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‘War in countries we are not at war with’: The ‘war on terror’ on the periphery from Bush to Obama

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Abstract

This article examines the origins of the ‘Global War on Terror’ (GWoT) in peripheral locations; in other words, in countries and regions beyond Iraq and beyond Afghanistan. Although those two countries have remained the ‘core’ regions of the GWoT, the Bush administration also undertook many other military interventions in countries and regions in ostensibly peripheral locations under the auspices of the ‘war on terror’; operations which it referred to in its 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review as ‘war in countries we are not at war with’. These include operations in the Horn of Africa, Georgia and the Caspian region, the Philippines and the countries across the Sahara region including Mali, Niger, Chad and Mauritania. This article examines these peripheral theatres in the GWoT and argues that, by its second term, the Bush administration had moved beyond a state-based worldview vis-à-vis terrorism and had truly come to understand it as a transnational problem; a protean network that should be tackled through using Special Operations Forces and unconventional warfare to wage ‘war in countries we are not at war with’. The article also considers the extent to which these operations on the ‘periphery’ were expedient in other ways that often transcended the war on terror because they coincided with the existence of long-standing or newly identified US strategic interests. Finally, the article considers the Obama administration's continuation – and in some cases escalation – of many of the Bush administration's operations in peripheral regions, even as Obama looks to wind down the war in Iraq.

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Notes

  1. Washington Post (henceforth WP) (2003).

  2. For a brief account of the history of the separatist movements in the Philippines, see Rogers (2004).

  3. Montesano (2003); De Castro (2009).

  4. I refer here to the formal use of the term ‘Global War on Terror’ (note the capitalisation) as opposed to the informal references to a ‘global war on terror’. For the formal designation see the United States Quadrennial Defense Review Report, 6 February 2006 (henceforth QDR, 2006).

  5. For some regional studies, see Reid (2006); Radics (2004); Keenan (2009); Rotberg (2005).

  6. Some of the best of this includes Ritchie and Rogers (2007); Smith (2007); Gordon and Trainor (2007); Galbraith (2007).

  7. On the increase in terrorist attacks, see Bergen with Cruickshank (2007).

  8. Kibbe (2004); WP (2005a). See also the Pentagon's 2004 Unified Command Pan which gave Special Operations Command the authority to synchronise and lead counter-terrorism operations anywhere in the world. (SOCOM, 2007a, p.16).

  9. QDR (2006, p .vi).

  10. Roberts (2002).

  11. Feith (2006, p. 6).

  12. Feith (2006, pp. 13 and 17).

  13. Ibid, p. 17.

  14. Ibid, p. 55.

  15. Ibid, pp. 55 and 66. Rumsfeld had also mused on the importance of surprising the enemy. Surprise was ‘a crucial operational value’ and, accordingly, striking Afghanistan first might not be the best option. Instead, it might be better ‘for the initial strike to be directed someplace else and preferably someplace like South America or South East Asia’, Ultimately, however, the President did not support beginning the ‘war on terror’ with strikes outside Afghanistan.

  16. Polch (2009, p. 36).

  17. One of the earliest references came in Donald Rumsfeld's speech of 27 May 2003 in New York. (Rumsfeld, 2003).

  18. QDR (2006).

  19. Ibid, p. viii. For more on these issues, see SSOCOM (2006); SOCOM, (2007b), ibid, pp. i, vi, 9; ibid, p vi.

  20. QDR (2006, p. 9).

  21. National Defense Strategy of the United States of America, March 2005 (henceforth NDS, 2005); QDR (2006, pp. 28, 30–32).

  22. Nye (2004).

  23. QDR (2006, p. 36).

  24. NDS (2005, p. 3).

  25. Ibid, p. 6: ‘Our capacity to address global security challenges alone will be insufficient’. See also pages 8–9. SOCOM (2007b, pp. 4–5, 7). There is also a striking acceptance of the existence of transnational threats and the need for multilateral initiatives (with the caveat that it is led by the United States) in the National Strategy for Maritime Security, September (2005), which states that ‘Success in securing the maritime domain will not come from the United States acting alone, but through a powerful coalition of nations maintaining a strong, united, international front … [M]ost of the maritime domain is under no single nation's sovereignty or jurisdiction’. See p. 13.

  26. SOCOM (2007b, p. 1).

  27. SOCOM (2007a), pp. 14–16.

  28. Ibid, p. 16.

  29. QDR (2006, p. 5).

  30. Information Operations Roadmap (2003, p. 4). This study, obtained by the National Security Archive, was not framed around the GWoT but argued that IO should be an integral part of all US military activity, not just limited to the GWoT. The SOCOM (2006) for Special Operations describes the GWoT as ‘a war on conflicting ideas, ideologies, social values and human rights’ and calls for ‘the tools of influence, information and intelligence’. See Capstone Concept, p. 3.

  31. See Information Operations Roadmap (2003, p. 2).

  32. SOCOM (2007b, p. 9). Quote taken from QDR (2006, p. 22). JPOSE awarded contracts worth up to $300 million over five years to SYColeman Inc., the Lincoln Group and Science Applications International Corps. The Pentagon also paid for Anteon International Corps to run the website http://www.magherebia.com aimed at audiences in Africa, as well as http://www.setimes.com which is aimed at the Balkan region. See WP (2005b).

  33. Dailey and Webb (2006). Dailey's comments reflect the emphasis on the need for interagency cooperation in the SOCOM Posture Statement of 2006: see pages 6 and 8 for example.

