Search results

Pyrotechnic effects and spectacular death belong to the symbolism of terror and political assassination – bizarre techniques of miscommunication through fear practiced on the innocent and designed to effect social change. While focusing on the use of terror in 9-11, this article deals with both terror and political assassination as closely related communicative practices of death. It outlines a theory of terrorism that suggests September 11 may be an example of expedient terrorist destruction ordered from within the state, a macabre instance of a state protection racket. Commentators on the left tend to see terrorism as a blow extended by the oppressed against exploiters. However, terrorism is much less likely to be a manifestation of a revolt by – or on behalf of – the underprivileged than a demonstration of brute force by the state or its agents. Machiavellian state terrorism is terror/assassination performed for reasons different from the publicized ones; often initiated by persons or groups other than those suspected of the act; and – most important – secretly perpetrated by, or on behalf, of the violated state itself. Machiavellian state terror advances the ruling agenda, while disguising itself as the work of individuals or groups opposed to the state's fundamental principles. As an example, the article reviews a mysterious 1971 assassination in Paris that obliquely foreshadows some critical elements of the official story of 9-11. The article underlines the importance of oppositional theorizing: questioning government and looking for connections between events are critical features of what it means to be vitally active in the political universe.

The paper seeks to draw lessons for effective policy and regulatory responses to protect financial systems in the face of terrorist attacks.

The paper presents data on the reaction of financial markets to the terrorist attacks in New York (2001) and Madrid (2004). It describes the authorities' crisis management responses and analyses their effectiveness. The paper describes the subsequent regulatory responses to protect the financial systems from abuse by terrorists.

Diversified, liquid, and sound financial markets were efficient in absorbing the shocks of terrorist attacks when supported by well organized crisis management responses.

The paper is limited in its coverage to the reaction of the financial markets to the 11 September 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, and 11 March 2004, attacks in Madrid.

The paper highlights the importance of effective contingency planning by the authorities and financial firms in mitigating the risks of disruption from terrorist attacks.

This paper provides an overview of the issues, challenges and responses in dealing with the risks posed by terrorism to financial systems. It combines empirical evidence with an institutional perspective, and notes some of the regulatory challenges in combating terrorist finance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether organizations have increased their crisis response planning in response to the terrorist attacks of 9‐11. While organizations were encouraged to implement crisis response plans or improve their existing plans after the events of 9‐11, there is mixed research on whether firms have taken such actions.

This study used a survey to explore if the number of firms implementing crisis response plans had increased since 9‐11. The survey also looked at employee perceptions of their company's preparedness for a crisis. By using subjects in New York and California, the survey also explored if there were geographical differences to the crisis response planning which occurred after 9‐11.

The survey found that firms have not responded as well as researchers and the government had hoped. The survey did find that the west coast firms seem to be responding quicker than the east coast companies.

Limitations of the survey include asking people to recollect the past. Another limitation is not having control over who filled out the survey since the survey was e‐mailed to the executives. The respondents also may have been susceptible to the social desirability bias.

This paper should impress upon organizations the need for an organizational crisis response plan. After the events of 9‐11, Hurricane Katrina has more recently focused attention on how firms were not prepared for a natural crisis and that firms may not be prepared for the Avian Flu.

The value of this paper is that it shows empirically the need for organizations to prepare crisis response plans. Future research should focus on exactly which elements should be included in a firm's crisis response plan.

The City of New York was suddenly and deliberately attacked on September 11, 2001, killing thousands of people and leaving unbelievable destruction. Thirty-eight buildings and structures were destroyed or damaged, including seven buildings in the World Trade Center site completely leveled. Almost five years later, two very large contaminated buildings, Deutsche Bank at 130 Liberty Street and Fiterman Hall of Borough of Manhattan Community College, have yet to be cleaned up and demolished. Some 30 million square feet of commercial space was lost. Transportation was disrupted, including the loss of the World Trade Center PATH station, the 1/9 subway line and portions of Route 9A and Church Street. Cars were not allowed south of Canal Street for a week. For Americans this was a terrorist attack and a crime. It was a time for mourning losses and responding to disaster. There was the shock that something like this could happen. And there was more. The destruction of the WTC also posed competing environmental, economic and social threats.

