Summary: Critical Threats

Words: 1945
Pages: 8

PLS 545, Political violence
Week 14: Critical threats
Critical reaction memo
By Almira Sadykova
Depending on a type of target and magnitude of impact critical threats can take a variety of forms. Such political phenomena as assassination of a leader or drug trade usually have broader security implications. This week’s readings investigate the causes and consequences of critical threats and draw policy implications that are supposed to help decision - makers in dealing with security issues.
The level of impact that an assassination of a certain individual will have on its environment mainly depends on the social status of a victim. While murder of an ordinary citizen affects only a small circle of people which usually involved his family,
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Three features distinguish a state with hereditary succession from other types of autocracies. First, power is passed from father to son. Second, the heir is appointed and power is transferred before the incumbent leader’s death. Third, there are no other norms such as “formal democratic procedures (electoral democracy) or legal stipulation of familial rule (traditional monarchies)” which can regulate the process of power transition. In order to pass the power the incumbent leader has to have both political and biological opportunities. By political opportunity Brownlee means that the leader has to stay in power long enough to define who will replace him, and he has to be able to pass power to successor. In turn, the presence of a male heir constitutes a biological opportunity for succession. The leaders prefer to appoint their sons as successors, because it reduces the risks of being murdered by their appointees. Probably, a son will be young enough to wait until his father departs without trying to speed up the process by …show more content…
According to the argument there is a cyclic relationship between drug trade and bad-governance. Narcotics possess a great potential in weakening the state by affecting all aspects of political, social and economic life. Drug trade destroys political institutions by corrupting the government officials. This further leads to the criminalization of a state where judicial system instead of serving public interests, protects the interests of criminal groups that succeeded to co-opt them. From the social perspective, drug addiction causes the spread of such diseases as HIV\AIDS and decreases citizens’ capability to engage in productive labor. Moreover, it also increases the level of crimes and threatens societal security. Economic life is also negatively affected by drug trade. Heavy reliance on coca and opium for generating the income displaces other crops from production. Even though cultivation of coca and opium bring higher revenues in the short run, in the long run drug production severely damages the economy by making the state unable to produce other products than drugs and by severely damaging