• Korean Security Journal
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• no.14
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• pp.517-534
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• 2007

Since the beginning of human society, there have always been struggles and competitions for survival and prosperity, terrorism is not a recent phenomenon, however in modern times it has progressed to reflect the advances in civilization and power structures. At the time of the 9.11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. A., a new world order was in the process of being established after the breakdown of the Cold War era. The attacks drove both the Western and the Islamic worlds into heightened fear of terrorism and war, which threatened the quality of life of the whole mankind. Through two war campaigns against the Islamic world, it seems the U.S. has been pushing its own militaristic security road map of the Greater Middle East democratic initiative, justifying it as a means to retaliate and eradicate the terrorist threats towards themselves. However, with its five-year lopsided victories that cost the nation almost four thousand military casualties, and the war expenses that could match the Vietnam war, the U.S. does not yet seem to be totally emancipated from the fears of terrorism. Terrorism, in itself, is a means of resisting forced rules a form of alternative competition by the weak against the strong, and a way of expressing a dismissive response against dictatorial ideas or orders which allow for no normal changes. Intrinsically, the nature of terrorism is a reaction opposing power logics. Confronted with the absolute military power of the U.S., the Islamic strategies of terrorism have begun to rapidly evolve into a new stage. The new strategies take advantage of their civilization and circumstances, they train and inspire their front-line fighters on the Internet, and issue their orders through the clandestine network of the Al Qaeda operatives. These spontaneously generated strategies have been gained speed among the second, and third Islamic generations, many of whom are now spread throughout western societies. This represents a failure of the power-driven, one-sided overseas security initiatives by the U.S., and is creating a culture of fear and distrust in western societies. It is feared that the U.S. war campaigns have made the clash of religions far worse than before, and may ever lead to global ethnic separations and large-scale population movements. Eventually, it may result in the terrorist groups, enlarged and secretly supported by the huge sums of oil money, driving all mankind into a series of irreparable catastrophes.