Counterterrorism Policy Research Articles

Indonesia’s Hard Approach and Soft Approach Counter-Terrorism Strategy

This research examines the dynamics of counter-terrorism policies in Indonesia from the Old Order (Orde Lama) era to the current period. Terrorist attacks have been a threat to Indonesia's national security since the beginning of the nation's independence. The government is required to counter terrorism through a series of effective policies. This research uses descriptive qualitative method with literature study. The results of the research obtained are that the pattern of countering terrorism in Indonesia is divided into two types of approaches, the hard approach and the soft approach. The hard approach method refers to the use of armed forces against terror organizations. The soft approach method prioritizes integrated and comprehensive actions in dealing with the problem of radicalism starting from the root of the problem. The hard approach was more used in the early era of independence until the New Order. Meanwhile, the soft approach has been massively used since the establishment of the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) in 2010 until now. Indonesia's policies in the counter-terrorism strategy are then divided into three, namely strengthening counter- terrorism regulations, making programs to prevent terrorism crimes, and increasing the capacity of anti-terror organizations.

Understanding Africa’s terrorism debacle: a critical analysis of counterterrorism in Burkina Faso

ABSTRACT Despite Burkina Faso’s emergence as a strong player in terrorism activity in Africa, the country is practically overlooked by Critical Terrorism Studies scholarship. This article is framed at the intersection of Critical Terrorism Studies and Postcolonialism, investigating how a “critical” examination of the terrorism situation in Burkina Faso could advance our knowledge of terrorism in Africa. In-depth interviews were conducted with senior military officers and security practitioners in and out of Burkina Faso. These interviews, together with political speeches and media reports, were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis. The study found a bifurcated counterterrorism policy in Burkina Faso with overdependence on “sticks” approaches, yet without the funds or morale to implement them. This is, however, not unique to Burkina Faso, as countries like Nigeria and Kenya have also struggled with the ineffective use of force to tackle terrorism violence. The article argues that the Western-centric post-9/11 global discourse on terrorism transposed and patronised a kind of uncritical terrorism knowledge to African spaces, effectively contributing to the lack of progress in addressing the incessant violence. It recommends to African policy makers to rethink counterterrorism from African philosophical standpoints, view preponderant terrorism knowledge more critically, and adopt context-specific measures against terrorism violence.

The urgency of a gender-based approach to counter terrorism in Indonesia: a look into the European policies

In recent years, Indonesia has faced a rising rate of women's participation in terrorism. The Presidential Decree No. 7 of 2021concerning the National Action Plan for the Prevention and Countering of Violent Extremism that Leads to Terrorism 2020-2024 mentioned ‘gender mainstreaming’ to counter terrorism without elaborating how this gender-based approach was to be conceptualized in executing policy and regulatory framework. Therefore, this study analyzes the policies of European states. The objective of this study is to learn from the practice of European states to see how a gender-based approach could be further conceptualized under Indonesia’s counter-terrorism policy and regulatory framework. This article was based on normative research, employing both primary and secondary data. Furthermore, the discussion was based on three approaches: statutory, comparative, and conceptual approaches. The result of the study shows that a gender-based approach requires the Indonesian policy and regulatory framework to treat counter-terrorism as a cross-cutting issue between gender and the fulfillment of human rights.

Depoliticising political violence: state-centric and individualised discourses in the Norwegian counterterrorism policy field

ABSTRACT Over the past decades, emerging focus has been on how teachers in Norway can foster citizenship in their classrooms to strengthen democracy. Yet, in conjunction with rising concerns of homegrown terrorism, a new curriculum in Norway draws on democratic education as a bulwark against terrorism. This paper explores the securitisation of the Norwegian educational domain. We analysed three counterterrorism policy documents to explicate the governance of security in school. Analyses of terrorism discourses show a depoliticised and individualised representation in the Norwegian security policy field. These discourses are accompanied by growing urgency where educators are expected to be vigilant towards presumed vulnerable students and report concerns to relevant authorities. This article provides new insight into what security expectations are placed on educators in Norway and their potential consequences for pedagogical practice.

