Terrorism, Instability, and Democracy in Asia and Africa by Cox Dan G.;Falconer John;Stackhouse Brian;

Author:Cox, Dan G.;Falconer, John;Stackhouse, Brian;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Northeastern University Press

Democracy, Poverty, Civilization, and Instability

Terrorism is largely lacking in East Asia, especially in a comparative sense. Compared to South and Southeast Asia, the amount of terrorism experienced in East Asia is fairly insignificant. Japan, with the worst case of terrorism in East Asia, has a fairly similar track record to some European states that experienced a similar amount of leftist terrorism during the early stages of the Cold War.

International terrorism is also largely nonexistent in the region. The only verifiable instance of a nation suffering a prolonged international terror threat is South Korea, and this threat did not emanate from a massive international terror movement, like Al-Qaeda, or a dangerous regional movement like JI. Instead, the threat was also created during the Cold War after Korea was split into two occupation zones at the end of World War II. Further, the threat from South Korea’s communist neighbors to the north dissipated around 1997 and would surely be completely gone if North and South Korea reconciled into one state. South Korea has been added rhetorically to Al-Qaeda’s hit list but nothing has come of that threat.

The terrorism that does arise in East Asia emanates from multiple sources. Despite Aum Shinrikyo being a splinter religious Buddhist/Hindu cult, the organization really is not motivated by religious hatred. The homogeneous nature of East Asian societies, in both ethnicity and religion, precludes the types of clashing civilizations that are at least partly responsible for terrorism elsewhere in Asia and Africa. Where differences in civilization do occur, like the Uygur separatist movement in China, we do see some terrorism, but even there the case may be better explained by CCP mistreatment of the Uygurs economically and culturally. However, ethnic differences may explain this mistreatment, as recent polls and historical records show many in the Han majority truly feel the Uygurs to be a lesser people.

Democracy is rich in East Asia. Four of the six, Mongolia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, are incredibly stable, decades-old democracies. In fact, the most stable democracies in our study come from this region. Perhaps incredibly stable democratic systems do produce less terrorism. But it depends on how you look at it, as in East Asia the two states experiencing the most terrorism are Japan and South Korea. But relative comparisons are tricky, as Japanese and South Korean terrorism pales in comparison to terrorism experienced in many South and Southeast Asian nations.

Despite this, the democracy argument can only be taken so far, as China experiences very little terrorism, especially given her size, and, as far as we know, North Korea experiences no terrorism. Further, Japan seems to experience more terrorism because the well-established democratic government is reluctant to react quickly and harshly to terrorist threats. It is almost as if extremist groups know they can get away with a little terrorism and maybe even a few devastating attacks before the government and police react.

Poverty is not a good predictor of terrorism in East Asia either. While the Uygur terror campaign is clearly

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