Counterterrorism Policy Research Articles

The securitisation of immigration through the Tactical Terrorism Response Team

ABSTRACT This article considers a significant stage in the convergence of US counterterrorism policy and immigration enforcement exemplified by the emergence of a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unit known as the Tactical Terrorism Response Team (TTRT). In my analysis I show: (i) that TTRT agents engage in a process I call social homicide which subjects travellers to a condition of bare life; (ii) that the increasing production of border violence highlights that the convergence of securitisation and immigration enforcement is a praxis of anti-Blackness and Islamophobia; (iii) that securitisation and exclusionary immigration policy have made use of invisibility to create and expand a permanent state of exception; and (iv) that border enforcement through securitisation is used as a mechanism for the surveillance and control of social movements inside the United States. Given the limited public information on TTRT’s operations, this study explores the matter through a case study of Abdikadir Mohamed’s 2017 encounter with the unit, his subsequent immigration proceedings, and the FOIA lawsuit filed against CBP for more information on the TTRT.

Intelligence failure in countering terrorism in south Asia: a comparative analysis of Holey Artisan and Easter attacks

ABSTRACT Intelligence agencies exist to ensure national security, but the path to attain that goal is filled with numerous unexpected threats and vulnerabilities. This makes intelligence failure often highly likely. This article explores and compares the 2016 Holey Artisan (Bangladesh) and the 2019 Easter (Sri Lanka) attacks from intelligence failure perspectives to understand the fault lines in counterterrorism (CT) efforts in the south Asian context. The article summarises the causes of intelligence failures into three broad yet interconnected themes: failure due to issues within the intelligence activities and agencies, failure leading from policy or direction, and failure arising from psychological forces. This article concludes that poorly coordinated counterterrorism policy, poor internal security and border management apparatus and cognitive limits of the security forces were the causes of the intelligence failure in the Holey Artisan attack. On the other hand, the intelligence failure of the Easter Sunday attacks resulted from political leadership, miscommunication and psychological limits of top intelligence officials, and the intelligence community’s failure to adapt to the emerging security threat of Islamist extremism.

Do Failed or Weak States Favor Resident Terrorist Groups’ Survival?

Employing two alternative measures of state failure, we investigate how state weakness influences resident terrorist groups’ survival. Theoretically, state failure favors resident terrorist groups’ survival, while state territorial control fosters resident groups’ termination until some control threshold. Empirically, we uncover a robust negative relationship between a country’s weakness and its control of terrorism through the lens of the resident terrorist groups’ survival prospects. The discovered relationship withstands a host of robustness tests – e.g., alternative estimates and samples. We apply an instrument designed to address endogeneity concerns. In particular, our novel instrument for failed states consists of the interaction between natural disasters and ethnic fractionalization. As a state’s percentage of territorial control increases, resident terrorist groups are more prone to ending until some threshold control percent. Our analysis can guide counterterrorism policy by exploiting the nuanced theoretical determinants identified here that foster resident groups’ termination in failing states.

Negotiating Fundamental Rights: Civil Society and the EU Regulation on Addressing the Dissemination of Terrorist Content Online

During the negotiations of the EU Regulation on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online, digital and human rights activists raised concerns regarding the safeguarding of fundamental rights. These actors were partially successful in influencing aspects of the final text of the Regulation, thus, raising the question of how such groups have managed to influence traditionally “securitized” counterterrorism policy. This study compares the discourses employed by the different EU institutions and digital and human rights advocates during the negotiation period. Approaching this through the lens of politicization, this study demonstrates that whilst securitizing discourses persist to a certain extent, some aspects of EU counterterrorism law are open to contestation.

UNVEILING THE UIC APPROACH: TOWARDS A NOVEL FRAMEWORK FOR RETHINKING THE DEFINITION AND IMPLICATIONS OF TERRORISM

This study explores a novel approach to defining terrorism, and evaluating its potential contributions and limitations. The objective is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the concept by analyzing its key features, motivations, and impact. The study proposes a new definition of terrorism that accounts for the complex and evolving nature of this phenomenon, building on the conceptual framework proposed by Prof. Alex Schmid and Prof. Ben Saul. By examining the key features, motivations, and effects of terrorism, the research seeks to offer a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the concept that can inform policy and practice. This innovative approach to defining terrorism will be evaluated in light of existing literature and empirical evidence, to advance the discourse on this critical issue. The findings of this research present a new definition of terrorism based on the UIC approach. The UIC approach has three basic components: (1) Understanding Terrorism, (2) Interests of Actors, and (3) Counterterrorism Policy & Implications. A comprehensive definition of terrorism will be provided using the approach introduced in the article.

