail to recognise
our friends and allies and drift further apart when we need one another’s
cooperation now more than ever.
There are recent
open examples of success in intelligence sharing – for example, the foiled plot
to smuggle of explosives into Bahrain, or the foiled plot in Yemen which sought
to place a bomb on a plane bound for the United States. But these
examples are too few. This is the obstacle we need to surmount. The immediate
pay-off is understanding that effective strategies against terrorism and other
types of violent extremism need to focus on prevention just as much, if not
more, than cure.
Certainly, a
military response – ‘hard’ measures – is required for those individuals or
groups on the ideological scale who are already committed to carrying out
atrocities. This is of course problematic, and the criticisms and anger caused
by drone strikes are plentiful and destroys trust. At the same time, however, the general
threat of terrorism can be lowered by reducing the flow of people willing to
become involved in the preparation or execution of attacks.
There are
individuals who can be dissuaded from joining such groups with preventative
‘soft’ measures, and there are ways in which communities can learn to better
handle the threat of radicalisation where it presents itself. In this way, we can build stronger
ties based on trust and clear understanding of mutual benefit, the antidote for
these difficult times. This is the stock-in-trade of diplomacy. Persuasion and
the sharing of knowledge and lessons learned so that we can build greater
resilience among our communities to the threat of terrorism.
——-
Her Royal
Highness Princess Basmah bint
Saud bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud is
the Founder and Chair of the Global United Centre for Research and Analysis: http://www.guraksa.com/en/
An acclaimed
global speaker, businesswoman and human rights activist based in Jeddah,
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia http://basmahbintsaud.com/eng/
Recent
appearance of HRH Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud for The
Day/Deutsche Welle: https://share.ard-zdf-box.de/s/IhhO2BGoeTNbYnw
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