Seminar On ‘Do Markets Matter In The War Against Terror? The Impact of Markets on Terror Attacks by Kashmiri Insurgents in India’

Posted on February 8, 2018 by administrator

By: Prof Rajiv Krishnan, Associate Professor, Beedie School of Business, Canada.

Abstract of the Talk: Kashmir, once considered as a paradise on earth, had became a bloody battle ground between Kashmiri insurgents and the Indian Government. The government of India has tried various routes to bring peace to the valley, such as negotiations with Kashmiri insurgents, counter terrorism, and even subsidies to appease the disgruntled local populace. While these initiatives have had limited success, sustained peace seems to evade the valley even now. In this paper, He focused on the role of an often forgotten actor in the war on terror, markets. He contended that as markets straddle the state and society owing to its inherently political nature, they might actually be key players in it. Drawing on strain theory and social movement theory, he proposed that markets may matter in the war against terror to the extent that they can not only offer potential recruits alternative avenues for social and economic progress but also disengage them from the collective action frames of terrorist outfits. But he also theorized about the limits of markets,  identified conditions when markets both inadvertently and consciously facilitated the mobilization efforts of terrorist outfits.