Anti-terrorist Cooperation Research Articles

“Africa’s transformation into “Glocal Terrorist Hub”: 3D Jihad between narco-terror, maritime piracy and sexual slavery”

Transnational terrorism with a jihadist matrix has constantly fed on endogenous and exogenous factors so that the regional subsidiaries of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Africa adapt to local realities, with repercussions that extend well beyond national geographical borders. In so doing, Africa has become a hub for terrorism, undergoing a process of trans-nationalization between the local and the global, with implications for regional security. It is against this backdrop that the study is framed, with a dual ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ analysis, examining the modus operandi of terrorist groups and their doctrinal underpinnings, which form a three-dimensional jihad involving narco-terrorism, maritime piracy, sexual slavery, and gender-based violence as a strategy of terror. Therefore, counter-terrorism policies in Africa, already based on hard measures, need to focus increasingly on soft mechanisms to prevent and counter radicalization and violent extremism, strengthened on the one hand by sustainable security architectures and on the other by integrated approaches to anti-terrorism cooperation at national, regional, and international levels.

Anti-Terrorism Cooperation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

In the 13 years since its founding, the SCO has always focused on counter-terrorism, both for its own organizational role and for the reasons of its member states. The SCO has always achieved remarkable results in counter-terrorism work, which has shown the world its strength. However, as the organization continues to expand, the SCO also faces significant challenges in counter-terrorism cooperation due to inherent problems among its members and the identification of specific concepts.

Anti-terrorist cooperation as part of Poland’s geopolitical shift. “Operation Bridge” and the rise of a strategic partnership with the United States

This paper discusses Poland’s involvement in “Operation Bridge,” which aimed to transport Jewish citizens from the Soviet Union to Israel between 1989 and 1992. The study is based on recently declassified documents from the former intelligence and counterintelligence services, the Foreign Ministry, and the Prime Minister’s Office, supplemented by accounts of policymakers, secret service officers, and militia involved in protecting Soviet Jews during transit operations. The author argues that this operation was not just a humanitarian effort but also had significant geopolitical implications. The newly elected non-communist government under Tadeusz Mazowiecki saw this as a critical move to establish stronger ties with the United States and Israel. The author also highlights how the cooperation between Poland and the United States in intelligence sharing, counterterrorism, and security operations paved the way for Poland’s strategic partnership with the United States and its eventual entry into NATO. The paper contributes significantly to our understanding of the role played by Poland in the post-Cold War era and sheds new light on the development of US–Polish relations.

Niger’s Long Cycle of Poverty and Coups

In July 2023, Niger experienced the latest in a long series of military coups. Now afflicted by climate change, the country continues to rank as one of the poorest in the world. Poverty and perceptions of corruption limit public confidence in democratic governance. Led by Nigeria, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed sanctions on the new junta and threatened a military intervention, adding to the suffering of the population. But ECOWAS eventually backed down, while the junta moved to cut off antiterrorism cooperation with France and the United States, embracing Russia instead, following a trend set by other recent coups across the Sahel.

Research on the Present Situation of Cyber Terrorism and Its Governance Path

With the development of the Internet, cyber terrorism is also evolving and developing with the Internet. Cyber terrorism presents a trend of improving the specialization level of cyber terrorism crimes, developing the organizational structure from vertical to horizontal, and making cyber terrorism more concealed. At the same time, China's cyber terrorism also has the difficulties of lack of legislative system, imperfect intelligence mechanism and great difficulty in international anti-terrorism cooperation. Therefore, to control cyber terrorism, we should pay attention to perfecting the legislative system, giving full play to the functions of various departments' laws, improving the intelligence working mechanism and intelligence information processing ability, strengthening international cyber anti-terrorism cooperation and strengthening comprehensive cyber security education, so as to strengthen the governance ability to combat cyber terrorism.

Сотрудничество Ирана и России в борьбе с международным терроризмом: состояние, возможности и перспективы

The expansion of terrorism in the Middle East in the context of the Arab Spring has become a factor of unprecedented military-political rapprochement between Iran and Russia. This article studies the anti-terrorist cooperation between the two states. The author argues that the new level of cooperation between Tehran and Moscow is a consequence of structural conditions of the international environment, which has come under pressure of international terrorism. To combat terrorism, Iran and Russia are trying to use instruments of not only “hard” but also “soft” power by creating platforms for intercultural and interreligious dialogue. In this regard, the legal foundations of anti-terrorist cooperation between Iran and Russia, its forms and levels are explored. The paper also assesses the possibilities and prospects of cooperation between the two states in the fight against terrorism. The author predicts functional and geographical expansion of the interaction of the two sides in the context of their anti-terrorist strategy. In this context, Central Asia, a significant channel of trafficking of Afghan opiates, and the radical ideology of jihadists, is identified as an important vector of cooperation. The author notes that if Iran intensifies its participation within SCO and CSTO, the potential of these institutions in the fight against non-traditional threats will increase and possibilities of joint participation of Iran and Russia in the settlement of the Afghan conflict will expand. An increase in cooperation between Tehran and Moscow in the field of cyber terrorism is expected against the background of the signing of an agreement between the two states on ensuring information security. The article concludes that the threat of terrorism to the security of Iran and Russia creates many options for joint fight against this destructive phenomenon, but the use of those opportunities remains limited.