  34. SOCOM (2006, pp. 4–5).

  35. Department of Defense, Directive 3000.05. Cited in Polch (2009, p. 4, footnote 17).

  36. See Ibid, p. 4, footnote 9.

  37. Woodward (2003).

  38. See Volpi (2003).

  39. On the events in Sudan and the ultimate failure to construct an Islamic state, de Waal and Salam (2004) and de Waal (2004a).

  40. de Waal (2004a, 2004b).

  41. Jones cited in Schmitt (2003). He also referred often to the ‘vast ungoverned spaces’ of Africa. See for example Jones (2005).

  42. Lyman and Morrison (2004).

  43. Colonel Nelson cited in Abramovici (2004).

  44. Bollee (2003). See also Schermerhorn (2005).

  45. CRS ‘Africa Command’, p. 9, Volman (2003, p. 580).

  46. Schmitt (2003).

  47. Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa official website (2009); Ploch (2009, pp. 18–19); Volman (2003); WP (2007).

  48. WP (2007). See also Frazer (2006).

  49. Fisher-Thompson (2004); Berschinski (2007).

  50. For example, the 2005 National Defense Strategy stated that irregular challenges such as terrorism and insurgency thrive where there are ‘porous international borders [and] weak international controls … Particularly troublesome is the nexus of transnational terrorists, proliferations and problem states that possess or seek WMD’ (NDS, 2005, p. 3).

  51. Zoubir (2009); de Waal (2004c).

  52. Choate (2007); Archer and Popovic (2007).

  53. Henry L. Stimson Center (2005).

  54. QDR (2006, p. 12). These activities are also referred to as ‘stabilization and reconstruction operations’ on p. 36. SOCOM (2007b, p. 10). For more examples of this kind of activity, see http://www.africom.mil/activities.asp?lang=0, accessed 31 August 2009.

  55. See WP (2005b). The Magharebia website is http://www.magharebia.com.

  56. Information Operations Roadmap (2003, pp. 27–28).

  57. See http://www.africom.mil.

  58. See Mission Statement at http://www.africom.mil/AboutAFRICOM.asp, accessed 24 August 2009.

  59. Daniel Volman argues that counter terrorism, competition for resources and countering the presence of China as the three reasons behind the establishment of AFRICOM. See Volman (2008). Klares (2005) infers this too.

  60. National Energy Policy, Report of the National Energy Policy Development Group (May 2001), National Intelligence Council (2000).

  61. Zoubir (2009, p. 993).

  62. Kantsteiner cited in Abramovici (2004); Volman (2003, p. 578).

  63. Crosston (2006, pp. 45–46, 51).

  64. Crosston (2006 p. 38).

  65. Crosston (2006, p. 6).

  66. Olimova and Olimov (2001).

  67. Klare (2008).

  68. Ibid (2008, pp. 124–125).

  69. Guardian (2002).

  70. Devdariani (2002); Cohen (2002); Quinn-Judge (2002).

  71. Areshidze (2002); Brady (2002).

  72. Nichol (2008, p. 2); Areshidze (2002).

  73. Global Security.org (2009).

  74. Gen. Bantz Craddock, EUCOM Commander, testimony to Senate Committee on Armed Services, 13 March 2008. Cited in Nichol (2007, p. 22).

  75. Quigley (2006).

  76. National Energy Policy Report ch. 8, p. 12; Chen (2008).

  77. SOCOM, (2007a, p. 129).

  78. Rogers (2004, pp. 15–20).

  79. Rogers (2004, p. 16).

  80. Montesano (2003); Rogers (2004, pp. 16–17).

  81. Acharya and Acharya (2007). See also Gershman (2002).

  82. Reid (2006, p. 155); Bello (2002); Radics (2004).

  83. SOCOM (2007a, p. 130).

  84. Radics (2004, pp. 124–125).

  85. Ibid, p. 122, De Castro (2005).

  86. Reid (2006, pp. 145–161).

  87. On China's attempt to influence the Philippines’ foreign policy and to diminish US influence, see De Castro (2009).

  88. Radics (2004, pp. 117–119); Reid (2006, p. 154).

  89. Reid, p. 155; Francia (2007); Klein (2003).

  90. Radics (2004, p. 121).

  91. Ibid, pp. 119–121; Reid (2006, p. 156).

  92. Olsen (2008, p. 2).

  93. Tyson (2007).

  94. Shanker and Shane (2006).

  95. For example, the presence of SOF troops at the US embassy in Paraguay – one of the first of such deployments – was reported by the New York Times when the operatives were withdrawn after killing an armed robber who attacked them as they stepped out of a taxi. The incident was an embarrassment for the US embassy in Asuncion which had not been told that SOF forces were operating in the country. See Shanker and Shane (2006).

  96. New York Times (henceforth NYT) (2009a).

  97. Zoubir (2009, p. 995).

  98. Guardian (2008); New York Times (2009b, 2009c); Wall Street Journal (2009); The Observer (2009).

  99. Baldauf (2009); McConnell (2009).

  100. WP (2010a). Obama quoted in International Herald Tribune (henceforth IHT) (2010a).

  101. Rollins (2010, pp. 14–17).

  102. Rollins (2010, pp. 10–12), Christian Science Monitor (2009).

  103. Kucera (2009).

  104. Shapiro (2007).

  105. Soufan (2010). Soufan was an FBI special agent from 1997 to 2005 and worked in Yemen on the USS Cole case.

  106. IHT (2010b).

  107. IHT (2009); WP (2010b).

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Acknowledgements

My thanks to Adam Quinn for providing excellent comments on the original draft of this article, and to Renato Cruz De Castro for invaluable guidance on the sections on the Philippines.

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Ryan, M. ‘War in countries we are not at war with’: The ‘war on terror’ on the periphery from Bush to Obama. Int Polit 48, 364–389 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2011.7

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