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Fundamentalism, Terrorism and Democracy: The 2003 Iraq War and the Extremism of Ideologies

Ancietos Mwansa

Article Number - 62668F4C86692  | Vol. 3(1), pp. 1-15, April 2022  | 
 Received: 9 April 2021 |  Accepted: 11 April 2022  |   Published: 30 April 2022

Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.

Abstract

This paper discusses fundamentalism as a root cause of terrorism and seeks to establish whether the export of democracy to the Middle East - to the point of violent regime change - can be explained as democratic extremism. The regime change in Iraq is used as a reference point. The paper focuses on fundamentalism and gives an account that will form the premise for the judgement as to whether the same way that fundamentalism plays a role in the manifestations of terrorism is the same way the use of force to change sovereign foreign regimes must be understood.  Also, extremism will be defined vis-à-vis the export of democracy through war to the Middle East with particular focus on the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the repercussions thereof. The purpose of this two-pronged discussion is to reach a point of culmination and interaction between the actions of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and most recently Isis, and the push by the West, most notably the US and its allies to advance democracy in the Middle East, and create the nexus between a clash of ideologies rooted in extensive actions taken to defend or propagate them.

 

Keywords: Democracy, Fundamentalism, Extremism, Terrorism, War.

 

 

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Authors

Ancietos Mwansa

Political and Administrative Studies Department, Mulungushi University, Kabwe, Zambia. Email: [email protected], +260978806168 

 

 

How to Cite this Article

Mwansa, A. (2022). Fundamentalism, Terrorism and Democracy: The 2003 Iraq War and the Extremism of Ideologies. Archives of Political Science Research, 3(1), 1-15.

 

 

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Abbreviation: Arch. Pol. Sci. Res.
ISSN: 2971-7744 (Online)
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Start Year: 2020
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Ancietos Mwansa