Terrorism Today Research Articles

The Evolution of Far-Right Terrorist Tactics and Targeting

Far-right terrorism today poses perhaps the gravest terrorism threat to Western communities. Over the course of the past 50 years, however, the manifestations of such violence have shifted, as social media and strategic innovations such as leaderless resistance have impacted both the tactics and targeting involved in far-right violence. Today, lone actor attacks using firearms and targeting soft targets predominate, but terrorists nonetheless continue to innovate with technologies such as 3D-printing. Such developments hold considerable implications for counterterrorism practitioners, who must balance relatively simplistic yet lethal violence with the enduring possibilities of terrorist innovation using emerging technology.

Handling Deportants and Returnees of Former Foreign Terrorist Fighter: International and Domestic Law Perspectives

The defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) after the last war in Baghouz, Syria, by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2019 was not the end of the problem of global terrorism today. ISIS, which has sympathizers from different countries, currently leaves the problem of handling its deportees and returnees, including in Indonesia. This paper intends to examine the problems of deportants and returnees of former Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTF) in Indonesia normatively, focusing on the political aspects of law, positive criminal law, and international criminal law. Based on the type of normative research, legislative, comparative, and conceptual approaches, this paper argues that the handling of deportants and returnees of former foreign terrorist fighters in Indonesia within the framework of positive criminal law still seems to be dominated by a paradigm of legal thinking that leans on aspects of restraint and retribution rather than prioritizing aspects of reformation and deterrence. In addition, positive criminal law instruments are still not sufficiently accommodating in supporting law enforcement in handling deportants and returnees of former FTFs in Indonesia.

INFORMATION TERRORISM AND ITS PREVENTION IN THE GLOBAL POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY

The manifestations of information terrorism can be realized concerning the subjects of the global political sphere. Preventing and countering its consequences is a difficult task, primarily due to the multiple directions of modern threats, as well as the complexity of selecting and implementing measures to be taken to counter such manifestations of information danger. The study aims to analyze the trends in the development of measures to counter information terrorist attacks that have been and are being carried out against the targets of the global political sphere in the XXI century. The research was carried out using the methods of sequential analysis of the peculiarities of development and systemic description of information terrorism. In addition, the article provides a comparative assessment of related concepts. The descriptive method, comparison, analysis and synthesis of information were used to assess the content, methods of counteraction, principles and measures to counter information threats. According to the research results, the key features of countering information terrorism today include the formation and improvement of the regulatory framework based on global cooperation, openness, transparency, increased responsibility and proactive state policy to counter information terrorist attacks.

Financial instruments to counter the exploitation of natural resources

Currently, the financial activities of the state cover all areas of the country's economic activity, including all monetary relations between all entities producing tangible and intangible assets within the country and foreign countries, as well as interstate relations and with all international funds. The state’s implementation of financial activities is aimed at its own provision of financial resources to fulfill its most important tasks: creating a material and technical base for the education and systematic increase of the “middle stratum” of society, increasing the material and cultural standard of living of the civilian population, ensuring the economic and military security of the country, promoting the strengthening of international cooperation. The exploitation of natural resources is seen as one of the ways in which terrorist organizations control and hold territory. This issue also relates to how terrorist organizations finance themselves through criminal activities and possible links to organized crime groups. Such criminal activities include extortion, smuggling, theft, illegal mining, kidnapping for ransom, corruption and environmental crimes. Since the main sources of extremism and terrorism are unresolved, constantly growing social contradictions and intertwined with them negatively influencing social processes, phenomena or conflicts in certain spheres of public life. And addressing the issues of countering the financing of terrorism today is the most important in the modern world.

The coloniality of the religious terrorism thesis

Abstract A dominant narrative, produced and reproduced especially by terrorism scholars, holds that terrorism in its worst form is religious. The most dangerous and non-negotiable form of terrorism, in other words, is the religious kind. At the same time, there is a recurring implication, proposed by many terrorism scholars and reflected in public discourse, that terrorism, no matter its official designation, is always inherently ‘religious’ or ‘religious-like’. Both this implication and the dominant narrative about the uniquely dangerous character of ‘religious terrorism’ – which I summarise as the Religious Terrorism Thesis – builds on colonial knowledge and assumptions about ‘religion’. Religion is also, as I argue, written into the category ‘terrorism’ and enables its negative discursive power and the colonial imagination of ‘terrorism’ as racialised and a system-threat to (Western) modernity. Terrorism, therefore, can never constitute a neutral signifier of a specific kind of political violence. Instead, it functions as a negative ideograph to Western societies, which means it functions to uphold the project of Western modernity/coloniality. The Religious Terrorism Thesis, which I identify as the foundation for the dominant discourse on terrorism today, is a crucial element of coloniality and justifies many controversial and contemporary counterterrorism practices.

