Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism
Antoine Andary
Political Communication and International Affairs | United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT)
The world we know today is facing many challenges, one of them is crime and majorly organized crime. As part of the fight against national and transnational organized crime, a global phenomenon took place, and it is called ‘’Terrorism’’.
The society became aware of terrorism, when we saw the deadliest terrorist strikes in history, the September 11 attacks, often referred to as 9/11. Nations and specifically the United States response to it, shaped our world today. But terrorism is nothing new, and as you go forward in time, in the late 19th century anarchist terrorists killed presidents and prime ministers. In 1914, state-sponsored terrorists killed the Archduke of Austria-Este Frans Ferdinand. Moreover, after World War II, we saw terrorism as part of revolutionary struggles. And if you look around the world today, from Northern Ireland, to the Middle-East, landing down in Indonesia ‘’Terrorism remain a constant concern’’.[i]
When we think of terrorism, we imagine armed guys in the middle of the desert, or which shoots all the way shouting ‘’Allahu Akbar’’. Except that terrorism is not a new case, it responds to a much more complex logic that they would like to make us believe today. But, as long as there has been terrorism, there have been people trying to stop it. Thereupon, we are going to examine the counter terrorism machine and how with the help of its finest tools the intelligence services and military forces, try to determine who is a terrorist and what they do with the information on how is being used to fight and prevent terrorism.
One step beyond, terrorism and counter-terrorism research, is an interdisciplinary academic field, that can be carried out in both military and civilian contexts. Which seeks to understand the causes of terrorism, also how to prevent it as it impacts in the broadest sense. Accordingly, the persistence of terrorism stuns and prevents thinking, there is a very rich academic research on terrorism, both quantitative and qualitative. It relies in particular on databases, starting with the most widely used, the Global Terrorism Database — GTD created and maintained by the University of Maryland. This brings together data on the 180,000 terrorist attacks that have occurred worldwide since 1970. Terrorism research can also be based on three specialized academic journals, Terrorism and Political Violence, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, and third Critical Studies on Terrorism mixing qualitative and quantitative approaches. Most of research follows two directions, seeking to explain the causes, or trying to measure the social effects. These two directions are quite clearly separated in the academic sphere. While in Europe production is more oriented towards the second direction, as quantitative work is poorly developed. The fact remains that in Europe most of the production of books on the subject comes from essayists rather than academic authors. However, in terms of security, they should play an important role in terms of media coverage of knowledge towards the general public, but they make little use of the contributions of academic knowledge and favor mobilizing discourse.
Since there is no definition of terrorism that puts everyone in the same direction, very broadly, terrorism it is the use of armed violence to political ends in peacetime, of fact terrorism has taken many shapes. There are various and over hundreds of different definitions of terrorism worldwide, with no universal agreement about it.
This without generally questioning its definition, terrorism is one of those terms that we use when we think we agree on its meaning when it escapes a stable meaning. Not to mention that the emotion aroused by terrorist attacks is all too often an obstacle to the perception of their origins and their effects. Public discourse too often sticks to schematizations that do not consider the contributions of research. Terrorism has preoccupied Europe since the beginning of the 2000s, in the wake of September 11, 2001. The increase in attacks, many of them claimed by Al-Qaeda and ISIS during the current decade has made the term one of the most prevalent in political speeches, media coverage and mainstream conversations in these geographies, among many others.
In November 2004, the Secretary-General of the United Nations report described terrorism as any act “intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act”.[ii] The international community took its time to formulate a universally agreed, legally binding definition of this crime. These difficulties arise from the fact that the term terrorism is politically and emotionally charged.[iii]
The term ‘’Terroriste’’, written in French, meaning “Terrorist” in English, is first used in 1794 by the French philosopher Fran?ois-No?l Babeuf, who denounces Maximilien Robespierre’s Jacobin regime as a dictatorship.[IV] Most scholars today trace the origins of the modern tactic of terrorism to the Jewish Sicarii Zealots who attacked Romans and Jews in 1st-century Palestine. They follow its development from the Persian Order of Assassins through to 19th-century anarchists. The term terrorism has generally been used to describe violence by non-state actors rather than government violence since the 19th-century Anarchist Movement.[V]
In that order, what if we stop putting terrorism in a separated and isolated ideological, political, cultural, psychological and religious context. Rather than that, we place it in, all together in one combined major context. Then, from this point on we can start the process of understanding, solving and preventing the issue.
