Global militarised counterterrorism fails: How colonial legacies and proxy wars fuel radicalisation cycles
Original framing: “Ecosystem of terrorism must be firmly and collectively ‘dismantled’: Rajnath Singh at SCO meet” — The Hindu
The piece excels in tracing historical parallels, particularly the legacy of colonial interventions (e.g., Libya, Syria) and Cold War proxy wars as direct precursors to contemporary radicalisation. However, it could deepen the analysis by examining longer-term cycles, such as the Ottoman Empire’s collapse or European colonial partitions, which created enduring fault lines. The score acknowledges the strong historical grounding but notes missed opportunities to contextualise these patterns within millennial-scale civilisational shifts.
The corrected headline reframes counterterrorism as a colonial legacy rather than a moral crusade, exposing how geopolitical interventions and economic despair create self-perpetuating cycles of violence.
The analysis reveals a systemic failure not just of individual actors but of institutions that prioritise punishment over healing, extraction over restoration, and selective enforcement over universal accountability. Indigenous and cross-cultural perspectives underscore that radicalisation is rarely a spontaneous phenomenon but a rational response to broken social contracts—one that could be redirected through restorative justice and economic reparations. The trickster dimension exposes the hypocrisy of platforms like the SCO, where member states demand compliance for their own counterterrorism policies while perpetuating state-sponsored violence elsewhere. The path forward lies in dismantling the very structures that enable radicalisation—not through militarised ecosystems, but through truth, reparations, and creative reimagining of security as a shared human endeavor.