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Counter-Terrorism
BASIC Publications, Presentations and
Events on Counter-Terrorism
Steven Monblatt, Re-imagining counter-terrorism, All-Party
Parliamentary Group on Global Security and Non-Proliferation,
Westminister, London, 26 April 2007
Nuclear Terrorism: A
US Perspective, by Steven Monblatt, BASIC Notes, 25 April
2007.
BASIC Breakfast seminar on 'Containment of Terrorism',
Professor Ian Shapiro, Washington DC, 12 April 2007.
Steven Monblatt, The work of the UN Security Council on
Counter-terrorism, International Peace Academy and the
Center on Global Cooperation on Counter-terrorism. New York,
9 April 2007
Steven Monblatt, presentation on 'Counter-Terrorism'
at the World Security Conference organized by the East-West
Institute, Brussels, 22 February 2007.
Presentation by Ian Davis, 'Global Cooperation and Individual
Responsibilities: Counter-Terrorism Across Borders', panel
discussion, Counter-Terror World Conference, Olympia, London,
5 December 2006
Steven Monblatt discussed counter-terrorism strategy as part
of a conference on "The State, the Media, and Counter-terrorism"
sponsored by the Government of Brazil in Brasilia, 29-30 November
2006
Steven Monblatt participated in a round-table discussion
on "Terrorism and Security: Cooperation and Coordination"
sponsored by the Center on Law and Security of New York University
Law School, New York City, 17-18 November 2006.
Steven Monblatt discussed counter-terrorism strategy
as part of a panel discussion with a Member of the Spanish
Parliament and a representative from the European Commission
sponsored by the Potomac Institute at the National Press Club
in Washington, 2 November 2006
Counter-Terrorism Expert,
Steven Monblatt, Joins BASIC as Co-Executive Director in Washington,
BASIC Press Release, 18 September 2006. The British American
Security Information Council (BASIC) today announced that
the respected counter-terrorism professional, Steven Monblatt,
would be joining BASIC as Co-Executive Director in Washington,
D.C. He will take up his post on October 10, 2006.
Ian Davis, '
Why the U.S. is Losing its War on Terror', The Global
Beat Syndicate, 15 February 2006
Presentation by Ian Davis, 'Reducing the Long-Term Terrorist
Threat Through Conflict Prevention', to Defence IQ Conference:
Homeland Security 2005, The Café Royal, London, 12 December
2005.
Ian Davis and Andrew Cottey, 'After
the London suicide bombings: Facing difficult choices on home-grown
terrorism', BASIC Note, 15 July 2005.
Presentation by Ian Davis, 'The Nexus of WMD Proliferation,
International Terrorism and Failing States: A New Transatlantic
Security Orthodoxy?, to Fifth International CISS Millennium
Conference, Salzburg, Austria, 6-8 July 2004.
Presentation by Ian Davis, 'Transatlantic Responses to
Terrorism', at September 11 remembrance week, West Virginia
University at Parkersburg, 9 September 2002.
BASIC Project
Preventing terrorist acts is a necessary but not sufficient
condition for eliminating terrorism. At best, it is a prescription
for stalemate; as long as terrorists keep trying to attack
our interests, we will need to keep trying to prevent those
attacks.
Instead, we need a counter-terrorism strategy that offers
the hope of actually reducing or eliminating the use of terrorism
as a means of advancing political agendas.
Various studies that have appeared over the past few years
dealing with counter-terrorism strategies contain ideas that
we believe should be adopted (see Further Reading). However,
none of these studies attempted to synthesize the full range
of tools available to governments and international organizations
into an integrated and comprehensive approach to counter-terrorism
strategy.
Key Issues
Here some initial questions that we want to discuss and refine
with other experts. The answers to these questions (there
may be others) should give us the pieces that, when properly
assembled, will constitute a truly effective counter-terrorism
strategy.
1. How does terrorism end? If we cannot conceptualize
a desired end state, it is unlikely that we will ever reach
it. History offers us some models that may prove relevant.
In the 18th and 19th century campaigns against piracy and
slavery, civil society and nation states employed all the
tools of national power available to them in long term though
uncoordinated campaigns that resulted in reducing both problems
from major international problems to small, localized affairs.
In more recent times, both the PLO and the IRA were on the
US State Department Terrorism Watch Lists - until they formally
renounced violence and embraced the political process. Which
of these models seem relevant today? What can we learn from
them that we can apply to the current situation?
2. How do we resolve the "Definition Problem?" Though
there are many different definitions of terrorism (US law
has at least three, there may be as many as 110 worldwide)
no consensus definition exists in the international community.
