"Overcoming Extremism", Kanishk Tharoor

KVB Tharoor — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:48:45 +0100

This week, Anthony Barnett and I attended an impressive conference in Washington, DC convened by the US foreign policy think-tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). "Overcoming Extremism: Protecting Civilians from Terrorist Violence" brought together a broad array of scholars, policy-makers, journalists, activists and survivors of terrorist violence, ostensibly to develop a "shared international agenda" on combating terrorism.

Such gatherings on the Beltway can be damp squibs, with the imperatives of "bi-partisan balance" sapping life and novelty from discussions. Not so here. What I heard over the duration of the conference was serious, energetic and unflinching re-evaluation of the "war on terrorism". Critics - including yours truly - have long been frustrated by the insular nature of even the most well-meaning foreign policy debates in the States. Though it did not arrive at some magical "shared international agenda", CSIS' conference went a long way to opening those debates to the perspectives and experiences of the rest of the world. "Overcoming Extremism" was held by the Center for International and Strategic Studies in Washington, DC on 22-23 October.

Visit CSIS' blog on Prevention, Conflict Analysis, and Reconstruction.

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"Overcoming Extremism", Kanishk Tharoor