PVE

Preventing Violent Extremism

BEYOND THE STATIST APPROACHES

Professor Imtiaz Ahmed

Department of International Relations
University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Email: imtiazalter@gmail.com
Website: http://peaceobservatory-cgs.org
The search for reason: a key quest in modernity
Martin Luther: 1483-1546 Descartes: 1596-1650
Voltaire: 1694-1778 Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677)
The confluence of reason and faith
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
 Outcome:
The confluence over-succeeded in history

The confluence ended up reproducing genocide and mass killing one after another. Not
surprisingly, Kant distinguished the 'autonomous, rational Christians' from the 'heteronomous
Jews' (one incapable of transcending material forces), and called the Jews "a nation of cheaters"
and depicted them as "a group that has followed not the path of transcendental freedom but that of
enslavement to the materials world." Kant otherwise helped construct the ideological basis of
Nazism. In fact, ideology being 'false consciousness,' as Engels would say, was guided as much
by reason as by faith, and Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt and Truman, all showed
how deadly it could be. In six years during World War II, 66 million people were killed, which
included 6 million Jews, 22 million Russians, and in one night in Dresden 25,000 people were
killed, and then of course you have the atomic bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nearer home, the same confluence killed nearly 2 million in 1947 and 3 million in 1971. The
plight of the Rohingyas in Myanmar, including the genocide that has now been unleased on them,
is no different. But such mass atrocities have not stopped people from supporting, even electing,
leaders who thrive on divisive politics or in the art of confluencing reason and faith, whether
under the banner of 'Salafism,' 'Trumpism,' 'Hindutva,' or 'Theravada Buddhism'!
Terrorism Beyond Reason

source: Dawn; British Library; Wikipedia

The Power and Decline of “Big
Brother”

source: www.PageChart.com
The Power and Decline of “Big
Brother”
The Rise of the ‘Little People’

source: iminnabluedream
The Rise of the ‘Little People’

source: The Huffington Post

The rise of the ‘Little People’

source: The Daily Star

The Rise of the ‘Little
People’
 What is to be done?
1. Incarceration
This has been the traditional task of the state, policing and imprisoning the citizens for breaking the
laws.

2. Intelligence Reforms
Intelligence agencies established in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the requirements of the
Westphalian modern state in mind, cannot effectively deal with the non-state elements in the age of
globalization. A greater involvement of the humans is required.

3. Intellectual Intervention
There is a certain truism in the statement that “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the
minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.”

4. Institutional Investment
A protracted institutional investment is required with stakeholders from all sectors, including
security agencies, academicians, researchers, media, feminist groups, business people, and the like,
multidisciplinary at the same time, researching and participating in understanding, analysing and
predicting the security threats, and suggesting ways to contain them.
Thank you