The Chairman of AISS’ board of Advisers, Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta and AISS director Dr. Moradian attended the Fifth Xiangshan Forum organized by China’s Ministry of Defense on 21-22 November 2014 in Beijing.

Below is the text of Dr. Spanta’s speech:

Let me begin by thanking Gen Lui Chengjun, president of China Association for Military Science for inviting me to this august forum AND the warm and exemplary Chinese hospitality.

We are facing with the most stressful years after the end of the Cold War. For the first time since World War II, the events in Ukraine and ongoing tension between NATO and the Russian Federation and the Middle East have prompted serious concern about global security. The tension in Ukraine has undermined collective cooperation on our shared security concerns, primarily global struggle again terrorism. Some nations are dreadful of the Ukrainian precedent and the prospects of proxy battles in their territories by super powers similar to the 90s’ era. This is equally applicable to Russian’s concern about NATO’s encroachment on Moscow’s sphere of security.
There are several common threats that call for deeper and extensive cooperation and coordination among the Asian countries. International Terrorism, Separatism, Organized crime constitute our common threats. The principal threat, international terrorism is a serious threat to security, territorial integrity, state system and economic development. Despite some efforts, Asian nations lack a collective security strategy. In light of political realities, regional rivalries and territorial disputes, understandably it is too early to speak of an Asian collective security system. However ongoing threats and emerging trends in global balance of power highlight the urgency of addressing this shortcoming.

Asia has become the engine of the global economic growth and the globe’s developmental hub. On one hand, there are the vast resources of raw materials in the Middle East and Central Asia; on the other hand, the Chinese and other South East Asian economies need to have access to these materials. Any insecurity and instability in the region threaten both the regional and global security. The colonial legacies and the global policies of the 20th century have hindered potential Asian cooperation and integration in the fields of economy and security. This is more vivid in the central and south –East Asia regions. However, the imperative for economic development and our security requirements necessitate joint regional approaches at the continental level. The prevailing reality shows that current anti terror strategy cannot bring sustainable security to our world. We need a holistic, collective and enduing security strategy based on furthering economic and social development and strengthening security structures.
Ladies and Gentlemen,

After the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq in 2003, Iraq is fragmented, the state is failing and Islamist terrorist gropes are rising. The intervention in Libya toppled the regime of Mohmmar Ghadadi. But it has created a territory without a functioning state where local militias are struggling for power and space. The civil war in Syria is the reminiscence of the Cold War proxy wars. Syria’s territorial integrity, public order and ultimately the coexistence of different religious communities have been gravely weakened.

We are confronted with the range of terrorist groups: the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq, the Emirate of Caucasus in southern Russia, in our part of the world the Haqqani Network, the Quetta Shura Taliban, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement , the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Al-Qaeda, TTP,. These groups are being trained and sheltered for attacks on other nations and are sponsored by states who use terrorism as a tool of their foreign and security policy.

Debate over “Islamic extremism” has now dominated the public and political discourses globally, including in our region. Some are even referring to the American Political Scientist, Samuel Huntington’s thesis of the “clash of civilizations” to explain this phenomenon. However, the attacks of Islamist extremists are taking place mainly within a single civilization, within the Islamic World. The vast majorities of victims of the IS and other terrorist groups are Muslims. Therefore the thesis of the clash of civilizations is wrong.

Radicalism and extremism in the name of Islam has thus social and political causes. Factors such as underdevelopment, poverty, lack of democracy, lack of social justice, the problems of transition to modernity and the devastating legacy of colonialism have contributed to the terrorists’ bloody campaign that now has encapsulated the world from Indonesia, Pakistan to the North Africa.

In addition to the above reasons, “strategic ambiguity” has been one of the main reasons for our failure to win the global struggle against terrorism. Most nations, including those who have been been affected by terrorism suffer from “strategic ambiguity”, though with different degree. I want to state clearly that without dismantling the sanctuaries, training centers and the backyard of terrorism, it will be impossible to attain sustainable security. The present struggle against the IS also suffers from the “strategic ambiguity”, where the supporters of terrorists are considered as ally.

This is the sad reality that international Jihadism is born and sustained in places where the state is either weak or failed or where other states provide support and sanctuary to it. The contemporary International Jihadism, without exception, is the product of a weak state, a collapsed state or a sponsoring state, or a combination of both of them.

Therefore for the people of our region we are tasked to address the following issues:

1. How to prevent our nations from becoming territories without a functioning state than could then be ruled and contested by terrorists and organize crimes?
2. How to promote and expand social justice, economic development and education through political and social reforms, based on people’s sovereignty and nations’ distinct social and cultural identity and heritage?
3. How can we prevent the nation-states in the greater Middle East from sliding towards tribal and ethnic orientation and fragmentation?

How can we protect licit national economies from becoming war and criminal economies in failed or failing states? There is now almost a universal consensus about the threat that the international Jihadism poses to international peace and security. Its nature is dynamic and networked. It fights in Afghanistan and then inspires fighting in Iraq and Syria or North Africa and vice versa. International Jihadism’s constant revolution threatens world security. Its fluid, dynamic and adoptable nature have enabled it to keep changing itsfocus while remaining a constant threat to many nations.

International terrorists survive and sustain when they are under the protection and sponsorship. Pursuing double standards towards terrorism, categorizing terrorists into “good and bad terrorists” and labeling them “insurgent” are dangerous and counter-productive.

Social inequality and fragmentation, weak states, big powers’ intervention and regional rivalries have contributed to rise and sustainment of international Jihadism in the Middle East. A military-only strategy, weakening states and occupying nations that have already suffered from massive socio-economic burdens and injustice are not effective strategies in confronting international terrorism. We need to understand why the youth in big slums of cities and remote villages across the Middle East are attracted to blood-thirsty ideology of the IS and other Jihadists gropes?

Instead of a military-based policy, it is imperative to pursue a comprehensive anti-terrorism strategy. Such a strategy has to be based on a number of priorities and objectives such as engaging our youth in politics, creating economic development, expansion of education opportunities and strengthening regional security and economic cooperation. A comprehensive strategy does not reject military solution when and if it is essentially and proportionally required. It, however, discourages resorting to military solution as the first option. It emphasizes and gives priority to empowering citizens and communities to pursue peaceful reforms. The reform movements in the Middle East and our region need to be rooted in our own communities. Waging war in nations such as Syria which used to have a functioning state has strengthened international terrorism. The people of the Middle East are desperate for justice and economic prosperity, not for an Islamic caliphate of the IS or a territory without a functioning state.

Thank you for your attention