Attending Matthew Ceccato’s Brown Bag Lecture on January 31st proved to be one of the better decisions I made that day. Not only did I get a free chocolate chunk cookie (my favorite) but I also got to check “appear in the Collegian” off of my Penn State bucket list. That’s right; I made my Collegian debut in the photo accompanying the article about Ceccato’s presentation. It might just be the back of my head in the picture, but nonetheless it is the back of MY head.
In reality, I was extremely interested in Matthew Ceccato’s presentation “A Globalized Criminal World: The blurred lines between terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations,” because I am currently enrolled in the class, The Politics of Terrorism, and last semester I was an intern at the International Center for the Study of Terrorism. Many of Ceccato’s points complimented the topics I have been learning in class. For example, in class we learned that the term terrorism does not have one clear definition. Ceccato’s presentation, and the discussion afterwards, focused on the importance of creating a clear definition. Furthermore, in class we separate criminal activity and terrorist activity by deciding if actions are politically motivated or not. In class we learned that terrorist activity always has a political objective. Ceccato went further by explaining that many terrorist organizations use criminal activity, such as smuggling and drug trafficking, to fund their terrorist organization.
During our first day of my Politics of Terrorism class, our professor told us that terrorism is actually something we should spend very little time worrying about. Compared to the many other things that threaten our lives, our professor explained that terrorism does not happen often and does not directly affect many people. In other words, terrorism is something we spend a lot of time worrying about, but shouldn’t. Although this is clearly true, this idea is something that is hard for me to accept as a New York resident who clearly and vividly remembers 9/11. During Ceccato’s presentation an audience member brought up a similar point. The audience member told us that in the past terrorism funded their activities by robbing banks. When the FBI made a major crack down on bank robberies, terrorist organizations turned to smuggling and drug trafficking, which are harder for agencies to control and stop. The audience member suggested that the FBI shouldn’t have cracked down quite so hard on bank robberies so that the terrorist organizations wouldn’t have turned to narcotics. In other words, terrorism wasn’t so serious and dangerous that we needed to completely cut off their funding.
In other ways Ceccato’s presentation contrasted what I have learned in class. For example, he described the Red Army Faction as glorified bank robbers as opposed to terrorists. In class we learned that the Red Army Faction was fairly small and ineffective, but clearly a terrorist organization due to their political objective. The contrast between what I learned in class and Ceccato’s presentation only helped me realize that terrorism truly is not a clearly defined topic. Depending on your point of view, a group can look like terrorists, simply criminals, or even freedom fighters.
My Politics of Terrorism class and my ICST internship have inspired me to consider a career in counterterrorism and terrorism research. Ceccato’s presentation only furthered my interest. In fact, it inspired me to go to my professor’s office hours the next day and ask his advice on working in the terrorism field. Ceccato’s presentation proved that while terrorism might not be something we should spend every day worrying about, there is a lot of research left be done that could be especially relevant for the world today.