Abstract:
In the decades following the end of the Cold War, religion has replaced political
inequality, exclusion and disaffection as the rallying cry of terrorists throughout the
world. In examining the rise of international religious terrorism and its roots in political
aspirations, this paper explores methods of combating terrorism as it has developed in the
21st century. In three parts this paper examines the potential for resolving conflicts mired
in religious terrorism: first, reviewing the causes and motivation of terrorism; second, the
rise of religious terrorism and the function of religion in modern terrorism; finally, a
review of the process of negotiation with terrorists as a method to combat terrorism. In examining the rise of international religious terrorism, essential differences between
ethno-national/political terrorism and religious terrorism emerge. Also examined will be
the process of imbuing political motivations and aspirations with religious rhetoric to
create a holy war. These defining aspects of terrorist organizations alter the practical and
available methods for resolving the conflict. Answering the question how States negotiate
with terrorists, the paper examines whether past successful negotiations with nonidealistic,
ethno-nationalist terrorist organizations can or cannot be adapted to combat
terrorist organizations with nihilistic and otherworldly aspirations. Within this context
the current engagement of the Taliban in Afghanistan will be examined as a case study of
applying terrorist negotiation strategies to religiously based terrorism. The methods of
the current military campaign in Afghanistan as well as wider approaches to conflict
resolution are also examined. Critical to this research is the perspective of analyzing
strategies of engaging with religious terrorism within the context of examining the
prospects of resolving the conflict in which terrorists are embattled, not solely methods to
combat terrorism. Through exploring these aspects of religious terrorism this paper
addresses the research questions: how possible are resolutions to conflicts involving
international religious terrorists; what are the techniques available for resolving those
conflicts; what techniques are, or should be, currently employed in combating
international religious terrorism?