A vector-autoregression-intervention analysis of PKK terrorism and Turkey’s counterterrorism

ABSTRACT This study analyses the impact of Turkey’s repressive and conciliatory counterterrorism (CT) policies on moderate and extremist members of the terrorist group, Partiye Karkaren Kurdistan (PKK) in the period 1999–2007, using vector autoregression-intervention analysis. By utilising the data about Turkey’s CT against PKK terrorism, the study finds evidence that repressive and conciliatory CT against extremists increases their involvement in terrorist activity, while repression against moderates decreases their involvement in terrorist activity. The model contributes to the current knowledge base of counterterrorism by providing empirical evidence that repressive and conciliatory CT can increase or decrease terrorism, depending on the target population’s degree of solidarity with a terrorist movement.

European Union, transnational terrorism and the strategic choice of counterterrorism policies in democratic countries

There are two main categories of counterterrorism policies: proactive and defensive measures. Proactive policies directly target terrorists and, by weakening their ability, share public good features. Defensive measures, on the other hand, seek to protect a potential target. Unilateral defensive measures may induce terrorists to replace one target with another, possibly a foreign one, as confirmed by the succession of terrorist attacks in the European Union over the last 20 years. We analyse different institutional frameworks to determine the best one for interstate cooperation considering the externationalites of various counterterrorism measures. This article highlights the combined effect of voter propensity towards defensive policies, certain intelligence policies and different institutional scenarios on the (in)efficient strategic choice of counterterrorism defensive policies in democratic countries, where efficiency means maximising the joint welfare of countries. We consider four different institutional scenarios: decentralisation, intelligence cooperation, unanimous political cooperation and full political union. We model these situations as a three-stage signalling game and show that, surprisingly, intelligence cooperation increases the probability of efficient defensive policies more than unanimous political cooperation.

Turkey’s Security Policy towards Northern Syria and Iraq amid Regional Chaos (2011-2019)

This study seeks to explain Turkey’s policies towards Iraq and Northern Syria in the context of regional geopolitical competition. The paper first explains the structure of the regional competitive system in the Middle East by taking into consideration the role and impact of Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Secondly, by focusing on the strategic goals of the regional actors, the paper contextualizes the logic of strategic rationality behind Turkey’s military and political engagements in Syria and Iraq. Finally, the research is addressing Turkey’s strategy for settling the Syrian crisis. One of the most important threats against Turkey during this period has been the emergence of the YPG, the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist organization, which became the central component of the counter-terrorism policy of the US against ISIS. With the deepening of the crises in Syria and then in Iraq, as well as the failed military coup in Turkey in 2016, the government has changed its strategy and has consolidated itself as one of the most effective players in the Syrian crisis. The overall assessment of this research is that Turkey has managed the emerged threats in northern Syria and Iraq by pursuing a twin pillar policy and relying on diplomatic and especially hard power capacities and eventually, has become a pole in resolving the Syrian crisis since 2016 when gradually moved away from the Western coalition.

The Omani National Counterterrorism Policies and Forces

Collective security and international cooperation are an integral and inseparable system where the state must give and support in exchange for requesting and getting back based on reciprocity. Although parts of the approach may seem offensive, the principles and motives of the state are defensive. The data collected for this research were extracted from interviews conducted in a semi-structured style and from policy analyses achieved through observing procedures, reviewing related legislation, and a detailed review of all previously associated policies. Based on the methods used in this policy, the Sultanate of Oman has integrated collective security within its national security strategy by adopting international efforts within its guidelines. This has occurred through ratification and taking the necessary measures to implement them as part of its legislation and applying internationally agreed standards in its policies. These methods are proactive and aim to intervene and stop the terrorist attacks before they happen, eliminating the terrorist threat.
 