New Trend of Terrorism Development in Pakistan: Manifestations, Causes and Countermeasures

For a long time, religious extremist forces, ethnic separatist forces, international terrorist forces and other forces have been intertwined, bringing great challenges to peace and security in Pakistan and even surrounding region. In recent years, under the influence of weak official intervention, strategic adjustment of big powers, special international environment and other factors, terrorism in Pakistan has shown a new trend. After experiencing a low tide period, the terrorism has an obvious revival trend. The key areas of terrorist attacks have a tendency to move eastward, and the political demands of terrorist organizations are constantly improving. This paper holds that Pakistan’s terrorism needs comprehensive measures, and many measures such as strengthening international anti-terrorism cooperation, promoting anti-terrorism legislation, and promoting the policy of counter-terrorism should be taken in parallel.

The experience and enlightenment of Israel’s anti-terrorism intelligence work

Israel is one of the countries that are more severely threatened by terrorist forces. During its long-term struggle with terrorist forces, Israel has gradually developed a series of effective anti-terrorism strategies. This article studies the Israeli anti-terrorism intelligence work system, expounds on the relevant characteristics of its anti-terrorism intelligence strategy, organizational structure, the application of intelligent technology, and the development of international anti-terrorism cooperation. On this basis, it summarizes the experience and enlightenments of Israel anti-terrorism intelligence work.

FRIENDS OR FRENEMIES? ASSESSING THE UNITED STATES RESPONSES TO NIGERIA’S QUEST FOR ANTI-TERRORISM SUPPORT

Notwithstanding decades-long strains and stresses in their relations, Nigeria is one of the foremost African partners of the United States and a major recipient of American aid in Africa. Both countries have traditionally maintained very robust bilateral relations since the former’s political independence in 1960, especially given their economic ties. Until recently, their economic ties have been very robust, thanks to Nigeria’s sweet crude that the United States largely needed for decades. However, this study examines how the generally cordial bilateral relations between the two countries have not necessarily translated to effective security and anti-terrorism cooperation. Nigeria has consistently focused on the United States for anti-terrorism support, albeit with limited responses from the latter. In this regard, the study utilised both primary and secondary sources to investigate the puzzling inconsistencies in the anti-terrorism cooperation between these supposed allies. Thus, the study revealed that since both countries have a common interest in combating terrorism, a conventional realist approach can help us put in the proper perspective some understandable strategic reasons for their somewhat difficult anti-terrorism cooperation. The study concludes that as much as Nigeria desires American support, the dynamics of their anti-terrorism cooperation will not likely change for as long as the United States does not consider combating terrorism in Nigeria to be strategic to its Homeland Security.

Institutionalization of Counter-Terrorism Cooperation in the Eurasian Area: Current Issues and Prospects

The objective is to define the main parameters and current state of the institutionalization of international anti-terrorist activities in the Eurasian area. At the same time, the authors focus is on the institutional and legal aspects of institutionalizing the fight against terrorism in formats of CIS, CSTO, SCO. Also, the article defines and characterizes the problematic field of the stable system formation for interaction between different anti-terrorist structures in the Eurasian space in the context of existing institutionalization models of anti-terrorist cooperation (UN, NATO, EU, etc.). Authors justified the assumptions about the institutionalization and possible prospects of the Eurasian anti-terrorist initiative and the role of Russia in its implementation.

Interview with H.E. Ambassador Vladimir Tarabrin

Vladimir Tarabrin – Special Representative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for international anti-terrorist cooperation, Director of the Department on the Issues of New Challenges and Threats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (MFA). He graduated from the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He has been working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of USSR/Russia (MFA) since 1979 and held various diplomatic posts in the central office of the MFA and abroad. 1995–1998 – Head of Division, Deputy Director of the Legal Department. 1998–2002 – Senior Counsellor and Legal Advisor of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations in New York / Alternate Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Security Council. 2002–2008 – Deputy Director of the Legal Department. In 2008–2013 he served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Gabonese Republic. In 2013–2017 he was Ambassador at large (international anti-corruption cooperation). In 2017–2019 – Director of the Department Crisis Situation Centre of the MFA. Has diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.