The main fundamental problem of the Jihadi terrorism today for example, is that we can imagine it as a patchwork, millions of ideas, individuals and organizations, all lost in the galaxy. But somehow, they can connect together and create the apocalypse under an umbrella called transnational organized crime or terrorism. This patchwork consists more of the ideological and heritage part of it, in transmitting solid ideologies and convictions from generation to another.
UK Fertilizer Bomb Plot :
Five men have been found guilty of plotting to kill hundreds in an al-Qaeda linked bomb plot. The international conspiracy included links to the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Two other men on trial at the Old Bailey were found not guilty.
Correspondingly, different types of terrorism exist. The Federal Bureau of Investigation — FBI for example divides the terrorist threat facing the United States into two broad categories, domestic and international.[VI] Adding on, many others took place worldwide as, the Jihadi terrorism, the Islamist Extremism, the Far-Right extremism, the Far-Left extremism, the Cyberterrorism, the Agro-terrorism, the Economics of terrorism, the Eco-terrorism, the Environmental terrorism, etc.
First, there is ideological and revolutionary terrorism, its goal is the overthrow and destruction of the established order, for example theorized by Russian nihilists and anarchists, has been known in Europe since the end of the sixth century following numerous politicians’ assassinations and other bomb attacks. Thus, France knew at that time more than fifty years of attacks on its territory. Where then, we find revolutionary terrorism in the 70s and 80s with bands like direct action, the badger gang or the brigades red sacred lands.
Second, there is what we could call identity terrorism, that appeals in religious community that they are feeling in the genre we think of black people panthers or in some clan but especially thinking of Jihadist terrorism. Although the idea on Jihadism is old and was structured in the 80s, from the movement of Afghan Mujahideen at the time. Terrorism must be mentioned at the one who fights against foreign occupation in the 20th century. These are organizations like the Provisional Irish Republican Army — IRA in Northern Ireland, to ETA in the Basque country or even the Corsican national liberation front who will be committing at the time numerous atrocities in name of freedom. This brings us to a very important point in the political rhetoric, is that the definition to the qualification of any terrorist is always formulated by the winner or the dominant, is the reason for which the states of the world have never managed to agree on one universal definition.
The main difficulty of our democracies today, is how far the response to the threat can go despite the urgent need, then we must not forget that fighting international terrorism with military means makes many collateral victims and it feeds the cause that we are fighting against. The results are disastrous, if we take Afghanistan and Iraq, remember that the chaos generated by the war who allowed the Taliban in Afghanistan, to reign control of all parts of the country. That thrive there a few years later in Iraq and Syria, ISIS to grow. Definitely, these last twenty years, the international counterterrorism struggle killed three times more than the terrorism itself.
In the light of, this list includes more terrorist organization as :
Coupled with, when it comes to counter-terrorism, we need to find the need to incorporates the techniques, strategy, practices and military tactics that governments, military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies use to combat or prevent terrorism.
Most counter-terrorism strategies involve an increase in standard police and domestic intelligence. The central activities are traditional, as interception of communications and the tracing of persons. New technology has, however, expanded the range of military and law enforcement operations. To select the effective action when terrorism appears to be more of an isolated event, the appropriate government organizations need to understand the source, motivation, methods of preparation, and tactics of terrorist groups. Effective intelligence is at the heart of such preparation, as well as political and social understanding of any grievances that might be solved. Ideally, one gets information from inside the group, a very difficult challenge for HUMINT because operational terrorist cells are often small, with all members known to one another, perhaps even related.[VII] Counterintelligence is a great challenge with the security of cell-based systems, since the ideal, but the nearly impossible, goal is to obtain a clandestine source within the cell. Financial tracking can play a role, as an communications intercept. However, both of these approaches need to be balanced against legitimate expectations of privacy.
