Prague, Dec 2 (CTK) – An international military campaign against Islamic State is necessary, but still the war cannot be won without a coordinated economic crackdown on the terrorists and their sources of revenues, Jiri Drahos, head of the Czech Academy of Sciences, writes in Hospodarske noviny (HN) on Wednesday.
He supports the statement of French President Francois Hollande, who said the mid-November terrorist attacks in Paris, which brought an unprecedented massacre, were an act of war staged by Islamic State (IS).
The state of war need not necessarily mean ceaseless fighting. The state of war can also be spoken about if the atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust prevails in society and people start expecting aggression from each other. This hypothetical struggle of all against all is typical of the present situation in Europe and the world, Drahos writes.
One of the crucial causes of the unfortunate situation are the financial possibilities of the terrorists, which have paradoxically increased with the development of the free market economy including the deregulation of international financial markets, Drahos writes.
As a result of the above development, some terrorist organisations have turned into business entities, Drahos writes.
IS, too, is a typical product of this development. In addition, to achieve its ideological and power goals, IS has also privatised the phenomenon of violence. The world can thus watch IS´s criminal practices, organised crime and mortal attacks in live transmission, which, unfortunately, ensures the sought-after publicity for the terrorists and creates an atmosphere of fear, Drahos writes.