New EU Initiatives against Terrorism

The article examines the EU’s response to a series of terrorist attacks in European cities in the autumn of 2020, after which the topic of terrorism once again came to the fore on the EU political agenda. The author analyses the new Counter-Terrorism Action Plan and the Regulation on the removal of terrorist content from the Internet adopted after a protracted inter-institutional dialogue between the EU Council and the European Parliament. The article also looks at the problem of expanding the mandate of the Europol agency in the field of big data analysis, while the author emphasises that member states still doubt the need to grant the agency access to data encryption. The author comes to the conclusion that the European Union quite adequately fulfills the tasks outlined in the documents to respond to terrorist attacks, but has not been very successful in preventing them. It is noted that in the plans of international anti-terrorist cooperation, the European Union, as before, does not include Russia, which can not but reduce the effect of global and regional confrontation with new security challenges.

Legal Regulation of Crimes Threatening Global Security

The authors consider methods of legal regulation of crimes and types of international cooperation in the fight against them. The paper also highlights international measures aimed at implementing antiterrorist cooperation and combating illegal drug trafficking. The main goal is to determine the legal mechanisms for the prevention of these socially dangerous phenomena both at the local and interstate levels. The object of the research is the social relations that develop in connection with and about the peculiarities of crimes that infringe on international security. The subject of the research is the norms of modern Russian criminal law and the norms of international law. The scientific works of the authors listed in the references represent a solid theoretical and methodological basis for this research. However, research into the features of crimes should continue, since not all problematic issues in this area have been resolved. The author examines the concept, content and general features of international crimes that infringe on international security; defines the role of the UN (United Nations) and other organizations engaged in international legal regulation in the fight against international crimes; defines the features of the interstate organizations activities to prevent terrorism and illicit trafficking in narcotic and psychotropic substances. It is concluded that terrorism and illicit drug trafficking are most widespread among international crimes. The authors draw conclusions on the need to perform preventive activities aimed at preventing the Commission of international crimes, as well as on the implementation of a direct fight against such crimes through «detection, prevention, suppression, disclosure and investigation». Summarizing the authors’ points of view on the subject of criminal liability for acts of terrorism and drug trafficking, it should be noted that restraint measures, as well as strengthening responsibility measures, should be preceded by a set of preventive measures. It should also be understood that the effectiveness of anti-terrorist and anti-drug policies in the world, including in terms of the regulation of criminal liability measures, should be supported and approved by the population. To improve the legal structures of crimes that infringe on international security in the countries of the world community, it is necessary to positively perceive the international experience of various states in regulating measures of criminal responsibility and countering the spread of these acts.

РОССИЯ И КИТАЙ В ПРОТИВОДЕЙСТВИИ ТЕРРОРИЗМУ: ЭТАПЫ И НАПРАВЛЕНИЯ СОТРУДНИЧЕСТВА

The purpose of the article is to determine the main prerequisites for the development of Russian-Chinese anti-terrorist cooperation, to study the international treaty base that determines the priority areas of bilateral interaction, based on the dynamics of joint anti-terrorist activities, to propose a periodization of interaction between the two countries in the area under study. The research methodology is based on a systematic analysis of bilateral cooperation between Russia and China in countering terrorism. In the course of the study, the authors analyzed the treaty base within the framework of this topic, the UN reports on terrorism and the FATF recommendations for Russia and China. As a result, on the basis of the proposed periodization, it is demonstrated that Russian-Chinese bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism is of an applied systemic nature and is fine-tuned in the areas of holding consultative meetings, countering the financing of terrorist activities and organizing joint military exercises. The authors revealed that the problematic area of interaction is the exchange of operational information in the framework of terrorist financing, associated with the unwillingness of the Chinese side to provide relevant information at their disposal. In conclusion, it is proved that it is advisable to expand cooperation between Russia and China in the fight against international terrorism in the direction of countering non-standard challenges and threats to the information space, biological origin, chemical impact and environmental nature.

Research on the Legal Model of international Anti-Terrorism Coordination

Terrorism seriously endangers world peace and security. In order to achieve the goal of effectively combating international terrorism, we must promote the establishment of a multi-level model of anti-terrorism cooperation. The current legal models of international counter-terrorism cooperation mainly include global counter-terrorism cooperation, regional counter-terrorism cooperation and bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation.
 
 Global counter-terrorism cooperation led by the United Nations is the most important form of counter-terrorism cooperation. The UN has set up a Counter-terrorism Committee and a series of treaties. The United Nations demands that States should prevent and stop the financing of terrorist ACTS; Criminalizes any person or thing that, by any means, directly or indirectly, provides or raises funds for terrorist activities; (b) Immediately freeze the assets of individuals and entities that facilitate, finance or participate in terrorist ACTS; The provision of any funds and financial assets and related services to individuals and entities assisting, financing or participating in terrorist ACTS is prohibited.
 