The Shaking of America: September 11th Becomes History

J. Samuel Walker’s new book focuses on why the United States failed to prevent the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as the experiences of that day and the U.S. policy response. This study efficiently summarizes this history and makes some important arguments, but its lack of historical contextualization and failure to differentiate itself within the extensive scholarship on this topic limit its usefulness. Walker’s most interesting arguments examine pre-2001 counterterrorism policy and intelligence, including the shortcomings that made September 11th possible. For instance, he offers a compelling defense of U.S. President Bill Clinton’s administration’s counterterrorism policies. He shows that Clinton devoted more resources than any previous president to counterterrorism, doubling federal spending between 1995 and 2000. He launched missile strikes on targets in Afghanistan and Sudan, took effective financial action against terrorist groups, and put massive diplomatic pressure on Afghanistan to give up Osama Bin Laden and on Pakistan to pressure Afghanistan to cut ties to al-Qaeda. However, Clinton’s counterterrorism efforts bumped against constraints such as vague intelligence about al-Qaeda, the limits of U.S. ability to influence Pakistani foreign policy, and the lack of political support for bolder military action.

Twenty years of countering jihadism in Western Europe: from the shock of 9/11 to ‘jihadism fatigue’

ABSTRACT This article provides a reflection on the jihadist threat, the policies and actors that deal with this threat and the impact of jihadism and counterterrorism in Western Europe in the past twenty years. It describes how the threat, counterterrorism policies and their impact have developed over time and demonstrates how threat perceptions in society and the political arena have not always been aligned with the actual threat. There have been periods of disbalance between the threat and responses to it, leading to both overreactions and inflated threat descriptions and fear levels, as well as periods with limited attention that might have contributed to unpleasant surprises at a later stage. Against this backdrop, the article criticises the incident-driven approach to counterterrorism and warns against both overreactions as well as ‘jihadism fatigue’.

The Dynamics of The Philippines Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Policies in the Context of ASEAN Cooperation

Over the past two decades, ASEAN has grown as a breeding ground for the development of terrorist networks, both from the Middle East and those born within the ASEAN region. The Philippines, as one of the ASEAN member countries, is directly confronted with this threat. Using qualitative methods and a descriptive-analytic approach, this article discusses the dynamics of the threat in the Philippines by looking at the terrorism index, the growth of networks and attacks, and how the Philippines collaborates within the context of ASEAN to confront the threat. This paper concludes that the existing data shows that the dynamics of terrorism in the Philippines are on a relatively upward trend. In response, the Philippine government continues to develop its counter-terrorism policies by strengthening legal and regulatory aspects, establishing an authority to handle terrorism, and employing social approaches. In terms of cooperation, the Philippines is also striving to collaborate with fellow ASEAN member countries as well as countries outside the ASEAN region.

Reducing Terrorism Casualties: Analyzing Policies Effectiveness under a Systems Perspective

The present paper seeks to analyze and understand terrorism as a comprehensive process that, through various stages, transforms a “normal” individual with some grievances into a radicalized agent ready and available to be recruited and trained to perform terror attacks that produce casualties. The goal of this analysis is to produce recommendations regarding the leverage points in which policy interventions may be used to reduce the number of casualties that terror attacks in the west, and specifically in Europe, produce. To this end, the analysis is divided into two main sections. The first section will focus on a careful study of key literature regarding terrorism. A deep analysis is conducted in order to construct a qualitative understanding of radicalization and terrorism, finding common points among what is analyzed and developing a strong overview and understanding of the topic. The second section—the core of the paper—focuses on creating a novel System Dynamics model and on identifying leverage points. In this section, the System Dynamics model is used to construct a simulation model based on the findings from the first section. This model is then simulated on Silico.app® through various scenarios in order to identify leverage points in which policies would be best able to reach the stated goal of reducing casualties. Following these simulations, a few leverage points were evidenced, and some effective policies were also identified. The last section recaps the main findings of the analysis, its limitations and future extensions of the model (so to allow for deeper and more precise policy insight), and it is argued that System Dynamics can constitute a very powerful modeling approach in the context of counter terrorism policy making.

The relational dynamics of racialised policing: community policing for counterterrorism, suspect communities, and Muslim Americans’ provisional belonging

ABSTRACT For over two decades, policies for countering violent extremism have enacted racial logics to target Muslim communities as suspect communities. While much research in this vein examines either the enactment of counterterrorism policies or Muslim communities’ responses, less is known about how racialised policies are experienced through relational dynamics between these two entities: police who implement counterterrorism policies and their targets – Muslim communities. Bridging critical citizenship, socio-legal, and migration studies, this article conceptualises how racialised policies shape the relationship between agents of the state and suspect communities. With unique analytic leverage from semi-structured interviews with law enforcement and focus groups with Muslim communities, findings show that police consistently deploy racial logics of CVE to distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Muslims, rewarding the former with resources and protection and punishing the latter with surveillance and criminalisation. In turn, these definitions inhibit Muslim Americans’ religious and cultural freedom, political expression and collective action, and legitimize their racial profiling and surveillance. Tradeoffs to provisional inclusion mean not only accepting racial logics but also reproducing them within their own communities. This article expands our understanding of how the meanings of belonging are continually negotiated between the state and racialised communities.

