The Social and Political Impacts of Terrorism: A Case of 9/11

Abstract:
The terrorist attacks on America on 9th September 2001 had a dramatic impact on tourism not only for America but for the rest of the World as well. Lessons were learnt for everyone and changes were made so that this type of disaster never happened on this scale again.

Keywords:
Terrorism, New York, Tourism, Security, World Trade Centers, Pentagon, Planes

Summary:
To help to understand the impacts that terrorism has on the tourism industry, it is important to establish a definition and history of the term.Terrorism dates back to the mid-1930’s, with the bombing of Pearl Harbour by Japan in 1941 being the last major encounter and the one that impacted the most with the involvement of America in World War II (Kapila, 2002).

A universal definition of terrorism has still not been established but The US Department of State (2004) define terrorism as 'the premeditated use or threat of violence by individuals or sub national groups to obtain a political or social objective', this often extends beyond the immediate victims.

There is no denying that tourism is an industry which is majorly affected by terrorism, political conflict and natural disasters, as the demand and supply can be sensitive to these types of events. It is even suggested tourists are targeted by terrorists; as they are viewed as 'easy' targets, as well as ambassadors for their country, and as a symbolic representative of hostile governments.

Many people can remember where they were for various major events and 9/11 is no different, even at the age of 9 I can remember the events that unfolded on that fateful day, and many people can as well which just shows the impact it had on the World. When four commercial airliners were hijacked by terrorists for an attack on the United States of America. Firstly a plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, shortly after another plane struck the South Tower. The Pentagon in Washington D.C. was also hit by a plane and another plane crashed into a field in Shanksville which is thought to have crashed before it hit its intended target. In total a shocking 2,977 people were killed in the terrorist attacks.

These events caused major social and political impacts the biggest of them being changes in security one especially in airports where facial recognition was introduced to help locate and track potential terrorists. As well as this change there was also the introduction of tighter security where only passengers with a ticket could pass through to departures. This is something that we all think of always being there when it was only really introduced after a disastrous event. Research shows that 72.68% of people felt that the attacks of 9/11 have made airports safer for all, though this has all come at a cost for Delta airlines who increased their security measures by an estimated $50 million (Oslen, 2002).

The terrorist attacks on 9/11 brought the citizens of not just America but internationally together. After the attacks there was an increase in patriotism from all around the United States with people flying flags and with people singing the national anthem, sports games were postponed out of respect and celebrities helped to raise funds for the victims by putting on benefit concerts. As well as community spirit becoming more apparent, people spent more time with their family, there was an increase in births and a higher number of people attending church including impromptu candlelight vigils. Another influence that the terrorist attacks had on citizens was that alcohol consumption increased by 24% and the use of cigarettes also increased by 9.7% this then affects the public’s lifestyle and heath.

The Impact on airlines was huge because it was the first time that the symbol of tourism the aeroplane was used as a weapon. This then had knock on effects especially in the amount of people who had developed a fear of flying, it was reported that after the attacks around 40% of people had a fear of flying compared to 14% before. In the week after the attacks the airline industry lost $1 - $2 billion. This led to the airline industry having to lay off 20,000 pilots because of traveller’s reluctance to transport by air.

With people not traveling and the destination image of New York damaged the economy took a hit, there was a hidden recession which then led to an increase in unemployment and redundancies. In the long run it wasn’t only New York City’s economy that was affected. Florida, Nevada and California suffered with a loss of revenue. Dobbs (2002) writes that in Florida employed 7% of the total job market to the tourism industry and brought in 122million tourists each year. Following the terrorist attacks, nearly 20% of these employees had to be laid off, and over 240,000 jobs were lost as the industry just couldn’t afford to keep them.

In conclusion a terrorist attack on any scale affects the social and political aspects of tourism, through various channels, such as community, security, policies, race, religion and the economy. The impact on the world is truly unimaginable as it affects so many people.


References:

Dobbs, L. (2002). A post September 11 check-up. Money, 33 (4) 55-56.

Kapila, S. (2002) United States post September 11, 2001 policy impacts on South Asia: An analysis. South Asia Analysis Group. [Online] Available from: hhtp://www.saag.org/papers5/paper454.html. [Accessed 25th April 2014].

Oslen, J. (2002) Delta Representatives: Airlines have lost $8 billion since September 11. The Enterprise, 31 (43): 1.

US Department of State (2004) Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003. [Online] Available from: http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2003/. [Accessed 20th April 2014].

