Post-war on Terror- Dawn of a new era?

Abstract

Following the fateful 9/11 attacks, the War on Terror (WoT) thesis has managed to dominate global politics for nearly a quarter of a century. With a complete disregard for any underlying drivers and root causes, the overly confining lens of the thesis focused blindly on kinetic and military alternatives. Such a narrow and myopic approach predictably failed to provide any permanent solution to the problem of terrorism. Despite its tremendous setbacks and brazen failures, many countries are still alarmingly struggling to cast WoT aside as their primary frame of reference. This unhealthy obsession is increasingly proving to be detrimental for the society at large that continues to suffer from the adverse effects of terrorism and violent extremism. As the epilogue on the war on terror is now beginning to unfold, we are on the brink of a major paradigm shift. However, for that much desired shift to truly materialize, we must first distance ourselves from the idiosyncrasies that were characteristic of the war on terror.