The Urgency of Gender-Based Counterterrorism Policy Regulation in Indonesia

Gender-based counterterrorism in Indonesia still has not yet obtained greater attention from policy stakeholders. The role of women in handling terrorism cases is still lacking and results in the absence of gender sensitivity. This research aims to analyse regulations regarding policies on terrorism that are spread out not only at the level of laws but also at a more technical level of regulations. This research also involves the analysis on the urgency for policy regulation for gender-based counterterrorism. This research combines both legal/juridical-normative research and juridical-empirical/socio-legal research. The results of this research indicate that counterterrorism regulation in Indonesia is still general or gender-neutral. From an institutional perspective, the institutions that handle the criminal act of terrorism, which are the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) and Special Detachment 88 for Anti-Terrorism (Densus 88 AT), have not accommodated a gender perspective. Consequently, the involvement of female law enforcement officials is still limited. Further, the issue of “silo mentalities" among these institutions has resulted in partial counterterrorism policies that are issued by each institution. Policy stakeholders should cooperate with other government institutions and increase the involvement of women in counterterrorism strategies to ensure that counterterrorism policies integrate a gender perspective.

신흥기술을 이용한 테러이용수단에 대한 대응 : 미국 국토안보부의 과학-기술적 대응에 관한 연구

We witness a new wave of emerging technologies changing our society in every aspect. Along with the innovation of technologies in our daily lives, we encounter a challenge that violent non-state actors use the new technology for their terrorist attacks. These violent non-state terrorist groups and extremists rapidly adopted and exploited these emerging technologies in unanticipated and lethal ways. Today, therefore, terrorists and extremists became more technologically savvy with no readily existing effective countermeasures. In fact, combatting against the malicious use of technological innovations is not an easy task for national security communities globally. Therefore, it became an imminent and the most important mission for security communities to address the challenge of emerging technological threats now and in the foreseeable future to national security. In an attempt to deal with the treats and opportunities of emerging technologies, Department of Homeland Security(DHS) of U.S.A operates the Science and Technologies Directorate(S&T) to work with world-class experts, renowned research centers and labs to improve the ability of DHS component to protect critical infrastructure and the overall security of its homeland. S&T provides evidence-based scientific and technical solutions and advises to deal with a range of emerging threats from aviation security to CRNBE(Chemical, Radioactive, Nuclear, Biological & Explosives) detection for DHS. Operations by S&T are unique but very effective. Currently, we, South Korea, need the model of S&T of DHS to prevent emerging threats to our nation security. However, it seems to be that our counterterrorism agencies and communities are not adequately ready for the new challenge yet. Therefore, this study attempts to examine whether the US S&T model is applicable for our counterterrorism system to encounter newly emerging threats of innovative terrorist technologies. In results and discussion, we discussed policy implications and suggested current counterterrorism policies and revisions of relevant laws.

Effects of Defensive and Proactive Measures on Competition Between Terrorist Groups

A two-stage game investigates how counterterrorism measures affect within-country competition between two rival terrorist groups. Although such competition is commonplace (e.g., al-Nusra Front and Free Syria Army; Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army; and al-Fatah and Hamas), there is no theoretical treatment of how proactive and defensive measures influence this interaction. Previous studies on rival terrorist groups are solely empirical concerning group survival, outbidding, and terrorism level, while ignoring the role that government countermeasures exert on the rival groups’ terrorism. In a theoretical framework, alternative counterterrorism actions have diverse impacts on the level of terrorism depending on relative group sizes and government-targeting decisions. In the two-stage game, optimal counterterrorism policy rules are displayed in terms of how governments target symmetric and asymmetric terrorist groups. Comparative statics show how parameter changes affect Nash or subgame perfect equilibrium outcomes.