Yet the lack of a definition of terrorism has not kept the
international community from defining terrorist crimes; these
definitions are embodied in 13 UN Conventions that have achieved
very wide, if not universal, acceptance. Is it enough to simply
criminalize certain behavior, for example, hijacking an airplane?
Why do we need to go beyond that?
Perhaps, in legal terms, we can consider terrorism as a form
of hate crime: convict a defendant of the underlying crime
and then add additional penalties if the prosecution can prove
a political motive.
3. What adjustments to national and international law
need we make to facilitate effective counter-terrorism strategies
while protecting the rights of individuals and society?
Preventing terrorist acts is neither a law enforcement nor
intelligence nor military problem exclusively, but one that
requires the full application of all the tools of national
power and social mobilization to be effective. Yet few national
laws are well suited to the current situation, attempts to
adapt or circumvent them have led to abuses, and the most
relevant international conventions, such as the Geneva Accords,
predate the modern terrorist era by decades. At the same time,
effective counter-terrorism campaigns will continue to rely
on secret intelligence that can only with difficulty be introduced
in courts. How can we resolve this conundrum? What legal principles
can we adduce that will provide a firm legal basis for effective
state action, and, at the same time, provide real protection
for individuals and groups caught up in counter-terrorism
campaigns?
4. What about State sponsors? Arguably, governments
have sponsored terrorism since at least the period when state-issued
"letters of marque" authorized the bearers to commit acts
of piracy on the high sea. Today, state support to terrorist
groups is more discreet, yet, in an age of nuclear proliferation,
potentially much more deadly. How can we convince states that
maintain relationships with terrorist groups to effectively
sever those relationships? Or should we try to convince them
to use those relationships to move those groups away from
the use of terrorism? What about states that employ terrorist
tactics on their own account?
5. How "multi-lateral" can counter-terrorism be? The
conventional wisdom is that international cooperation is essential
to any effective counter-terrorism strategy, and indeed, on
the operational and tactical level, there are numerous examples
of effective international cooperation. But at the strategic
level there is no international consensus on the definition
of terrorism, and conflicting national laws and interpretations
of international conventions, widespread reluctance to share
planning, programs, and intelligence all limit international
cooperation. Can these problems be overcome and if so, how,
or are they inherent in the international system and if so,
how can we work around them? Where should the locus of multilateral
cooperation lie? With regional organizations such as the OSCE,
OAS, and APEC? With international technical bodies such as
Interpol, IAEA, and IMO? Or with the bodies of the UN system?
By way of comparison, the international development community
has faced similar problems for over 50 years, and has not
been successful in resolving them.
6. How are terrorists recruited? Until we can interrupt
the terrorist recruitment process, more terrorists will continue
to be created than we can ever capture or kill. We do not
know enough about how or why individuals move from a sense
of injustice, or powerlessness, to membership in actual terrorist
groups or the commission of free-lance terrorist acts. Some
terrorist groups show aspects of cult behavior: coalescing
around charismatic individuals, separation from former friends
and family, adherence to doctrines promulgated by "the leader."
Some terrorists seem to act in ways akin to soldiers in combat:
performing less in conformity with a particular belief or
doctrine and more as a way to maintain their place in the
group, so as not to disappoint their comrades. Where can this
process be interrupted, and how, by whom? What role does ideology
play in recruitment?
What role does the internet play in recruitment? In the past
few years, terrorist groups have used the internet to promulgate
"the single, narrative," an all-encompassing explanation of
the woes of the developing world - particularly the Islamic
World - that lays the blame for their problems over the past
200 years at the feet of the west. It is an effective recruitment
and propaganda tool that Western governments have not yet
countered. Can Western governments fashion an effective counter
to the single narrative that has legitimacy with target audiences?
7. How are terrorists financed? Arguably, restraining
terrorist financing is the area in which the international
community has made the greatest progress. Through a combination
of good intelligence and international financial penalties
for entities involved in terrorist financing, formal financial
channels through which terrorists can move funds have become
less accessible. But this success has led to new challenges,
as traditional and informal means of money transfer have grown
to replace the international banking system in the terrorist
ecosystem, and those wishing to finance terrorist groups still
find means to do so. Today, many specialists believe that
much, if not all, funds destined to support terrorist groups
move either through trust-based systems such as Hawallah,
or via bulk cash transfers. Here too, the internet plays a
role, both as a means of fund transfer through systems such
as PayPal, and fraudulent on-line sales akin to money-laundering
schemes. The internet is also the venue for numerous outright
frauds, online crimes used to raise money from unwary victims.
What further measures can the international community take
to dry up the sources of terrorist financing, as well as the
channels though which funds flow? What kind of training do
governments need to provide their financial investigators,
and who is best qualified to provide it? How can sensitive
financial information be vetted for accuracy to protect the
unwary or unwitting without disclosing it? What kind of appeals
process can governments fashion to protect the rights of those
accused of terrorist fundraising without losing control of
the suspect funds?