Memutus Mata Rantai Radikalisme dan Terorisme dengan Mengedepankan Kegiatan Positif di Sekolah

Efforts to combat radical movements to terrorism of any kind, should not be carried out by violent means, as the United States has done to Afghanistan. This is because the violence will only add to the violence of the new volume. Volumes of crimes against humanity against innocent civilians. We can't quell the impossibility with the impossibility. Efforts to counter terrorism must start from uprooting the root or source of the problem. On the domestic political stage, the rise of religious radicalism movements is marked by the rise of mass actions driven by several hardline Islamist groups, which generally have something in common in one respect, namely; want the grounding or application of Islamic law in the archipelago. . Efforts to counter terrorism must start from uprooting the root or source of the problem. The most important root or source of acts of terrorism today is to remove injustice and lameness in the order of international relations. It needs intense dialogue between the warring parties in order to truly find the best solution to end the conflict

The Tension Between Combating Terrorism and Protecting the Right to a Fair Trial in Indonesia

A consistent criticism of the Indonesian criminal justice system indicates its dysfunctional judicial system plagued by systemic corruption and government interference. Given the high profiles of terrorism offences and their strict punishment, it is essential to maintain consistency in sentencing decisions for these crimes. However, there is a significant lack of evidence-based studies of sentencing in Indonesian courts, and none specifically related to terrorism offences. The aim of this study is to analyse the application of the right to a fair trial in sentencing terrorism offences in Indonesia through the interpretive lens of Southern criminology. This study takes a multi-dimensional approach of historical, legal, and empirical analyses to provide an in-depth understanding of factors that affect sentencing decisions in terrorism cases. First, the historical analysis explains that prosecutions for terrorism today include radical Islamists, minority extremists and separatist groups willing to resort to violence against the state and society to achieve their goals. Second, the legal analysis highlights how the existing sentencing regimes provide limited guidance for judges when determining the appropriate punishment for terrorist offenders, frequently leading to prison sentences exceeding 10 years. Third, qualitative analysis further explains that judges use their discretion to avoid the minimum mandatory sentence in specific circumstances, such as in the case of juvenile offenders. A Southern criminology approach helps explain terrorism sentencing in the broader historical, legal, and socio-political contexts. Ultimately, the way laws are written and how judges determine the sentences of terrorism offences result from the persistent impact of colonialism, authoritarianism, and the 'war on terror' discourse. The case study reveals violations of international human rights rules and standards. Terrorism sentencing practices also exemplify a troubling trend where national security trumps the fundamental procedural rights of terrorist offenders.

Using Behavioral Strategies to Cope With the Threat of Terrorism: A National-Level Study

Although the risk of dying in a terrorist attack in the United States is almost non-existent, recent polls indicate that Americans rank terrorism as a top national concern, prioritizing it over other issues such as the economy, health care, and the environment. The current study examines how Americans are impacted by the threat of terrorism today. Analyses of original national survey data suggest that Americans currently engage in behavioral coping in response to the threat of terrorism, and their coping responses vary by levels of worry about terrorism, political orientation, emotional vulnerability, and the association that they make between Muslims and terrorism. The observed behavioral adaptations have implications for community engagement, the economy, and psychological well-being on an individual level.

Violence, terror and terrorism today: Psychoanalytic perspectives – Part III

The IFPS Forum held in New York City in May 2016, about which one of us wrote a very detailed report (see Conci, 2017), was so successful that, for the first time in the history of our journal, we ...

Mediasi Massal Terorisme: Pengantar Critical Terrorism Studies

This paper is a development of research conducted by the Center for National Security Studies (Puskamnas) Bhayangkara University of Jakarta on a map of global terrorism obtained from coverage of 56 (fifty six) online mass media in the world throughout the year 2017. Mass mediation of terrorism is a critical effort and a reflective way in trying to understand the practice and the articulation of the terrorism discourse in the world, especially on how the media enters and enlivens the practice of terrorism concept. This paper shows that the social construction of terrorism tends to be influenced by the Western mass media. In the construction of the mass media, the notion of terrorism today is the product of the discourse of the Western mass media. The dominance of the Western mass mediation terrorism resulted in the construction of terrorism discourse associated with the movement of Islamism and Communism. The mass mediation of terrorism demonstrates by Israeli atrocities against Palestinians tend to disregard aas acts of state terrorism. Threfore, the implication of state-centrist terrorism in counter terrorism policies are more oriented towards national security than human security.

