World threatened by terror and climate change: study
Apr 11, 2007 - 10:03:59 AM
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'It penetrates beneath the surface of the debate in the West over its security to demonstrate that the real threat to global peace and stability lies in our failure to recognise our interdependence - that the well-being of the privileged depends on the well-being of the marginalised.'
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By IANS,
[RxPG] London, April 11 - The so-called war on terror is increasing the likelihood of more terrorist attacks on the scale of 9/11 as climate change and 'global militarisation' proceed to deepen dangerous divisions, said a British study.
The report by the Oxford Research Group - published Wednesday said support for 'political Islam' was growing worldwide while the number of significant terror attacks was on the rise.
The US is 'increasingly viewed as the greatest threat to world peace,' stated the report by the Oxford-based group of independent researchers.
'There is a clear and present danger. An increasingly marginalised majority are living in an environmentally constrained world, where military force is more likely to be used to control the consequences of these dangerous divisions,' wrote lead author Chris Abbott.
'Add to this the disastrous effects of climate change, and we are looking at a highly unstable global system by the middle years of the century unless urgent action is taken now.'
The ORG said its report, 'Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World', was its most outspoken so far.
'Since 9/11, many western leaders insist that international terrorism is the greatest threat to world security, but the evidence simply does not support this claim,' it said.
'This is distracting us from other much greater threats to security, namely: climate change, competition over resources, marginalisation of the majority world, and global militarisation.'
The document advocated a new system of 'sustainable security,' suggesting that governments should resolve threats by using cooperation to tackle the root causes rather than attempting to control them through the use of force.
'Treating Iraq as part of the 'war on terror' only spawned new terror in the region,' it said.
It called for a rapid withdrawal of coalition troops from Iraq, to be replaced by a UN stabilisation force.
The report also called for an 'opening of political dialogue with terrorist leaderships wherever possible,' sustained reconstruction aid for Iraq and Afghanistan, and a 'genuine commitment' to a 'viable two-state solution' to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a statement endorsing the report, South African archbishop Desmond Tutu said: 'This incisive study is radical in the proper sense.'
'It penetrates beneath the surface of the debate in the West over its security to demonstrate that the real threat to global peace and stability lies in our failure to recognise our interdependence - that the well-being of the privileged depends on the well-being of the marginalised.'
The study was co-authored by Paul Rogers, a professor at the department of peace studies at Bradford University in northern Britain, and John Sloboda, a professor of Keele University, also in Britain.
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