The reason I have chosen to comment on this paper is because I find the literature surrounding the 9/11 events very interesting. I also did a lot of background reading on the topic as part of my Extended Project during Sixth Form. This paper was particularly interesting because unlike many other papers discussing the impacts of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it focuses on the political and social impacts, and not just the economic impacts.

The paper begins with a clear definition of terrorism. The author provides us with a brief history of terrorism suggesting that before 9/11, the last major encounter of terrorism was Pearl Harbour however under the provided definition; it could be argued that Pearl Harbour was an “act of war” rather than a terrorist attack as it was order by a national government rather than ‘a group of individuals or sub national group’.

The paper identifies the major security changes that have taken place since the 9/11 attacks, another of which included heightened visa controls for international tourists and would-be immigrants particualry from Middle Eastern countries. These new security measures have been subject to international debate. The author found research which suggests that people feel safer and undoubtedly the tighter security measures have contributed to the millions of safe passenger arrivals, however studies also suggest that the new security measures have had a negative impact on international travel to the US with tourism not returning to pre-2001 levels until 2007, with many stating the strict and inconvenient security measures as the reason (Cornwell and Roberts, 2010).
The author makes good use of the statistics that are available to show how the tragic events of September 11 impacted the everyday lives of American citizens including their lifestyle and health. The paper discusses the connection between 9/11 and the increase in people’s fear of flying. I too remember being nine years old watching the news coverage unfold on the television. It is understandable how such images could create terror in people’s minds particularly on those who had a fear of flying pre-9/11.

The author discusses impacts including recession, loss of revenue which I would argue are economic impacts rather than social or political impacts however the statistics surrounding job losses in tourism are relevant as they would have a major impact on the lives of American citizens. Overall, I thought that this paper is well-written, and its content is engaging and thought-provoking.
The conclusion mentions that terrorist attacks have an impact on race and religion. This is an issue that could be further explored especially the impact 9/11 had on the Muslim American community. It is reported that there were a 1,700% increase in the number of hate crimes towards Muslim Americans between 2000 and 2001, as well as increased racial and religious animosity towards Arabs, Middle Easterners, Muslims and those who bear stereotyped physical resemblance to these groups (Khan and Eckland, 2012).

References

Cornwell, D. and Roberts, B. (2010) The 9/11 Terrorist Attack and Overseas Travel to the United States: Initial Impacts and Longer-Run Recovery [pdf] Available from: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_ni_911_wp.pdf [Accessed 6th May 2014]

Khan, M. and Eckland, K. (2012) Attitudes Toward Muslim Americans Post 9/11, Journal of Muslim Mental Health, 7 (1) pp. 1-16

I chose to comment on this paper because it is related to the topic of my conference paper, the attacks of 9/11 and effects of it, but this paper illustrates the effects mainly on other aspects that I had concentrated on, the social and political factors.

The paper identifies the social and political impacts of the 9/11 attacks well and has considered multiple aspects that were affected by it, however there are some aspects that could have been elaborated more or viewed from different aspect, but when a paper is small-scale like this and the resources are restricted I considered that this paper tackled this topic well and that the paper was well written.

The term terrorism was clearly defined in the beginning of the paper but in my opinion it could have been defined before establishing the history of it. Also the bombing of Pearl Harbour can be considered as a terrorist attack, but it can be considered as a part of war acts, so did the terrorism really start then. Also it could have been a good idea to elaborate when tourism related terrorism attacks started, not just terrorism in general, because as the author discusses the 9/11 attacks were the first terrorism attacks which used the tourism industry as a weapon, but certainly tourists have been targets of terrorism before the attacks in 2001.

The author describes the happenings of 9/11, how the attacks happened, perhaps in too many details, because just before she acknowledges that everyone remembers and knows the attacks, so there is no need on describing it in such details, however the author could have not relied too much on the fact that every reader knows the events of 9/11, meaning that at least some details had to be given on the attacks.

The social impacts of 9/11 are discussed and mainly the aspect of increase in patriotism of USA citizens, nevertheless some ethnic minorities felt the negative social impact of the attacks and this could have been elaborated more in the paper. After the attacks the Arab Americans, people of Middle Eastern decent and Muslims were targeted and profiled by officers and also discriminated by some people, because of the reason that they were from the same race and ethnicity groups that the terrorists of 9/11 were (Gabbidon et.al, 2009).

References:

Gabbidon, S, Penn, E, Jordan, K & Higgins, G. (2009). The Influence of Race/Ethnicity on the Perceived Prevalence and Support for Racial Profiling at Airports. Criminal Justice Policy Review. 20 (3), p344-358.