The Challenge of Islam Nusantara Against Terorism: Analysis Study of Islam Nusantara of Ulama NU Movement in Central Java

<p>The more widespread ideology in the era of global terrorism today has become a global concern, acts of terror committed national or transnational terrorists have been bad for the creation of a harmonious world order, pluralist and inclusive. Several countries collapse in the Middle East and Africa as well as the tense conditions in Poso has been the evidence of how acts of terror committed the terrorists do not recognize tribes, nations and religions. If this trend continues, then the life of mankind and civilization of the world will be damaged. Long before understanding terrorism rampant in Indonesia and the world, the scholars Walisongo through propaganda Islamiyah has offered the concept of Islam Nusantara, the moderate Islam that can adapt to the cultural heritage at the time. Islam Nusantara or moderate Islam is essentially Islam that gave mercy to all the worlds. These efforts Walisongo scholars ulama NU followed by the next generation until now. Rampant ideology of terrorism today is of course a challenge for the NU clerics spearheading the development of Islam in the Indonesian archipelago. This research will find: formulation of basic normatively and historicity and the philosophical concept of Islam Nusantara, formulated the concept of Islam Nusantara in the perspective of scholars Walisongo and ulama NU in Central Java, the dynamics of socio-political development of Islam Nusantara in Central Java from time to time, the public response in Central Java to the development of Islam Nusantara, and the contribution of Islam Nusantara in a moderate Islam that can create harmony, pluralist and inclusive in order peaceful world civilization.</p>

L'Umanesimo europeo di fronte ai problemi della secolarizzazione, del terrorismo e della sacralizzazione dei conflitti: la prospettiva religiosa

The crisis of European humanism is closely connected with a number of phenomena: globalization, terrorism, immigration and cultural change. It is the religious perspective that is taken in this contribution and concerns two aspects in particular: the change under way in the spiritual and religious world in connection with the principles of European humanism and the sacred relationship and violence in expressions of xenophobia and, above all, of terrorism. The reflections on these issues take their cue from some research data: the most recent E.V.S. - European Values Study - survey in which 67,492 people living in 47 European countries or bordering areas were interviewed, the one by the Università Cattolica in Lombardy on the Jubilee of Mercy and the one by the French Ministry of Internal Affairs on radicalized Jihadists. The construction of an index of adhesion to the values of European humanism - the expression of principles of modern ethical conscience and the base of a non-confessional spirituality, as well as highlighting in the E. V. S. survey a marked difference in the orientations towards values between the Eastern European countries, which joined the European Union more recently, with respect to the Western European ones (the Europe of 15) which for some time have been the leaders of this partnership - has also shown the difficulties of the historical religions to inculturate their message in this strongly secularized area of the world, but does not alienate the assertion of very high spiritual values. The appearance of a 'spiritual' model which creates a new paradigm in the relationship with the sacred and shifts the barycentre from institution to subject - a process which is also highlighted by the study of the Jubilee of Mercy - appears for the time being to emerge on the crisis of a model of «religion» which finds it hard to abandon theological visions of the past and ethical positions which modern conscience can no longer accept. The analysis of xenophobia and above all of terrorism, today more present than ever in Europe, is also carried out in this contribution from the religious perspective, because there cannot be an adequate comprehension of these phenomena if we do not take into account that their strength and their entrenchment in people are the result of a process of sacralization, which is not necessarily achieved through reference to a specific religion, as in the case of the Muslim Jihadists. For this reason, the article examines in the details the ambiguous nature of the sacred, the characteristics of the conversions to great ideals in the movements of revolt and the sacrificial dynamic which reproduces the ritual 'death/rebirth' practice, then using these categories to better understand the offer and action of Jihadist terrorism today.

Iran’s Contemporary Anti-Terrorism Approach: “Hard” and “Soft” Elements

The article deals with “hard” and “soft” elements of Iran’s contemporary anti-terrorism approach. The authors state that fighting against terrorism today demands a comprehensive approach, and though force-based approach has always prevailed over “soft” tools in realization of anti-terrorist strategies of states, in modern world realities without a psycho-ideological component combating terrorism does not seem to succeed. A balanced universal model of using these two components does not exist, as everything in this context depends on specifics of a country or a region. But the need for considering “soft” aspects becomes more relevant. Iran is an active player in combating international terrorism, though it does not have a unified document or specific strategy with defined “hard” and “soft” tools of anti-terrorism fight. The force-based element of Iran’s counter-terrorism approach at the present stage obviously prevails over the non-powerbased. The country’s active military involvement in solution of the Syrian crisis, supporting military groups, which fight against radical element in the region and tough policy towards drug traffic is an important source of income for extremist factions, proves the matter. “Hard power” approach in fighting against terrorism leads to physical extermination of terrorists, however, consideration of the survival of their ideas in modern info-communications century reveals the significance of the issue of “soft” instrument use in anti-terrorism strategy. In fight against terrorism in this dimension, Iran resorts to “soft power” and public diplomacy. The cultural, religious and scientific potentials as well as educational institutes and information resources are actively utilized to construct a correct understanding of Islam and its positive image, to delegitimate and deconstruct narratives of radical Islamists.