 Regional counter-terrorism cooperation refers to the cooperation between geographically adjacent countries to combat terrorism, which is an important part of international counter-terrorism cooperation. The main regional anti-terrorism cooperation organizations are: Association of Southeast Asian Nations, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, European Union, Organization of American States, Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
 
 Bilateral anti-terrorism cooperation refers to the cooperation between two parties in order to form a joint anti-terrorism force. Bilateral cooperation can be between states or between states and regional organizations. Bilateral cooperation in flexible and diverse forms is also an important form of counter-terrorism cooperation.

Counterterrorism meassures: application of international law and the law of the Russian Federation

INTRODUCTION. Effective implementation of antiterrorist interstate cooperation is impossible without the creation of an appropriate legal framework. By concluding international treaties, States agree to accept obligations that define the scope of their activities in the areas of cooperation. Moreover, sometimes the necessity arises for emergency antiterrorist response which brings about the application of other than treaty mechanisms like bilateral and multilateral commitments. It seems necessary to pay attention to certain legal mechanisms provided by the UN anti-terrorist treaties, in particular, in the context of the situation in Syria, and some conceptual changes in Russian counter-terrorism legislation.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The article uses treaties, national legislation and doctrinal research. The authors rely on various methods to reach their conclusions, among which treaty interpretation is most frequently used.RESEARCH RESULTS. In the article the author shows different mechanisms and spheres of modern cooperation in counter-terrorism and their ineffectiveness owing to political interests of some states. Special attention is paid to legality of actions of the USA and allies in Syria and criminal liability of members of international terrorist organizations.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. In this article the authors draw attention to disadvantages of international legal regulation of anti-terrorist cooperation. The article concludes that refusal of compliance with international law in the sphere of counter-terrorism brings about negative consequences for maintenance of international peace and security.

Operational Risk Assessment for International Transport Corridor: A Case Study of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

The international transport corridor is the basis and carrier of economic and trade exchanges between countries and regions. International transport corridors span different countries and regions, coupled with the long distance, complicated transportation environment and process, which determines the potential risks of the operation of the transport corridors. Therefore, accurately identifying and assessing the risk of international channels are an important prerequisite for ensuring its safe and stable operation. The expert scoring method is used to collect the basic data of risk identification, and the hesitant fuzzy decision theory is introduced. The dependent linguistic ordered weighted geometric (DLOWG) operator and the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) method are used in combination. Taking the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as an example, evaluate the operational risks of the international transport corridor. The research results show that corruption, terrorism, and policy stability are the top three risk factors in the operation of the China-Pakistan transport corridor. The risk management and control should focus on these three types of risks and strengthen the security management along the route. Strengthen policy docking and communication, maintain political stability, and strengthen antiterrorism cooperation.

Nieformalne struktury państw Unii Europejskiej w walce z międzynarodowym terroryzmem. Bilans współpracy i wyzwania

The informal structures of the European Union employed in the struggle against international terrorism can be divided into those emerging inside the European Community, and those involving the states outside the EC, or third parties. The emergence of informal structures to fight terrorism resulted from the observation that the then EC did not cooperate to fight terrorism. In the 1960s and 1970s the increasing problem of terrorism stimulated efforts to look for ways to deal with it. It would have been a good solution to begin cooperation in the field of internal security on a Community scale, yet this approach stirred too many controversies and fears. Additionally, a general disinterest in political cooperation at that time made some states begin building informal structures aimed at the exchange of information on terrorist threats. It is worth emphasizing that the structures discussed in this paper (i.e. groups and clubs) are to a certain extent an element of European intelligence, as they involve intelligence agencies, structures operating within EU countries and outside, and the cooperation or synergy of intelligence provided by various mechanisms and activities. The cooperation within the framework of such structures goes beyond the EU and Europe, thus becoming more effective in fighting international, modern, globalized, non-territorial terrorism of a network character. Therefore, although the European Union has been conducting its own policy against terrorism involving all its member states, these informal structures with third parties will continue to play an important part in anti-terrorist cooperation between states that are at particular risk of terrorist activity.

Concept and System Development of Anti-terrorism Cooperation

Concept and System Development of Anti-terrorism Cooperation

The Role of Russia in the International Anti-terrorism Cooperation

This article examines the role of Russia in the international anti-terrorism cooperation. The author analyzes Russian anti-terrorist activities since the war in Chechnya in 1990s till nowadays. The article notes that the state performs regularly with useful profile initiatives on the world arena and operates within the framework of the international law in the decision making process and during the operations. Particular attention is paid to the events that occurred in 2015, when Russia began a struggle against terrorism in Syria, becoming the only state that carries out anti-terrorist actions according to the official handling of the legitimate president of Syria: the author evaluates the data of events and makes forecast on the development of the situation in the foreseeable future.