Terrorism in Africa Post-9/11 Beyond the Emerging Western Consensus

The events of 9/11 2001 and the subsequent US-led global war on terror tend to radically redefine and narrow the definition of terrorism in line with the emerging western consensus that tends to locate the source of terrorism in fundamentalist Islam, with westerners and western interests presumed to be the principal targets. This emerging perspective further presupposes that non-westerners and onwestern targets essentially become objects of terrorist attack to the extent that they co-operate with the west in the ongoing global war on terror. Given the global ramification of US and western strategic interests and the intense economic and political pressures the US has mobilised to advance the global war on terror and to enlist international support for the campaign, many developing countries have been compelled to lend diplomatic, political or logistical supports to the US-led anti-terrorist campaign ipso facto putting their own national securities at stake.