The international war on terrorism continues and there was a new upsurge in terrorism around the world in 2014-2015. A very large number of terrorist attacks means either that the international community has been unable to work out the effective strategies and policies or that the war on terrorism is in the midst. Despite the better cooperation between the governments and international organizations we can observe the tragedies mainly in the Middle East, Africa and Europe on the regular basis.
The Institute for Economics and Peace provides some shocking statistics related to the international terrorism. In 2014, the number of deaths from terrorism increased by 80% in comparison with 2013. Moreover, the number of deaths from terrorism increased from 3,329 in 2000 up to 32,685 in 2014 (GTI, 2015, p.2). Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Syria remain to be the most unsafe countries in the world, but the terrorism attacks took place in 67 countries in 2014 (GTI, 2015, p.3).
Undoubtedly, the main source of threat is the radical Islamic movements such as ISIL and Boko Haram. Moreover, the military conflicts in Syria and Ukraine also lead to the increased risks for the local people that cannot be protected properly. The military conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and the territory occupied by ISIL attract a large number of the foreign fighters and therefore the peaceful countries are forced into the conflicts and therefore are exposed to the possible terrorist attacks. In 2014, 21% of foreign fighters were from Europe (GTI, 2015, p.4).
In conclusion, the data provided above proves that there is a very dangerous rise of violence in some regions of the world. The countries will have to cooperate more in order to understand how security could be improved. However, the tensions and the lack of trust between the major countries may mean that the international terrorism will be as wide-spread as in the past several years. Therefore the countries will have to work independently at the national level in order to reduce the terrorism threat.
References
Global Terrorism Index. (2015). Institute for Economics and Peace. Web. Retrieved from
http://economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Global-Terrorism-Index-
2015.pdf
