Ebook: Defence Against Terrorism

This book “Defence Against Terrorism” contains the lectures presented at the Advanced Training Course (ATC) which was conducted in Amman, Jordan, on 03-07 January 2010. This ATC was organized by the Ankara-based Centre of Excellence–Defence against Terrorism (COE–DAT). COE–DAT was inaugurated in 2005 with the purpose of supporting NATO on defence issues related to terrorism. Turkey is the framework nation and currently seven other nations also contribute staff and funds: Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, the United Kingdom and the United States. Each year, COE–DAT organizes several ATCs, workshops and courses to bring academicians and terrorism experts to interested parties in NATO countries, Partnership for Peace (PfP) countries, and Mediterranean Dialogue Countries, ICI Countries, and others.

This book comprises 8 papers containing the lectures during the ATC. The presenters are both academics and practitioners, selected for their expertise in matters related to terrorism. The papers cover the main areas taking into account the various dimensions, theoretical, historical and practical aspects, and the defence against it.

The first paper by Ms. Zeynep SÜTALAN aims to provide a general framework for understanding the history and causes of terrorism rather than proposing methods to cope with them. It is hard to identify one specific cause or a few specific causes that can completely account for all terrorism. Different types of terrorism in different cases can derive from different causes. Despite the difficulty in identifying causes of terrorism, a comprehensive approach towards the political, social and economic environment where terrorism is likely to flourish may result in fruitful outcomes for combating terrorism.

The second paper by Major Julian CHARVAT is written from several NATO briefing documents regarding the Alliance's fight against terrorism that have been published on the NATO website or other NATO briefing documents. A brief overview of Alliance anti-terrorism operations and their objectives is given in addition to details of organization policy and guidance. The need to constantly evaluate NATO strategies to deal with the problem of terrorism is emphasized.

Major Barbaros Hayrettin ŞENERDEM emphasizes the importance of providing a platform to present details of the relationship consisting of three parties (government, public and media) in order to deeply understand the expectations of each party so that appropriate measures in defence against terrorism through the media can be described. Throughout history, terrorism has made use of communications with an increasing trend of advancing technology in order to have a catalyst effect for terrorist acts. Unfortunately, since the means of communication serve the commercial interests of players in the media, a by-product of the catalyst effect seems to be a symbiotic relationship formed between each party. At the point of breaking the relationship, governments enter the scene and intervene in it. While doing that, governments actually have experience to avoid the vulnerabilities of democracies that serve the freedom of expression for the media. Therefore, it is necessary to open the media's eyes to make them choose a balanced way to defend against terrorism.

Major Julian CHARVAT takes a look at the “Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and Terrorism” and discusses the possible intentions of terrorist groups to use WMDs and the possibilities they may have for obtaining them. A WMD attack on a city target would potentially be one of the most devastating types of terrorist attack possible. Not only would the potential physical damage be significant but the psychological effects of a WMD or suspected WMD would be far greater than that of a conventional attack. He will also discuss NATO's response to a WMD threat and the capabilities it has to prevent and deal with any such action.

Dr. Nicholas RIDLEY starts his article by providing an overview of initial international reactions to the problem of combating terrorist financing in the post-9/11 environment. He then examines more recent obstacles to solving the problem including finding agreement on the definitions of terrorism and identifying terrorist activities among other criminal financial dealings, the latter issue being the main focus of this presentation.

Dr. Vesna MARKOVIC describes a growing trend in the establishment of relationships between organized crime groups and terrorist organizations. Various types of criminal activities that terror organizations have been found to have been involved with are detailed in a series of case studies. These case studies describe involvement in various smuggling activities including cigarettes, drugs, arms, counterfeit products, and people. A call is made for greater attention to this problem and international action to prevent it.

Major A. Aykut ÖNCÜ examines the role and place of strategic communications in combating terrorism. The paper outlines what strategic communications are and argues that strategic communications must be regarded as a fundamental element for all efforts in combating terrorism. Mutual understanding and listening will help us to understand the real causes of problems and show us the way to solve them.