Исследование отношения к терроризму: гендерный аспект

The concept of terrorism today is a very diverse phenomenon. Modern terrorism has recently acquired features of a global problem that requires close attention of the international community. It is well known that any society facing this problem will eventually change its attitude to this phenomenon. The article has discussed the questions concerning the formation of the attitude to terrorism and revealed empirical indicators of male and female attitude to terrorism. The results of the study allow to predict people's reactions to this negative phenomenon.

Radicalism, Jihad and Terror

As an issue of complexity, radicalism does not stand alone. It has a political and ideological basis. Like an ideology that continues to bind, radicalism takes the path of religion to be able to justify all actions of anarchy. The case of today’s Islam as being synonymous with radicalism is apart of the complexcity of the issue. Religious radicalism is a prevalent phenomenon in the history religions. Radicalism is closely related to fundamentalism, which is marked by the return of society to the fundamentals of religion. Fundamentalism is a kind of ideology that makes religion the principle of life by society and individuals. Fundamentalism usually comes along with radicalism and violence when the freedom to return to religion is hindered by social and political circumstances surrounding the society. Islam recognizes jihad that is in some cases misunderstood. Jihad is different from radicalism and its derivatives of terrorism. Radicalism and terrorism tend to be destructive, uncompromising and closely related to violent behavior in the name of religion. Meanwhile jihad is a form of the totality of a Muslim's devotion to God, which is concerned not only with self-defense efforts, but a battle that has a theological legitimacy in which the martyrs are promised by God with various virtues and advantages. The association of jihad with terrorism today cannot be justified due to the fact that jihad in the sense of war (Qitâl) involves elements of violence that can be categorized as terrorism. It is the case that the use of violence in the name of religion in contemporary times is, in fact, due to political factors, which then seeks its legitimacy in religious teachings.

Engaging in duty of care: towards a terrorism preparedness plan

A minor digression, if you will: it has been over 30 years since I (referring to lead author) first wrote on the topic of terrorism and its potential impact on conducting business in a global context. The most vivid memory I have relative to that initial foray into this new topic was making a presentation at the annual summer American Marketing Association (AMA) conference in Chicago. I got halfway through the paper and I started to hear jeering noises emanating from the audience. As I remember (it is not a pleasant memory), the audience thought that I had lost my mind and that the reviewers of the paper allowed this rubbish into the AMA meeting (the implication was that they must have been drinking at the time). This is a true account of the presentation and when I left the session, I would be dishonest if I didn’t tell you that I had made a terrible error and there would be significant ramifications to my young academic career. Yet, no country is untouched by global terrorism today, and the ramifications for global organizations are escalating year by year.

Trend of Terrorism in Republic of Kosovo

The effect of terrorism today has much more international impact because of the interconnectedness of markets, the mobility and the advanced technological capabilities of individuals and terrorist groups. The international community must act as a united front against all forms of terrorism and that there can be no justification for terrorism and the war against terrorism cannot be selective.

Report on the XIXth IFPS Forum, “Violence, terror and terrorism today: Psychoanalytic perspectives,” New York City, May 12–15, 2016

Report on the XIXth IFPS Forum, “Violence, terror and terrorism today: Psychoanalytic perspectives,” New York City, May 12–15, 2016

Under Western Eyes and Terrorism Today

Under Western Eyes and Terrorism Today

Tendency of using chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons for terrorist purposes

Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) terrorism is a serious problem, and its threat and use lead to a new era of terrorism: the epoch much more dangerous than any of the previous periods and the terrorism no one yet knows how to cope with. The disturbing fact is that terrorists can come into possession of weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, the goal of the paper is to analyze the probability of CBRN terrorist actions which have highlighted the growing concerns and increasing signs of convergence between terrorism and CBRN unconventional weapons for terrorist purposes. Terrorism today includes technologies available to anyone and anywhere and deployed through innovative solutions where it is also necessary to understand a complex interaction between the dynamic behavior of terrorist groups and the decisions regarding old and new technologies. The prospect of the use of CBRN terrorism has been confirmed by many countries as an acute security challenge that requires an efficient and quick response and reaction. The paper will also explain the importance of understanding the relationship between terrorist groups and non-conventional weapons, as well as difficulties in identifying factors that may cause the escalation. Since the end of 1990s and since the tragedy of September 11, 2001 in particular, government officials of many countries have pointed out the possibility that terrorist organizations eventually can come into the possession of unconventional materials and develop the possibilities of their use against some countries.