There is no question that yesterday’s terrible events will have long lasting consequences. In fact, it will take time for all of the questions to be answered, all of the rubble to be sifted, and the families of the victims to come to grips with their losses.
However, this event will have even broader consequences than just the devastation on American soil. With the crumbling of the twin towers, comes a call for changes in American Foreign Policy as well as shifts in international relations throughout the world.
Two University of Massachusetts Political Science professors agreed to comment on the fate of the international system as it now stands. M.J. Peterson, a professor of World Politics, International Institutions and International Political Economy, and Peter Haas, Graduate Program Director as well as a professor of International Relations, both spoke with The Collegian to discuss the state of international relations.
Haas focused his discussion on the relation between the United States and Israel, highlighting the fragile relationship by drawing an analogy between this event and previous incidents.
“It will have an effect on US foreign policy toward Israel, but it’s not clear which direction that will go,” Haas said. “It’s possible to abandon Israel, or we’ll bail out tomorrow. When there was an attack during the Reagan administration against a marine barracks in Lebanon, the US pulled out, but the political situation was different. This could be a tactic by a Palestinian group that doesn’t want to fight in Israel so they launch a symbolic attack against the United States, as a way to try to undermine US support for Israel. Hard to tell.”
He then went on to address the issue of security, citing the preparation for terrorist attacks as a future concern. “This is not the sort of thing that a ballistic missile system is designed to protect against,” Haas said. “What it means to international relations is that it is a fundamentally different type of threat to national security than people have been used to thinking about in the past. This is the first incident of this magnitude that has happened in the US. So undoubtedly there will be lots of changes in all sorts of domestic policy about how to prevent terrorism.”
Peterson took a different perspective, framing the issue as one of actors on the international stage being state versus non-state actors, and assuming that the terrorist attacks were done by a non-state entity.
“What it does clearly does do is accentuate the arguments and make the case for the people that have argued that non-state groups able to use violence should not be ignored and they can have significant impact on particular situations,” Peterson said. “It’s interesting that people who have been arguing that national missile defense would not help you against terrorist attacks, and that proposition is now demonstrated. If you’re going to deal with terrorists as non-state entities and you’re going to deal with them basically as groups or individuals who are engaged in criminal activity, you go back into the paradigm of criminal activity which means you have to attach individual responsibility.”
Both of these professors have extensive knowledge and training in the field of international studies, but not even the most veteran international relations specialist can predict how consequences of this event will play out in the upcoming weeks, months, years and even decades, and what impact it will have on the world. However, these teachers do provide unique insight into the events of the day and what issues will undoubtedly be pursued.
