British International Development Secretary Hilary Benn has announced an end to the use of “war on terror” phraseology among the UK government. “What these [terrorist] groups want,” he observed, is to “force their individual and narrow values on others without dialogue, without debate, through violence.” Thus, in its conveyance of tackling a monolithic “enemy,” the “war on terror” term has only served to strengthen the “terrorist” resolve, he critiqued. Benn also advocated increased use of ideational and value-based “soft power” policies, having called for the closure of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, and emphasizing Britain’s ascription to the International Criminal Court. [AlJazeera, April 16]
From Madrid11.net Security Briefs, April 17
See our last post on the UK and the politics of the GWOT.