Roots of global Terrorism are in ‘failed’ states carved out of multiracial empires after World Wars I and II in name of ‘national self‐determination’. Both sides in the Cold War competed to exploit the process of disintegration with armed and covert interventions. In effect, they were colluding at the expense of the ‘liberated’ peoples. The ‘Vietnam Trauma’ prevented effective action against the resulting terrorist buildup and blowback until 9/11. As those vultures come home to roost, the war broadens to en vision overdue but coercive reforms to the postwar system of nation states, first in the Middle East. Mirages of Vietnam blur the vision; can the sole Superpower finish the job before fiscal and/or imperial overstretch implode it?

The purpose of this paper is to model the components of credit risk in primary debt markets and evaluate changes in these factors in times of crisis.

The authors use a unique dataset consisting of nearly 163,000 new loans and bond issues in the USA and internationally during the period January 1992 through December 2005.

The authors find that credit spreads are related to market liquidity, best represented by total proceeds, ratings and the interaction between maturity and rating. The authors control for various crisis periods, including regional financial crises and find that spreads generally increased in response to the Asian Crisis with the international markets exhibiting the larger increases. There is mixed evidence of asymmetric effects of shocks. In the US loan markets, the adjustment factor reduces forecast variance (Θ1<0). In contrast, the adjustment factor is not significant for US bonds, possibly indicating a more rapid adjustment and greater efficiency in this market. The opposite effect is seen in the international loan and bond markets with Θ1>0, indicating a persistent increase in spread volatility.

The paper extends our understanding of the components of primary credit spreads and the interactions between primary debt markets during crisis periods.

Questions about the short- and long-term effects of the trauma of 9/11 on students with special needs and the coping strategies used by their teachers to deal satisfactorily with the effects prompted the creation of a survey to examine these issues. While the survey was in its inception and before its completion, a consultation was held with a counselor from the Behavioral Studies program at the University of South Alabama to ensure that the survey was thorough and relevant to post-traumatic stress.

In this chapter, I suggest three conceptual tools developed by William R. Freudenburg and colleagues that characterize the failure of institutions to carry out their duties – recreancy, atrophy of vigilance, and bureaucratic slippage – are of use beyond environmental sociology in the framing of the September 11, 2001 disaster. Using testimony and findings from primary materials such as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Joint Inquiry hearings and report (2002, 2004a, 2004b) and the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (2004) alongside insider accounts, I discuss how Freudenburg’s tools have the potential to theorize institutional failures that occur in national security decision making. I also suggest these tools may be of particular interest to the U.S. intelligence community in its own investigation of various types of risk and failures.

This paper compares the performance and volatility of the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada and the Karachi Stock Exchange in Pakistan, as well as the sensitivities of the two stock exchanges to major global events. The purpose of this paper is to assist the Pakistani immigrants in Canada in their investment decisions.

This paper uses the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model to estimate volatility of the two stock exchanges. Moreover, the mean adjusted returns approach associated with the event study methodology is used to find out the impact of major global events on these stock exchanges.

The study finds that the Toronto Stock Exchange outperforms the Karachi Stock Exchange in the pre-September 11 attack period, while the latter outperforms the former in the post-September 11 attack period. The study also shows that there has been a significant improvement in the risk-adjusted return of the Karachi Stock Exchange in the post-September 11 attack period. Moreover, this paper finds that the impact of major global events is more significant on the Toronto Stock Exchange relative to the Karachi Stock Exchange on the event date.

This paper is one of the very few to analyze and compare stock performances from the perspective of immigrant communities. The paper is valuable for Pakistani immigrants living in Canada or any investors interested in Karachi Stock Exchange and its comparison with Toronto Stock Exchange. Moreover, the paper can be of value to the Pakistani Government in terms of their promotional activities.