RENDERING. Богатова С.М - 33 стр.

a long, drawn-out affair, if it is at all possible, relatively straightfor-     ism. The diffusion of political responsibility that results from popular
ward partial reforms of the international system may produce signifi-           sovereignty, the belief that every group has a right to its own state, and
cant restraints upon resorting to war, and a thorough reform could              the decline in the belief in absolute human rights have together fostered
make war impossible.                                                            a hospitable intellectual climate for terrorism. Even opponents of ter-
        Some theorists, being more optimistic about the nature of states,       rorism may feel a certain moral ambivalence when faced with acts of
concentrate upon the removal of the fear and suspicion of other states,         terror.
which is characteristic of the present as well as of all historical political           One reason academics, journalists and politicians have had diffi-
systems; others, being less optimistic, think mainly of possible controls       culty in responding to terrorism is that it is hard to define terrorism in
and restraints upon the behaviour of states. The underlying reasoning           such a way that it refers only to one’s opponents’ activities and not also
of both parties is generally similar. If individual states in competitive       one’s own. As a result, condemnations of terrorism are often seen by
situations are governed by a short-term conception of their interests,          neutral observers as hypocritical. This does not mean that moral enun-
acute conflicts between them will occur and will show a strong ten-             ciations of terrorism are not appropriate and mandatory. Terrorist acts
dency to escalate. Thus, one state erects a tariff barrier to protect its       are profoundly immoral. In addition, they are not as politically effec-
industry against the competition of a trade partner, and the partner re-        tive as their practitioners claim. One has only to look at the areas of the
taliates, the retaliatory interaction being repeated until the two coun-        world where terror has held sway to see that the violence there is typi-
tries find themselves in a trade war. Armaments races show a similar            cally prolonged by terrorism, sometimes indefinitely, as the opposing
tendency to escalate, particularly so in an age of rapid technological          sides come to perceive each other as «criminal» and thus as beyond the
change. The economic and the scientific efforts necessary to avoid fal-         pale of civilized negotiation. But while it is correct for the Reagan ad-
ling behind rivals in the invention and development of rapidly improv-          ministration, for example, to condemn terrorism as a means of effecting
ing weapons of mass destruction have already reached unprecedented              political and social change, such a denunciation makes sense only in
heights.                                                                        the context of a moral stance that (1) rigidly distinguishes between
        And yet, neither trade wars nor arms races necessarily end in           combatants and noncombatants and (2) rigidly adheres to the principle
violent conflict; there seem to be operating some restraining and inhib-        that innocent people have an absolute right not to be murdered for any
iting factors that prevent an automatic escalation. Much of the theory of       reason whatever. Both of these tenets have been steadily eroding since
war concerns itself with the identification, improvement, and develop-          1940, in the West as much as elsewhere. Despite repeated commit-
ment of these restraining factors.                                              ments to a plethora of declarations of human rights, few if any gov-
        Copyright © 1994–2001 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc (1962                ernments are scrupulous in their military policies regarding such rights.
символа)                                                                                The doctrine of popular sovereignty developed as the profoundly
                                                                                moral idea that human beings are born free and equal and, as such,
                      THE ROOTS OF TERRORISM                                    have a right to an equal share of political power. The slogan «one man,
                                                                                one vote» perfectly expresses the idea that democracy is the fairest of
       When nations find themselves in trouble, their difficulties have
                                                                                all political systems because it correctly reflects the natural human
usually been a long time in the making. In the case of the terrorism that
                                                                                condition of freedom and equality. However, it has long been observed
now afflicts the nations of the West, there is a long intellectual history
                                                                                that popular sovereignty tends to diffuse responsibility for political
behind it – one which is rather unflattering to those who see themselves
                                                                                acts, particularly acts of war. Everything from conscription to the satu-
as the main victims of terrorism. The intellectual roots of terrorism lie
                                                                                ration bombing of cities can find a rationale in popular sovereignty. If
in three philosophical ideas which, ironically, are peculiarly Western:
                                                                                the people are the state, then is it not their responsibility both to defend
popular sovereignty, self-determination and ethical consequential-

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