Bayesian Inferences for Counterterrorism Policy: A Retrospective Case Study of the U.S. War in Afghanistan

ABSTRACT This study employs hierarchical Bayesian analysis of terrorist attacks to provide a retrospective analysis of the war in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2018. We examine the relationship between U.S. troop levels, target type, and the severity of attacks in terms of the number killed or wounded. We find that although some targets might have become better fortified after enduring attacks (such as police departments), terrorists would subsequently succeed in either attacking other targets (such as educational institutions) or even those same targets in subsequent years. Our analysis also finds that increases in U.S. troop levels throughout much of the conflict did not seem to quell violence, although explanations of this phenomenon are considerably more nuanced after taking expert opinion into account. We hope our analysis provides a useful retrospective analysis of the U.S. War in Afghanistan for policymakers to assess how or if security measures in the country could have been improved over the course of the conflict. Our modeling framework, however, is easily generalizable to other conflicts worldwide and thus provides a useful statistical tool for analyzing terrorism in many other settings as well.

INTERSECTIONS OF MASS MEDIA, TERRORISM, AND POLICY RESPONSE: HOW MASS MEDIATED REPRESENTATIONS OF TERRORISM MAY INFLUENCE COUNTERTERRORIST POLICIES

On November 22, 2022, Dr. Brigitte Nacos, Adjunct Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, presented Intersections of Mass Media, Terrorism, and Policy Response: How Mass Mediated Representations of Terrorism May Influence Counterterrorist Policies. The presentation was followed by a question-and-answer period with questions from the audience and CASIS Vancouver executives. The key points discussed were how the representation of terrorist attacks in mass media can influence public opinion and policy decisions. Several case studies were presented to illustrate this intersection. Received: 2022-12-20Revised: 2022-12-29

The Fog of Peace: War on Terror, Surveillance States, and Post-human Governance

The War on Terror is an ambiguous term that has been used to circumvent the international laws of warfare. Instead of moving toward peace by way of limited warfare, and instead of preserving the independence of war and peace, War on Terror advances by masking itself in a fog of peace; it proliferates by overlapping the logic of “war-time” and “peace-time” operations. The fog of peace—as it shall herein be called—is a condition wherein the uncertainty qua “fog” of war,2 along with its militarized logic, overlaps with and eventually replaces civilian peace-time-and-spaces. The War on Terror is thus not a limiting of war by way of the conventional modern mechanisms of international law and diplomacy; it is a continuation of war by other means, including the use covert, often black-boxed methods of information-capture and surveillance. Globally, states are expanding the powers of intelligence organs and deploying covert mass surveillance programs in the name of counter-terrorism. In this manner, counter-terrorism policies become instruments enabling states to become predatory, especially in relation to civilians. Under the banner of fighting terrorism, peace-time has unwittingly become colonized by the logic of war.

Необходимость к концептуальной переоценке международного терроризма в контексте текущего кризиса европейской архитектуры безопасности

For decades, religious terrorism has been one of the most widespread forms of international terrorism and has brought countless pains to the common innocents, as well as an unprecedented challenge to the international security system. However, the nature of terrorism may change once again in the background of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and might also raise a new shape. The new shape of terrorism is perhaps largely different from the characteristics of Islamic terrorism. It should be emphasized that in a situation where the Ukrainian government may be involved in such attacks, any counterterrorism policy in the regular sense cannot be smoothly and effectively implemented. The relevance of the research problem in this article to the issue mentioned above is greatly remarkable. The article examines the redefinition of the concept of terrorism in the context of the current crisis in the European security architecture. The current regional security crisis in Europe and the hostilities in Ukraine seem to create new forms of activity that could be considered as terrorist acts. The object of research is the concept of terrorism. The subject of the study is the impact of the redefining the notion of the term “terrorism” on the national security of the Russian Federation. The purpose of the study is to understand whether the concept of terrorism should be adjusted or reconstructed at the present time in accordance with specific security threats or events during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, as well as to consider options for possible conceptual reconstruction. Research methods. The author has used conceptual analysis, document analysis, and case studies for his research. As a result of the study, it is revealed that it is necessary to remake the notion of the term “terrorism” for Russia since Kiev’s actions in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict have changed the prevalently known form of terrorist activity. This requires a great number of arguments to prove that Kiev’s extreme behaviors relate to terrorist acts. The reason is that at the current stage, the difference between terrorist incident, armed conflict, and war has become extremely blurred. Thus, in the face of the current security situation, Russia is urgently needed to carefully and timely remake the concept of terrorism in the field of international security studies.