Whatever the target of terrorists, there are multiple ways of hardening the targets to prevent the terrorists from hitting their mark or reducing the damage of attacks. One method is to place Hostile vehicle mitigation to enforce protective standoff distance outside tall or politically sensitive buildings to prevent car and truck bombing. Another way to reduce the impact of attacks is to design buildings for rapid evacuation.[VIII]
The human security paradigm outlines a non-military approach that aims to address the enduring underlying inequalities which fuel terrorist activity. Causal factors need to be delineated and measures implemented which allow equal access to resources and sustainability for all people. Such activities empower citizens, providing freedom from fear.
Together with, police, fire and emergency medical response organizations have prominent roles. Local firefighters and emergency medical personnel have plans for mitigating the effects of terrorist attacks. Fire departments, perhaps supplemented by public works agencies, utility providers, for example gas, water, electricity and heavy construction contractors, are most apt to deal with the physical consequences of an attack. Again, under an incident command model, local police can isolate the incident area, reducing confusion, and specialized police units can conduct tactical operations against terrorists, often using specialized counter-terrorist tactical units. Bringing in such units will typically involve civil or military authority beyond the local level.
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Identically, emergency medical services will triage, treat, and transport the more severely affected victims to hospitals, which will need mass casualty and triage plans in place. Also, public health agencies, from local to the national level, maybe designated to deal with identification, and sometimes mitigation, of possible biological attacks, and sometimes chemical or radiologic contamination.
Besides various security agencies, there are elite tactical units, also known as special mission units, whose role is to directly engage terrorists and prevent terrorist attacks. Such units perform both in preventive actions, hostage rescue, and responding to on-going attacks. Countries of all sizes can have highly trained counter-terrorist teams, tactics, techniques and procedures for manhunting are under constant development.
The scope for anti-terrorism systems is very large in physical terms, often we speak about long borders, vast areas, high traffic volumes in busy cities, etc. As well as in other dimensions, such as type and degree of terrorism threat, political and diplomatic ramifications, and legal issues. In this environment, the development of a persistent anti-terrorism protection system is a daunting task. Such a system should bring together diverse state-of-the-art technologies to enable persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and enable potential actions. Designing such a system-of-systems comprises a major technological project. Within military operational approaches Counter-terrorism falls into the category of Irregular Warfare.[IX] Given the nature of operational counter-terrorism tasks, national military organizations do not generally have dedicated units whose sole responsibility is the prosecution of these tasks. Instead, the counter-terrorism function is an element of the role, allowing flexibility in their employment, with operations being undertaken in the domestic or international context.
The UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, is a unique global instrument to enhance national, regional and international efforts to counter terrorism. Through its adoption by consensus in 2006, all UN Member States agreed the first time to a common strategic and operational approach to fighting terrorism. The Strategy does not only send a clear message that terrorism is unacceptable in all its forms and manifestations, but it also resolves to take practical steps, individually and collectively, to prevent and combat terrorism. Those practical steps include a wide array of measures ranging from strengthening state capacity to counter terrorist threats to better coordinating UN System’s counter-terrorism activities.[X]
The UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in the form of a resolution and an annexed Plan of Action is composed of four pillars, namely:
On the other hand, The International Criminal Police Organization, commonly known as INTERPOL, by the same token took the fight into a next level, as put in its priorities :
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization — NATO has also developed many tools in order to combat terrorism. NATO’s work on counter-terrorism focuses on improving awareness of the threat, developing capabilities to prepare and respond, and enhancing engagement with partner countries and other international actors.
In support of national authorities, NATO ensures shared awareness of the terrorist threat through consultations, enhanced intelligence-sharing and continuous strategic analysis. Since 2017, the Joint Intelligence and Security Division at NATO benefits from increased sharing of intelligence between member services and the Alliance, and produces strategic analytical reports relating to terrorism and its links with other transnational threats. Intelligence-sharing between NATO and partner countries’ agencies continues through the Intelligence Liaison Unit at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, and an intelligence liaison cell at Allied Command Operations (ACO) in Mons, Belgium. An intelligence cell at NATO Headquarters improves how NATO shares intelligence, including on foreign fighters.[XII] Where intelligence reporting at NATO is based on contributions from Allies’ intelligence services, both internal and external, civilian and military.
