In the recent controversial Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) bill, President Barack Obama faced his first ever veto override in his two terms of presidency.
While most people associate the recently enacted JASTA bill with potentially adverse economic consequences, intriguingly, the Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee (SAPRAC) president, Salman Al-Ansari, also goes over the often overlooked security outcomes of the controversial law.
The first critical issue is linked to security. Accordingly, this bill will foster a political environment that will paint an unflattering and grossly inaccurate image of the United States as an enemy of Islam.
This will play right into the hands of extremist groups, who will not miss the slightest chance of employing this narrative for their recruitment efforts, as they are in a constant need to create any justification for the demonization of America.
The second issue is: economic landscapes. This bill poses a direct threat to any foreign investment that could potentially be made in the United States, which could cause the U.S. to fall into a much less attractive investment climate.
In principle, this bill could have profound consequences on the very foundations of the philosophy behind free trade and a modern economy. More fundamentally, the third issue is: diplomatic. This bill could potentially damage any strategic relationship the U.S. has with its closest allies.
Since JASTA lacks precedent, other countries might pursue similar legislation to protect themselves, inadvertently turning much needed allies into adversaries.
It is incumbent on Washington and the Congress to rethink its calculations by assessing the above-mentioned security, diplomatic and economic repercussions that JASTA poses.
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Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is an American political scientist, president of the International American Council on the Middle East, business advisor, and best-selling author. Harvard-educated, Rafizadeh serves on the advisory board of Harvard International Review. He is regularly quoted and invited to speak on national and international outlets including CNN, BBC World TV and Radio, ABC, Aljazeera English, Fox News, CTV, RT, CCTV America, Skynews, CTV, and France 24 International, to name a few. Dr. Rafizadeh is frequently invited to brief governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as speak, as a featured speaker, at security, business, diplomatic, and social events. He has been recipient of several fellowships and scholarships including from Oxford University, Annenberg, University of California Santa Barbara, Fulbright program, to name few. He analyses have appeared on academic and non-academic publications including New York Times International, Los Angeles Times, CNN, Farred zakaria GPS, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, The Nation, The National. Aljazeera, The Daily Beast, The Nation, Jerusalem Post, The Economic Times, USA Today Yale Journal of International Affairs, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, and Harvard International Review. He is a board member of several significant and influential international and governmental institutions, and he is native speaker of couple of languages including Persian, English, and Arabic. He also speaks Dari, and can converse in French, Hebrew. More at Harvard.
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