Book Review | The Secret War: Inside The Dark Nexus Of The Global Terror

‘The Secret War: Inside the Dark Nexus of the Global Terror’ provides an in-depth analysis of terrorism, its nexus, being an invisible battlefield involving covert networks, transnational financiers, ideological engineers and strategic manipulators.

By Smiti Iyer, Research Assistant, CENJOWS: Terrorism, as the name suggests, becomes a covert strategy of infiltration made by the members of the proxy groups towards another country. Apart from the traditional means of infiltration made through the use of hard power, the 21st Century is also witnessing the multi-faceted ways of infiltration by these groups, through technology, psychological warfare and transnational crimes by establishing networks for trafficking and money laundering. This, in turn, would be extremely detrimental to the national security of the countries around the world. 

But the book ‘The Secret War: Inside the Dark Nexus of the Global Terror’ provides a detailed and in-depth analysis of terrorism and its nexus, being an invisible battlefield involving covert networks, transnational financiers, ideological engineers and strategic manipulators. According to the author, terrorism should not only be restricted to a threat towards national security but also as a threat towards moral, legal, and civilisational aspects as well, thus bringing the diverse perspectives of the concept. It had also emphasised the need to bring the Global South’s perspectives on counter-terrorism by highlighting India’s case, in describing the ways to avoid violating international law, which eventually led to debunking the global narrative of counter-terrorism, mainly influenced by the West.

From the context mentioned above, the author categorises the act into three parts and explained its approach in a very nuanced manner. The first part here talks about the nature of terrorism, where she mentions how it can lead to a political, philosophical, social and civilisational threat. The 26/11 attack that took place at Mumbai near Taj hotel, as she mentions in her chapter, comes under the political threat as it had led to damage to the infrastructure concerning the political interests of India. It is the rise of radicalisation on the basis of ideologies and religion that, in turn, leads to the formation of terrorist organisations like the JeM, LeT, TTK, etc. in

Pakistan, as well as the insurgent groups like the Naxals and the Maoists in India, posing a major philosophical threat. In the book, the author provides her explicit take on the very recent terror attacks on Pahalgam as well as around the Red Fort, and how they have caused massive casualties among the innocent civilians in those areas. While the motive behind the Pahalgam attack was solely based on the religious identity of the individual, it was surprising to know that the perpetrators of the Delhi Red Fort blast, who were the students and professors of the medical college of Al-Falah University, caused casualties to more than three hundred people.

These instances clearly highlights how terrorism pose a major civilizational threat as well, where civilisations provide the foundation of a country’s identity.

The second part of the book provides the author’s take on the legal foundations of terrorism, focusing on the International Humanitarian Law and the International Human Rights Law. While there are conventions like that of Geneva, that has clearly mentioned the threshold to which the casualties could be caused and the provision of not inflicting the same to the civilians not involved directly in the traditional warfare, in case of terrorism, there are Counter Terrorism Laws (CTL) that ensures equal protection to all parties in an armed conflict, regardless of the fact that the initial law of force was justified. One interesting fact about these laws, highlighted by the author, is that they also provide autonomy and power to the government to declare designated individuals as terrorists. Indeed, one can agree with her on the idea that while terrorism has legal measures, it also poses a legal threat towards international law, thus breaching the threshold of violence and casualties. 

As mentioned in the book, the International Humanitarian Law does not provide legitimacy to the non-state armed organisations that are party to the NIAC. Even Article 3 of the Additional Protocol II, emphasises non-impairment of the legal provisions to the parties in the conflict. These provisions, as the author highlights, easily navigate between necessity and legality, underscoring the utility of international law in terrorism.

The approach taken by democratic countries undertaking the counter-terrorism strategy while upholding their rule of law and democratic values, is one of the insightful and unique perspective brought by the author in this book. Here, she provides a contrast between the counter terrorism approach taken by the countries in the West and the countries in the Global South, taking India’s case. While they have undertaken varied approaches in their counter-terrorism strategy, one of the distinguishing factor lie in this case was the idea of global perception of terrorism, which is similar to the ‘War on Terror’ shaped by the West. Out of the numerous instances highlighted by the author, the notable ones are that of the Guantanamo Bay and the Israel-Gaza conflict, where countries have undertaken countermeasures that goes against their democratic values and the rule of law. 

These measures increases the amount of casualties suffered by those who are not directly involved in the conflict. On the other hand, counter-terrorism measures can also lead to a spillover effect with countries fortifying their borders to prevent the acts of terrorism in future, that today, remains contested. If we look at India, despite the country facing numerous terror attacks, takes a balanced approach in undertaking counter-terrorism strategy. 

For instance, Operation Sindoor that took place post-Pahalgam attack, the Indian Army have made a statement on keeping its focus towards eliminating nine terrorist infrastructure near the Indo-Pakistan border, while recording zero casualties.

Through military operations like these, the author had effectively justified India’s role in upholding its morality, rule of law, democratic integrity and sovereignty while conducting any counter-terrorism strategy.

Conclusion

A book brilliantly portrayed by Dr. Sreoshi Sinha provides a detailed perspective on the challenge of Global Terrorism. Apart from placing emphasis on the country’s national security but, has also focused on multidimensional aspects of morality, legality and civilizational. The book overall, is well researched with a lot of factual information and case studies, as well as reader friendly, where a connect exist in each and every information listed in the book. The distinction of the counter terrorism strategies made between the West and the Global South countries is one of the unique and insightful perspective provided by the author, with an emphasis of putting the voice of the Global South forward.

Despite having excellent subject coverage in 278 pages, the book has been priced only at Rs 1495/- with the aim to reachout to all the stakeholders. The book has been published by Pentagon Press (rajan@pentagonpress.in) as a CENJOWS publication.