"25 Years After 9/11: Assessing the Costs and Failures of the War on Terror"
AUMF (Authorisation for the Use of Military Force)
US Congressional mandate passed in 2001 authorising military action against terrorism without fresh approval per conflict.
UN Security Council Resolution 1373
Binding 2001 resolution requiring all states to criminalise terrorism financing, tighten borders, and share intelligence.
The September 11, 2001 attacks, carried out by al-Qaeda using four hijacked civilian aircraft, killed 2,977 people and destroyed the World Trade Center. The attacks proved that non-state actors operating from distant sanctuaries could inflict strategic shock on the world's most powerful military state. Before 9/11, terrorism was largely treated as a domestic law-enforcement problem. After it, terrorism became the organising principle of international security policy for two decades.
The international response was swift. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1373, imposing binding obligations on all member states: criminalise terrorism financing, tighten border controls, deny safe haven to terrorists, and share intelligence. Resolution 1373 also established the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) as the primary multilateral oversight body. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was tasked with tracking illicit financial flows sustaining terror networks, including hawala transfers, state sponsorship, and drug-trafficking proceeds. Despite this institutional expansion, a foundational gap persists: the absence of a universally agreed definition of terrorism has blocked India's proposed Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), pending at the UN since 1996.
The roots of the current South Asian security landscape stretch back to the 1979–89 US-USSR proxy war in Afghanistan. Arab volunteers were mobilised through ideological networks, and Pakistan served as the frontline logistics base. Leaders of Pakistani militant groups who participated in that conflict later founded Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). Al-Qaeda itself was secretly founded in Peshawar around May 1988, even before Soviet troops withdrew. The proxy war's end left the Af-Pak region deeply destabilised, with armed networks, weapons, and an entrenched jihadist ideology that had no post-war demobilisation plan.
The US Congress passed the 2001 Authorisation for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) immediately after the attacks. This broad legislative mandate has remained in force ever since, and every US president from 2001 onward has used it to justify military action in multiple countries without requiring fresh congressional approval for each new conflict. The AUMF effectively created a permanent legal basis for war, which critics argue bypassed democratic accountability.
The US-led Global War on Terror (GWOT) became the organising framework of American national security. Its most consequential extension was the 2003 invasion of Iraq, launched without UN Security Council authorisation, making it one of the most legally contested military actions of the post-Cold War era. The invasion dismantled Iraqi state institutions, including the army and civil bureaucracy, creating a prolonged power vacuum. At peak deployment, over 1,70,000 US troops were present. …
Carl von Clausewitz once said, 'War is a diplomacy by other means.' Critically analyse the above statement in the present context of contemporary geo-political conflict.
'The reform process in the United Nations remains unresolved, because of the delicate imbalance of East and West and entanglement of the USA vs. Russo-Chinese alliance.' Examine and critically evaluate the East-West policy confrontations in this regard.
Consider the following statements regarding the legal framework governing the use of military force under the UN Charter:
1.Article 2(4) prohibits the use of force against the territorial integrity of any state.
2.Article 51 permits collective self-defence only when authorised by the Security Council.
3.Chapter VII of the UN Charter authorises the Security Council to mandate collective military action to restore international peace and security.
4.The 2003 invasion of Iraq was authorised under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
How many of the above statements are correct?
Match the following terms related to the US military presence in Iraq with their correct descriptions:
(a) Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) — (i) Iran-aligned militias formally integrated into Iraqi state security structures
(b) Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) — (ii) Bilateral treaty governing the legal status of foreign military personnel in a host country
(c) Anbar Awakening — (iii) Counter-insurgency strategy paying Sunni tribal leaders to cooperate against al-Qaeda
(d) Islamic State (IS) — (iv) Transnational jihadist group that emerged from the post-2003 Iraqi power vacuum and expanded from 2014
Select the correct match:
With reference to the US 2001 Authorisation for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), consider the following statements:
1.It was passed by the US Congress in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
2.It has been repealed and replaced by a new authorisation under each subsequent US administration.
3.It has been used by every US president since 2001 to justify military action in multiple countries.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Consider the following statements about the Islamic State (IS):
1.IS emerged primarily from the power vacuum created after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
2.IS expanded rapidly from 2014, seizing large territories in Iraq and Syria.
3.The US returned to Iraq in 2014 at the Iraqi government's invitation to counter IS.
4.Coalition military operations against IS formally concluded in 2019.
How many of the above statements are correct?
Which of the following best describes the legal basis under which the United States returned military forces to Iraq in 2014 to counter the Islamic State?
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