Stern Writes OpEd in NYT, on Terror
“If we are to prevail in the war on terrorism,” writes Jessica Stern, Research Professor at the Boston University Pardee School of Global Studies, “we need to remember that the freedoms we aspire to come with great responsibilities. And these responsibilities involve not just fighting terrorists, but also managing our own terror.”
In a compelling opinion essay, published in The New York Times on Dec. 5, Prof. Stern takes a deep hard look at the “feelings of vulnerability” triggered by recent shootings in San Bernardino, California, which followed on the mass shootings in Colorado and earlier ones in Paris, France. The Op-Ed, titled ‘How Terror Hardens Us‘, points out:
“We feel vulnerable in many different places where we used to feel safe — in cafes or at concerts, at sporting events, at home or at work. The killers are not just those coming in from abroad, but they are already here, some even born here, seemingly ready to strike at any moment… What really concerns us is not so much what to call the crime, but whether the ideology of the killers is shared by others, suggesting there may be more such attacks to come — and how we will respond going forward.”
Jessica Stern, co-author, most recently, of ISIS: The State of Terror, and earlier of Denial: A Memoir of Terror (2001), cuts straight to what is making people all across the country feel afraid and vulnerable, but also offers sounds rational advice.
After the Sept. 11 attacks we as a nation asked, how did we let this happen. With attacks on Paris and now San Bernardino, the question has morphed: It’s not how did this happen, but how often it will…
…People often wonder, how afraid should we be? My answer is that it depends on who you are, where you live, and what you do. But even with a rise in the number of mass-casualty attacks, the likelihood that any given individual will be caught in such an attack is vanishingly small. Statistically speaking, you are far more likely to die in a car accident than in a terrorist attack, especially if you don’t wear a seatbelt.
Terror, such as mass shootings, even when committed by ‘lone actors,’ is not without strategy. Stern points out:
In many years of studying this subject, I have come to understand that a mass shooting or terrorist attack evokes a powerful sense of dread. It is a form of psychological warfare whose goal is to bolster the morale of its supporters and demoralize and frighten its target audience — the victims and their communities. Terrorists aim to make us feel afraid, and to overreact in fear.
Jessica Stern recently joined the Boston University Pardee School as a Research Professor. She served on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council staff from 1994 to 1995, was named a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow, National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Fellow of the World Economic Forum, and a Harvard MacArthur Fellow. She is a 2014-2015 Fulbright Scholar and, in 2009, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for her work on trauma and violence. Stern is a member of the Trilateral Commission. Her books include: ISIS: The State of Terror (co-authored with J.M. Berger); Denial: A Memoir of Terror (2001), named a best non-fiction book of 2010 by the Washington Post; Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill (2004), selected by the New York Times as a notable book of the year; and The Ultimate Terrorists (1999).