Understanding the Effects and Impacts of Counter-Terrorist Financing Policy and Practice

ABSTRACT After twenty years of global counterterrorist financing (CTF) policy and practice, there is little consensus on what these have achieved, and little empirical evidence to determine if, or how, CTF works to reduce the financing of terrorism or terrorism more broadly. In many cases, the lack of clarity on these issues is due to poor articulation of the specific approaches to countering the financing of terrorism (CTF). The main approaches considered in the literature are the criminalization of terrorist financing and the financial exclusion (sanctions) approach, but there are many other identifiable policy approaches to CTF. In order to clarify our understanding of CTF, I examined over 550 pieces of scholarly literature covering both terrorist financing and CTF to develop a typology of seven main approaches to CTF, some of which have been studied and evaluated far more than others, but all of which are part of the “bucket” of policy options available to states. These different CTF approaches need to be considered and evaluated individually in order to design better policies and practices.

Politically influenced counterterrorism policy and welfare efficiency

The paper examines how two targeted countries strategically deploy their counterterror forces when lobbying defense firms influence counterterror provision. For proactive measures, lobbying activities in a single targeted country lessen underprovision, raise overall counterterrorism, and reduce terrorism. Welfare decreases in the lobbied country but increases in the other targeted country owing to enhanced free riding. Lobbying influence on the targeted countries' welfare is tied to terrorists' targeting preferences and how the lobbied government weighs citizens’ welfare. Lobbying in both targeted countries may result in the first-best equilibrium. International policy coordination may lead to less efficient outcomes than the noncooperative equilibrium.

Confronting Islamophobia and its consequences in East London in a context of increased surveillance and stigmatisation

Islamophobia is an issue faced by Muslims across Europe. In the UK, there is a growing acceptance that the government’s counter-terrorism policy, Prevent, has led to increased discrimination. Current research is split on whether discrimination among Muslims is leading to disengagement and a retreat from public life or whether this has inspired a feeling of responsibility to participate more actively and engage in politics or alternative forms of political resistance. This paper presents the results from the London case study of a larger comparative project which seeks to assess the political consequences of the experience of discrimination by evaluating the individual and collective responses of Muslims in terms of political participation and representation. Based on qualitative research including semi-structured interviews and participant observation in Tower Hamlets (East London), we show how Muslim individuals, including civil society actors, have responded to Islamophobia, and the discrimination associated with it, in a context of increased surveillance after the introduction of the ‘Prevent Duty’ in 2015. We focus on individual responses to confronting discrimination and stigmatisation and include a case study of an initiative by the campaigning group Citizens UK which sought to explore the potential for collective responses and wider coalitions against discrimination faced by Muslims. We investigate the emerging strategies that are being adopted as a reaction to discrimination and examine the extent to which responses constitute a means of ‘fighting back’ through political participation and engagement and whether this new climate has fostered either mobilisation or demobilisation. Our findings indicate that individual forms of resistance are more prominent than mass mobilisation and some evidence of Muslims retreating from political engagement.

Archiving as embodied research and security practice

This article explores the importance of embodiment in (research on) archival practices on state counter-terrorism policy in Nigeria. In doing so, the article seeks to contribute to the ongoing discussion around methodology and methods in critical security studies and other related fields in international relations by focusing on (researchers’) bodies as sites of knowledge production and intervention. Building on three empirical themes of fragmentation, labelling and gatekeeping that emerged from fieldwork in Abuja, Nigeria, I demonstrate how embodiment operates in active research contexts in the production – and problematization – of in/security. To do this, I draw inspiration from ideas around state archival practice; embodiment in critical security studies, especially as discussed in feminist and postcolonial work; and in/security theory to scaffold my broader methodological approach. A focus on embodiment, the article argues, marks the researcher’s body – and research – as integral to the development of theories and findings about security. At the same time, exploring the ways in which the (researcher’s) body is (re)produced in relation to identity and subjectivity encourages greater reflexivity in our research practice and fieldwork, as we are continually reminded that our work and our words are grounded in the standpoints that we occupy. The article concludes by identifying some useful strategies from my fieldwork for grappling with the challenges and tensions that emerge from bodily encounters in (security) research process.