8. What are the lessons that counter-insurgency holds
for counter-terrorism? The two are not identical, but
to be successful in each, practitioners need to overcome some
similar problems, for example: how to gain the support of
the local population, intelligence collection in hostile environments,
to name two. What other lessons can we learn and how can we
apply them?
9. What tools and other resources do we need to effectively
implement a new counter-terrorism strategy? It is widely
acknowledged, for example, that the US lacks sufficient numbers
of native speakers of Arabic to work, not only as interpreters
and translators, but as investigators, case officers, and
interrogators as well. What else do we need? When studying
an information poor society, such as the former Soviet Union,
analysts pored over the smallest bit of data, such as photographs
of the Soviet leadership at the annual May Day parade, to
try to determine power relationships in the Kremlin. In today's
information-rich societies, analysts face the challenge of
sorting through vast quantities of data to find the significant
fact. How can we use data-mining techniques to assist in this
task, and how can civil liberties be protected against unwarranted
government intrusion? How can current budgets and legislative
authorities be adapted to provide these resources?
10. What is the right balance between Counter-Terrorism
and Homeland Security? Protection against terrorist threats
remains a political imperative for all governments. But what
exactly needs to be protected, to what degree, and by what
means? Notionally, the most important priority is protecting
civilian populations against chemical, biological, nuclear,
or radiological weapons, but it is not the only priority.
Critical infrastructure, government functions, and national
symbols all need protection, even if in practice they must
be prioritized. How should homeland security strategy and
counter-terrorism strategy fit together? How can we prioritize
the interests and physical sites that need protecting, and
must that protection be static? What role should the owners
and users of critical infrastructure play in developing and
implementing defense plans? What political and diplomatic
tools can we use to enhance homeland security protection?
11. What About the Victims? Most victims of terrorism
are innocent bystanders who happened to be in the wrong place
at the wrong time. How can we make them and their survivors
effective allies against terrorist groups? What does society
owe them?
Further Reading
Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,
Robert A. Pape;
Unconquerable Nation: Knowing Our Enemy, Strengthening
Ourselves, Brian Michael Jenkins;
Counterterrorism Strategies: Successes and Failures of
Six Nations, Edited by Yonah Alexander;
An Action Agenda for Enhancing the United Nations Program
on Counter-Terrorism, Cortright, Lopez, Millar, Gerber;
Developing a National Counterinsurgency Capability for
the War on Terror, John Hillen, Military Review January-February
2007;
Countering Global Insurgency, David Kilcullen, The
Journal of Strategic Studies, August 2005
Links
NGOs | Government Sites
NGOs
Center on Global Counter-Terrorism
Cooperation
The Center on Global Counter-Terrorism Cooperation, a project
of the Fourth Freedom Forum, is a nonpartisan research and
policy institute that works to improve internationally coordinated
responses to the continually evolving threat of terrorism
by providing governments and international organizations with
timely, policy-relevant research and analysis.
Centre for the
Study of Terrorism and Political Violence
The Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence
(CSTPV), established in 1994, is Europe's oldest centre for
the study of political violence. Based at the University of
St Andrews in Scotland, CSTPV is dedicated to the study of
the determinants, manifestations and consequences of terrorism
and other forms of political violence.
Council
on Global Terrorism
The Council on Global Terrorism is a permanent, standing committee
of the world's leading experts on international terrorism.
Through original research, information exchange, and consultation,
the Council aims to contribute to the course of strategy in
addressing global terrorism.
Memorial Institute for the
Prevention of Terrorism
The Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism informs
the public about terrorism prevention and responder preparedness.
The MIPT Terrorism Knowledge
Base offers in-depth information on terrorist incidents,
groups, and trials.
Government Sites
U.S. State Department,
Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism
The primary mission
of the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism (S/CT)
is to forge partnerships with non-state actors, multilateral
organizations, and foreign governments to advance the counterterrorism
objectives and national security of the United States.
UK
Home Office Counter-Terrorism strategy
Foreign and Commonwealth
Office
This site details the approach of the UK government to Terrorism
and Security.
UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism
Committee
The Counter-Terrorism Committee (composed of the 15 Council
delegations) derives its mandate from Security Council resolutions
1373 (2001), 1535 (2004) and 1624 (2005). Through these resolutions,
the Council imposed certain obligations on Member States and
called for additional measures in the area of counter-terrorism,
including the criminalization of terrorism-related activities
and provision of assistance to carry out those acts, denial
of funding and safe haven to terrorists and exchange of information
on terrorist groups.
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