State Department Briefing

This is just a short paper I wrote for class that I wanted to share: 

 Jane Moshbacher briefed the LCWS students about her work in the Office of Counterterrorism Coordination in the State Department building. Moshbacher spoke about today’s terror threats and the ways in which the Office of Counterterrorism Coordination is combating them while working with the Departments of Defense, Treasury, and Justice within the State Department.  

Moshbacher opened by talking about the Counterterrorism Coordination’s new strategy more narrowly targets the threat of Al-Qaeda, specifically its senior leadership, most of whom are in Pakistan. She noted that Pakistan anti-terrorism efforts have been of major help over the last ten years and Al-Qaeda has lost a lot of influence and many resources. She also mentioned, however, that as Al-Qaeda has lost resources it has grown more geographically and ethnically diverse.  

She then spoke about Al-Qaeda’s affiliates like Al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula who were responsible for the “underwear bomber” attack on the United States in 2009 and were the first of Al-Qaeda’s affiliates to attack the U.S. Al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was weakened, said Moshbacher, by the death of Anwar al-Awlaki. Al-Awlaki was an American and effectively influenced many other Americans with his radical ideas.  

Moshbacher noted that many terrorist organizations thrive because of leaders like al-Awlaki who are able to relate to their audiences. Just as Rischard said that terrorism has “sought refuge in failed states” terrorism also seeks refuge in disheartened persons who feel they have no other choice (Rischard 96). For recruitment, terrorism plays on people when they are feeling weakest and without hope. In this sense, one might say our speaker would take an anti-cosmopolitan view as she seemed to believe that “reason is a product of particular cultures and circumstances” (Shapcott 56) especially when she expressed that terrorists are generally not crazy and they are just people like everyone else who become caught up in what they think is the only ration approach left. 

One of the Counterterrorism Coordination’s best weapons is combating this way of thinking by presenting potential members with other lines for thinking. The State Department has a special team specifically designed to combat this process online through social networking. For example, there are now officials on Twitter and Youtube that can immediately counterstrike terrorist recruiters online by exposing their lies and giving readers other options. If readers are getting both sides of the story they are less likely to be entrapped by charismatic anti-American bloggers, video posters or tweeters. Our speaker believes our generation has the potential to transform counterterrorism with the use of the technology that makes our world so much smaller and more accessible. She stated that it is important to disprove terrorist claims that “change only comes from violence.”  

Moshbacher told the group that one of “the primary pillars in counter terrorism is trying to diminish the drivers of terrorism.” Their goal at the Counterterrorism Coordination Office is to “de-legitimize the violent narrative, present alternatives and build partner capacity to help.” This is where she tied in the United State’s ambitions for democracy in other countries. She said we have much to gain in our engagements abroad because “democracy increases the space for peaceful descent and helps fight violence.” If people have a safe place to criticize their government they feel more empowered to fix things in a diplomatic way rather than a violent one.  

The brief ended with a question and answer session in which our speaker took questions from the students. Many led to the elaboration of the aforementioned topic. A key part of the last section was when Moshbacher clarified the difference between radicalism and religiosity. She was firm in the notion that although throughout the Middle East there are a handful of radical madrasas (or schools) they are not the way of every madrasa and a radical Islamist is not every Islamist. She said “we would never want to eradicate the role religion plays in the lives of others, it’s a matter of educating people out of radicalism.”