[A-List] UK ideological state apparatus

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

We've met Paul Wilkinson before, in his guise as MI5 flunkey out to
discredit Colin Wallace. It seems current events are making even him
consider the benefits of not going to war and using Blair's preferred
strategy of "due process", as highlighted earlier by Chris Burford.

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Terrorism 'not as bad as war'

Leading academic warns 'disproportionate response' by Britain and US forces
could escalate conflict
By Alan Crawford, Political Correspondent
The Sunday Herald, 12 January 2003

British and US forces could trigger a wider war by responding to the
terrorist threat in a disproportionate manner, one of Europe's leading
terrorism experts has warned.

Professor Paul Wilkinson, based at St Andrews University, said that
terrorism was 'not necessarily the worst thing that can befall the
international community' when compared with all-out war.

Wilkinson, the chairman of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and
Political Violence at St Andrews, agreed the threat of terrorist attacks in
the UK was as high as the government claims.

But he added: 'Terrorism is very often the pressure point that leads to the
wider conflict and I think we should be very wary of that now.

'Any escalation in the Israel- Palestine situation could lead to local war
to major nuclear war and the estimates are that millions could die.

'Although terrorism is a problem it is not necessarily the worst thing that
can befall the international community. The even larger tragedies of a major
war can destroy millions of lives. One has to make sure our response to
terrorism doesn't actually help to trigger a wider conflict.'

Wilkinson said it was often forgotten the first world war had been triggered
by a terrorist act -- the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in
Sarajevo -- as was the 1982 war between Israel and Lebanon, which was
sparked by a series of Hizbollah attacks . He added: 'Terrorism in certain
situations can become a strategic threat to individual countries . But they
can also become a trigger for a wider war.'

In particular, he said the US policy of pre-emptive strikes had 'immense
risks for the international system' since it would undermine inter national
law . Wilkinson's institute is the only one of its kind in the UK and has
played host to a string of visitors of the standing of Carl Bildt, the UN
special envoy to the Balkans (and now a member of the centre's board) and
George Mitchell, the former US Senator who brokered the Good Friday
agreement in Northern Ireland.

Wilkinson said he had spent his life trying to find responses to terrorism '
fully compatible with maintaining peace and the rule of law'.

'I still believe that should be our real emphasis,' he said. 'If you look at
terrorism, there's no simple solution , as the lessons of Afghanistan show
us.

'These people can only be [caught] by using brains rather than brawn.'

Intelligence was key and the emphasis should be on 'unravelling the network'
using the judicial system, he said. 'It doesn't sound dramatic but it's that
patient work since September 11 which is beginning to yield results.'

Wilkinson, who recently stood down as director of the centre, added: 'I had
hoped I would be able to retire into a more peaceful world but the demands
of the centre are such that I don't think I'll be able to retire for a while
ahead.'