In the last article, Ms. Zeynep SÜTALAN discusses future trends in terrorism by looking at the changing profile of terrorism with regards to ideology, organization and structure as well as the means and methods used in terrorism. She points out how the ideologies used by terrorist organizations, together with their goals and motivations, have changed. She elaborates how the organizational structure of terrorist organizations has changed with reference to the network and hierarchical structures of terrorist organizations. Ms. Sütalan looks at the means and methods of terrorist organizations with special attention to weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and suicide bombing. Other features of terrorism like cyber terrorism, the growing interconnectedness and interdependency between organized crime and terrorism and the nexus between piracy and terrorism is also addressed. As the final part, Ms. Sütalan touches upon NATO's study on Multiple Futures, which is about the future threats that the Alliance will be facing in the 21st century. In this context, she argues that there is both change and continuity in terrorism since it is a historical phenomenon and intends to contribute to the discussions on the future of terrorism.

With the collection of these articles in a book, it is intended to cover many different perspectives on terrorism and create an awareness of this growing problem. The sharing and dissemination of knowledge, experience and perspectives on different parts of terrorism allows for further consideration and improvement in our systems of defence against terrorism, and creating and improving the authorities' and systems responsible for responding to related risks. We hope that the content of this volume will be useful and informative for a much greater time and to a greater audience.

Adil DUYAN, LTC.

ATC Director

Terrorism has been on the world scene for ages. It is not something new or unaccustomed. Terrorism breeds in any environment it can. Thus, it is hard to identify one specific cause or few that result in terrorism. Different types of terrorism in different cases can derive from different causes. Despite the difficulty in identifying causes of terrorism, a comprehensive approach towards the political, social and economic environment where terrorism is likely to flourish may result in fruitful outcomes for combating terrorism. Within this context, this article aims to provide a general framework for understanding the history and causes of terrorism rather than proposing methods to cope with them.

This paper is written from several NATO briefing documents regarding the Alliance's fight against terrorism that have been published on the NATO website or other NATO briefing documents. A brief overview of Alliance anti-terrorism operations and their objectives is given in addition to details of organization policy and guidance. The need to constantly evaluate NATO strategies to deal with the problem of terrorism is emphasized.

Throughout history, terrorism has made use of communication with an increasing trend of growing technology in order to have a catalyst effect for terrorist acts. Unfortunately, as means of communication serve the commercial interests of players in the media, by-product formation of the catalyst effect seems around a symbiotic relationship between each party. At the point of breaking the relationship, governments enter the scene and intervene in it. While doing that, governments actually have experience to avoid vulnerabilities of democracies that serve the freedom of expression for the media. Therefore, it is required to open the media's eyes to make them choose a balanced way in defence against terrorism. And yet, this article provides a platform to present details of the relationship consisting of three parties in order to deeply understand expectations of each party so that appropriate measures in defence against terrorism through the media can be described.

This paper discusses the possible intentions of terrorist groups to use WMDs and the possibilities they may have for obtaining them. It will also discuss NATOs response to a WMD threat and the capabilities it has to prevent and deal with any such action.

This article opens by providing an overview of initial international reactions to the problem of combating terrorist financing in the post 9/11 environment. It then examines more recent obstacles to solving the problem including, finding agreement on definitions of terrorism and identifying terrorist activities among other criminal financial dealings, the later issue being the main focus of this paper.

This paper describes a growing trend of the establishment of relationships between organized crime groups and terrorist organizations. Various types of criminal activities that terror organizations have been found to have been involved with are detailed in a series of case studies. The case studies describe involvement in various smuggling activates including cigarettes, drugs, arms, counterfeit products, and people. A call is made for greater attention to this problem and international action to prevent it.

This paper discusses the role and place of strategic communications in combating terrorism. The paper outlines what strategic communications is and argues that strategic communications must be regarded as a fundamental element for all efforts in combating terrorism. Mutual understanding and listening will help us to understand real causes of problems and show the way to solve them.

This article discusses the future trends in terrorism by looking at the changing profile of terrorism over ideology, organization and structure as well as the means and methods used in terrorism. First, the article examines how the ideologies used by terrorist organizations together with their goals and motivations have changed. Second, it elaborates how the organizational structure of terrorist organizations has changed with reference to the network and hierarchical structures of terrorist organizations. Third, the article is dedicated to look at the means and methods of terrorist organizations with special attention to the weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and suicide bombing. Other features of terrorism like cyber terrorism, the growing interconnectedness and interdependency between organized crime and terrorism and the nexus between piracy and terrorism is also addressed. The article also touches upon as NATO's study on Multiple Futures, which is about the future threats that the Alliance will be facing in the 21^st century. In this context, the article argues that there is both change and continuity in terrorism since it is a historical phenomenon and intends to contribute to the discussions on the future of terrorism.