When it comes to capabilities, the Alliance strives to ensure that it has adequate capabilities to protect against terrorist threats :
To discern, whatever the price is, fighting against terrorism must always be done while respecting human rights, and cannot infringe international humanitarian law. It is not by violating these rights and freedoms or the principles of the rule of law that we will effectively fight terrorism. On the contrary, mot states must condemn the use of torture in the fight against terrorism for any reason whatsoever and supports the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in tackling terrorism.
Terrorism will continue for a long time to come. It is, on the one hand, the weapon of ideological extremists who prey on the ungodly mob. Moreover, an asymmetric warfare or the conflict from the weak to the strong constitutes the weapon of those who do not have the means to fight an equal combat. We can fight it by judicial and police means, and the example, in 30 to 40 years, Ireland has managed to get him into a political process. Which brings us to the second solution, that of negotiation. In a conflict in which the parties claim territory, there is a place for negotiation, this is, however, impossible with extremist groups who refuse to enter into such a process.
To be effective, combating terrorism must consider certain factors which contribute to its expansion or facilitate it. Indeed, a perfect knowledge of the ideology of the Jihadist doctrine, but also of terrorist groups and even precisely individuals, is a prerequisite for the fight against national and international terrorism. Solid knowledge of radicalization and its causes by the authorities in charge of the repression of Jihadist terrorist acts would also be an asset to make the fight more effective. For this, a cooperative, coordinated and inclusive approach must be undertaken at all levels. These include coordination between national authorities, cooperation between states, cooperation with relevant international and regional organizations, not to mention the permanent strengthening of military cooperation.
Finally, the biggest challenge in the fight against terrorism is its effectiveness, which depends on certain parameters, in particular the speed with which anti-terrorism cases are processed. Moreover, the involvement and support of all citizens in counter-terrorism action would undoubtedly make it possible to combat this scourge which is raging any society and the countries of the Sahel for example. Taking victims into account in terrorist trials, coupled with that of the rights of accused persons, would make it possible to succeed in the fight against the terrorist phenomenon.
References :
[I] Daniel Byman, Professor, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, retrieved from https://www.edx.org/course/terrorism-and-counterterrorism.
[II] “UN Reform”. United Nations. March 21, 2005. Archived from the original on April 27, 2007. Retrieved July 11, 2008.
[III] “Radicalisation, De-Radicalisation, Counter-Radicalisation: A Conceptual Discussion and Literature Review”. The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism — The Hague (ICCT). March 27, 2013. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
[IV] Palmer, R.R. (2014). “The French Directory Between Extremes”. The Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and America, 1760–1800. The Age of the Democratic Revolution. Princeton University Press. pp. 544–567. ISBN 9780691161280. JSTOR j.ctt5hhrg5.29.
[V] Ken Duncan (2011). “A Blast from the Past Lessons from a Largely Forgotten Incident of State-Sponsored Terrorism”. Perspectives on Terrorism. 5 (1): 3–21. JSTOR 26298499.
[VI] Dale L. Watson, Executive Assistant Director, Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Washington, DC, February 06 2002, Testimony, Retrieved from https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/testimony/the-terrorist-threat-confronting-the-united-states.
[VII] Feiler, Gil (September 2007). “The Globalization of Terror Funding” (PDF). Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University: 29. Mideast Security and Policy Studies №74. Retrieved November 14, 2007.
[VIII] Ronchi, E. (2015). “Disaster management: Design buildings for rapid evacuation”. Nature. 528 (7582): 333. Bibcode:2015Natur.528..333R. doi:10.1038/528333b. PMID 26672544.
[IX] Kitzen M. (2020) Operations in Irregular Warfare. In: Sookermany A. (eds) Handbook of Military Sciences. p. 1–21. Springer, Cham doi:10.1007/978–3–030–02866–4_81–1.
[X] UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, Retrieved from https://www.un.org/counterterrorism/un-global-counter-terrorism-strategy.
[XI] The International Criminal Police Organization — Interpol, Retrieved from https://www.interpol.int/Crimes/Terrorism.
[XII] The North Atlantic Treaty Organization — NATO, Retrieved from https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_77646.htm.