Militant organisations in Southeast and Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa are continuing to choose targets of Western economic significance.

On Aug 5, the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia was bombed. This trend is keeping in line with the explicit and multifaceted agenda espoused by Osama bin Laden.

Osama has noted that much of the strength of the United States and its Western allies relies on their economic hegemony and the cultural influence which that affords.

Because of this, he has speculated that it is more damaging to the United States when its markets are attacked rather than its military directly.

On Oct 7, Osama threatened, "I swear by Allah that the youth of Islam are preparing for what will fill your hearts with fear and horror and will target your economic lifeline..."

He followed in December with: "It is important to concentrate on the destruction of the American economy."

Attacks targeting economic centres have repercussions far more pervasive and damaging than many military-targetted attacks can have.

The Sept11 attacks seriously impacted the US economy and caused the kind of chain reaction that can make economies vulnerable: one of the results of the intense fear and shock felt by the vast majority of Americans was to bring the airline industry almost to a halt, which then affected industries reliant on its employees actively traveling throughout the country and world. Just a small snag in the sequence of production and dispersal can cause immense economic impact.

Economic attacks are also more consistent with an intent to target the conduits of Western culture and values. Globalisation or, perhaps, Westernisation and its results are as much the enemy of Osama and his followers as are the more obvious results of US military endeavors in Afghanistan, or, for example, the US$3 billion in aid Washington gives every year to Israel.

Bali bombing

The first major attack that reflected this agenda was the bombing of a Bali nightclub in October 2002. About 200 people were killed in the blast, the majority of which were Westerners and Australians.

The intensity of this attack instantly broadcast throughout the world hardly made Bali - or anywhere in the Indonesian archipelago - an enticing destination for tourists and their money. Bali's economy took a severe blow in terms of revenue for months after the bombing, with one-third of workers unemployed at the beginning of the summer.

Another attack targeting ostensibly tourist areas took place in Mombasa, Kenya on Nov 28, 2002 when a suicide bomber drove a truck into the Paradise Hotel where visiting Israelis typically stayed. There was also a simultaneous and failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli charter jet with a shoulder-fired rocket launcher.

The most recent economic target has now become the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, which has prompted foreign business owners and investors in the various regions afflicted by anti-Western terrorism to reassess the security and risk of their enterprises in such places as Indonesia and the Philippines.

At this point, there is no reason to believe that these targets of economic opportunity will not continue to be selected. This shouldn't distract from the fact that military and political targets are still considered an important part of the agenda of many Islamists throughout the world. Recently, on Aug 7, the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad was bombed, killing 19.

US reaction

The US reaction to this unfolding global situation will be significant, as economic crises can be of the severest kind. It was an economy that was unable to adapt to the world around it that propelled the Soviet Union into obsolescence.

Even after Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party - though by then it was too late - there were many in the Kremlin who advocated an aggressive campaign of continued militarisation to compete with the United States.

But, even if this route had been chosen, as was evident in other areas, the Soviet economy was incapable of keeping up with the production and innovation of the United States because its economy lacked the diversity and competitive forces that had helped shape the US marketplace. Thus, a superpower was no more.

However, the effect terrorism has on the US and global economy functions in a different way than economic crisis did within the decaying Soviet Union of a decade ago.

These acts of economic sabotage serve to quell the tide not of territorial military expansion but economic - and then cultural expansion - in the form of market acquisitions.

New markets

The opening up of vast new markets such as in Iraq can have a tremendously positive impact on the US and global economy, as American and other Western companies are able to secure contracts ranging from a few million to several billion dollars.

Instability and political uncertainty in fresh markets threaten these contracts and their potential long-term positive effects on the economy. Security in Iraq, as well as other nascent markets, not only affects the political evolution and condition of the Iraqi people but also the financial prospects of American shareholders.

This undercurrent of the "war on terrorism" is one often denied by Washington and its followers, as resistance is frequently described as radical or immoral or reactionary.

Though to question the mental capabilities and logic of those who attack you is a tried and true method to delegitimise their cause.

The last thing Washington wants to admit to is that their nebulous enemy has a specific agenda that is being carried out.

Report Drafted By: Matthew Riemer

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR) is an analysis-based publication that seeks to, as objectively as possible, provide insight into various conflicts, regions and points of interest around the globe.