Scholar Studies Impact of Terrorism on
American Imports

Daniel Mirza

The more the United States continues to face terrorist attacks, the more the economies of developing countries will continue to suffer as a result. Lebanese-French scholar Daniel Mirza, currently an associate professor of economics at the University of Rennes in France, argued this thesis in a lecture entitled "Are Lives a Substitute for Livelihoods? Terrorism, Security, and United States Bilateral Imports," hosted by the Prince al Waleed bin Talal Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR) on December 18 in West Hall.

Selecting from a vast repertoire of empirical evidence gathered between 1968 and 2002, Mirza framed his talk against "the economic backdrop of the ongoing global trade-versus-security imbroglio." He said that the amount of consumer products imported by any country can serve as a yardstick by which economists can gauge the particular level of security that country is imposing through its trade regulations. Consequently, an increase in trade creates lower security incentives and a higher probability of successful terrorist attempts, and vice versa.

Mirza delineated two main reasons behind this choice of the United States in relation to the links of terrorism on commerce. He said that the United States has, for more than three decades, been almost exclusively the target of invasive attacks from different terrorist groups based in ninety-five countries. Moreover, ninety percent of these incidents have targeted American interests-- and citizens-in countries outside North America. Before 1990, the main "terrorist reservoirs" were Colombia, Paraguay, Palestine, and Greece. Since then, countries like the Philippines, Pakistan, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have also been blacklisted.

Mirza concluded that the huge amount of yearly American imports ensures that the average American consumer is not affected by export sanctions imposed on developing countries. By controlling the prospective revenues of their exports, the "only superpower in the world today" continues to gain significant leverage in negotiating diplomatic relations with countries that are conscious or unwitting terrorist sanctuaries.

Professor Mirza is a research fellow at the Center for International Studies and Prospectuses in Paris and at the Globalization and Economic Policy Center at Nottingham University in England. His main research interests are labor markets and international trade.