The Trade-Offs of Counterterrorism Policies

The Trade-Offs of Counterterrorism Policies

Terrified or Enraged? Emotional Microfoundations of Public Counterterror Attitudes

AbstractDespite the widespread assumption of terrorism's “terrifying” effect, there has been little systematic testing of the specific emotional microfoundations underlying public opinion about terrorism. While fear is one well-recognized emotional response to terror threats, in societies where terrorism is rare, anger may play a more pivotal role, with distinct consequences for citizens’ downstream political attitudes. To test the impact of these emotional mechanisms on public opinion in the wake of terrorism, I employ a multi-arm mechanism experiment (n = 5,499) in the United States that manipulates both exposure to news about different types of terror attacks and the encouraged emotional response. I supplement this experimental study with observational analyses of the emotional content of social media posts in the wake of sixteen real-world terror attacks in the United States. I find that not only is anger the dominant emotional response to terrorism across both studies, but also that punitive motivations and support for retaliation are both directly shaped by experimentally induced anger after exposure to news about terrorism. These findings illuminate strategic incentives shaping militants’ use of terror tactics, electoral constraints leaders face in formulating counterterror policy, and the emotional mechanisms fueling cycles of political violence.

Обзор аналитических возможностей прогнозирования террористических актов

The article presents overview of analytical capabilities for forecasting terrorist acts. Calculation data may be useful to law enforcement agencies in developing response strategy and may provide opportunities for adjusting global or local counter-terrorism policies.

The Clash of Civilizations and War Against Terrorism: A Synoptic Study (2001-2008)

On the advent of new millennium, the attack on WTC on 9/11 set a new paradigm of terrorism in world scenario. The defensive “anti-terrorist” policy of the United States gave way to offensive “counter terrorism” which posed a real threat to the Islamic world and Muslim civilization. WAT couldn’t restore peace; instead, it resulted in turmoil, chaos, commotion, culminating in suicide attacks and bomb explosions at public places. This research highlights the threat which Islamic theology and civilization faces from Western counter-terrorism policies. It also analyzes the factors that foment fanaticism i.e., policies of Western think-tanks, theological contests among the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and Islam-phobia. This study further emphasizes the economical component hidden behind Western counter terrorism campaign, that entered in radical Islamic belt holding cosmopolitan, pluralistic, multiethnic and multicultural slogan.

폭력적 극단주의와 테러집단의 사이버 인지전에 대한 미국의 법률적 대응

The rapid technologic development generated various emerging tec hnology and resulted in changes of patten of our lives. Accordingly, various violent extremist and terrorist groups have been exploiting n ew technology including communication technologies to further their causes and terrorists goals. Among these technologies, terrorists and extremists aggressively utilized the social network platforms to wage cyber warfare against the target population to obtain their mind wit h weaponaized narratives which have strong influence on human’s mind, emotions and behaviors. In response, the states’counter-terrori sm measurers seek to counter the cyber propaganda by means of ad opting new online laws. These new legal approaches aimed to preve nt, punish and control the extremism and terrorism contexts especia lly on the social network platforms. In particular, it follows that many Western countries have enacted online laws as the terrorists’ cyb er propaganda became an immanent national security treats. In this paper, the authors explored the legal responses of the United States like the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act of 2016 and the Combat Terrorist Use of Social Media Act of 2016. These laws have great potential to secure some tangible benefits by clarifying the bo undaries of forbidden conduct in accordance with the law requireme nt. These laws are particularly have considerable political and legal implications to South Korea. In South Korea, there would be some potential threats that pose the risk of utilization of the internet for radicalization and extremism purpose for their own causes. Therefor e, this paper attempts to investigate the legal response of the Unite d States to combat violent extremism and terrorism in cyberspace. I n results and discussion, the authors discussed policy implications a nd suggestions to further develop current counterterrorism policies a nd laws.

COUNTER TERRORISM STRATEGIES IN NIGERIA: CASE STUDY OF THE BOKO HARAM

The government in Nigeria has, at different times, adopted different approaches to combat terrorism. This study is therefore aimed at examining the conditions necessitating the emergence and persistence of the terrorist activities, and why the strategies applied have remained ineffective. The study employed the use of In-depth interview to elicit data from respondents while content analysis was used to analyze data gotten from the field. Findings from the study revealed that individualistic and uncooperative authorities hampered counter-terrorism activities by the government. Nigeria's counterterrorism operation was ill-defined, ad hoc, and reactive. The study therefore recommends that an active counterterrorism policy must be done with adequate planning, review mechanisms, distinct threat profile, resource allocation, and application as well as proper training of security personnel.