Putting All Cards on the Table: Trust and Soft Power in the War on Terror

• Main Author: Effendy, Bahtiar
• Other Authors: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
• Format: Commentary
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Political science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/82278; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/39936
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

SINCE THE dreadful attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11 2001, the global campaign against terror has involved both the hard and soft power approaches. The bombings of Afghanistan and Iraq as well as other security, socio-economic, and political measures employed by the United States-led “coalition of the willing” have indeed undermined the capacity of terrorist organisations and networks. Various programmes, mostly educational and cultural, to promote moderation have to a certain extent helped public understanding that it is terrorism that the US-led campaign is after, not the religion or belief system of its perpetrators. There has also been a conscious effort to prevent sweeping generalisations that the terrorist violence is being bred by religious belief.