Understanding the Role of the Internet in the Process of Radicalisation: An Analysis of Convicted Extremists in England and Wales

This study explores the Internet’s role in radicalization pathways and offending of 235 convicted extremists in England and Wales. A comprehensive database was developed by coding content of specialist assessment reports by professionals with direct contact with individuals concerned. A series of quantitative analyses were then conducted. Findings suggest the Internet is playing an increasingly prominent role in radicalization, with variations in online activities depending on pathway taken. Internet use has also changed over time, with increasing social media use. This study informs the debate on the Internet’s role within radicalization pathways, guiding counter-terrorism approaches and policy in this area.

Canadian Discourse and Emotions on Terrorism: How Canadian Prime Ministers Speak about Terrorism since 9/11

This paper analyses the character of the discourse and emotions invoked in speeches delivered by prime ministers of Canada from the 9/11 terrorist attacks up until now. There is increased recognition in academic literature of the need to study emotions, because people are not rational beings and they base their decisions on feelings. Especially the discourse on terrorism is often emotional. The paper argues that there is a need to study the discourse on terrorism and emotions in them, because if the discourse is manipulative it can lead to adoption of counterterrorism measures that are considered ineffective or even counterproductive. This paper attempts to fill the gap in academic literature on terrorism discourse, which usually focuses only on the United States and United Kingdom, by providing a study of Canadian discourse on terrorism. The paper presents an analysis of speeches delivered by Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau conducted in NVivo. It finds that each of these prime ministers attempts to influence emotions to some extent to gain support for their counterterrorism policies by invoking emotions such as fear or hate. However, there are also some more calming and less emotional features of the speeches.

The Efficacy of Airpower in Counterinsurgency

Since 2001, the United States has relied upon air strikes in its global counterterrorism campaign against insurgencies throughout the world. With advances in air strike technology, public opinion growing increasingly intolerant of deployments of ground forces abroad, and the proliferation of terrorist groups around the world, the use of air strikes appears to be the future of US counterterrorism policy. This study tests the efficacy of air strikes as a counterinsurgency tool by geocoordinating US air strike data and merging it with three major databases on conflict events to assess whether air strikes influence the rate of insurgent attacks. Our analysis reveals that air strikes reduce insurgents’ capacity to carry out attacks over the long term. At the same time, air strikes carry a short-term, provocative effect on insurgent attacks when they result in civilian fatalities. Finally, there is some evidence that air strikes increase attack attempts, but these attempts are not always successful, nor directed toward government forces.

EU의 대테러리즘에 대한 법제 검토

Terrorism cannot be justified for any reason and preventing and combating terrorism is a critical mission of the international community. The impact of the simultaneous terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001 was recognized as a problem not only in the United States but also in EU.<BR> The issue of countermeasures against terrorism in EU has already been discussed since the 1970s, and various measures and legislation have been put forward. However, the September 11 incident was argued that the existing measures and legislation were insufficient, New legislative measures were taken. The EU is developing its own counter-terrorism policy systems like EUROPOL, EUROJUST efficiently with the decision making systems of the Treaty of the EU. Addition to this, the EU and its neighboring countries are reforming their governance of counter terrorism policy each other through some cooperation between them.<BR> As a result, EU

Strategic European counterterrorism? An empirical analysis

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the extent to which the European Union is strategically engaging against terrorism. It builds on traditional scholarship on strategic thinking and elaborates an analytical framework to empirically assess strategic policy formulation at the supranational level in the case of terrorism. The framework revolves around three analytical categories: i) threat assessment; ii) objectives setting; and iii) policy measures. Through qualitative content analysis of text data, we show that, while objectives are clearly presented in the documents, the threat that the strategy is supposed to counter is unspecified. In addition to that, the formulation of concrete policy measures remains largely vague. Overall, the article adds to the growing academic debate on EU security governance and offers fresh empirical insights on strategic thinking in counterterrorism policy.