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Ebook: Countering Terrorism and Urban Warfare
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Paragraph 10 of the Security Environment section of the NATO Strategic Concept adopted in 2010 clearly defines terrorism as ‘a direct threat to the security of the citizens of NATO countries, and to international stability and prosperity more broadly’. Terrorist attacks in Turkey, France, Belgium, Germany, Canada and the United States have demonstrated both the vulnerability of NATO members to terrorist activity and the need to strengthen security cooperation with countries of both the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI).
This book presents papers delivered at the NATO Advanced Training Course (ATC) ‘Countering Terrorism and Urban Warfare’, held in Herzliya, Israel, in November 2017. Course participants from both the military and the civilian sectors shared theoretical and practical best practice in the countering of terrorism in an urban warfare context, and the 10 papers included here cover topics such as protecting the civilian population in urban combat areas; terrorists logic behind the choice of target; what Europe can learn from its southern neighbors; countering hybrid threats in megacities and densely populated urban areas; and where will ISIS regroup?
The book will be of interest to all those concerned with the countering of terrorism, particularly in urban areas.
Since the NATO Summit Declaration in Warsaw, the threat of terrorism has expanded and intensified its area of operations to target soft civilian and military assets within Allied territory, and now is clearly a direct threat to our nations and the international community. Furthermore, the NATO Strategic Concept adopted in 2010 clearly defines terrorism, in paragraph 10 of “The Security Environment”, as “a direct threat to the security of the citizens of NATO countries, and to international stability and prosperity more broadly. Extremist groups continue to spread to, and in, areas of strategic importance to the Alliance, and modern technology increases the threat and potential impact of terrorist attacks, in particular if terrorists were to acquire nuclear, chemical, biological or radiological capabilities”. The terrorist attacks in Turkey, France, Belgium, Germany, Canada and United States have shown the vulnerability of NATO members to terrorist activity and the need to strengthen security cooperation with countries of both the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI).
Israel is a key NATO partner within the framework of the Mediterranean Dialogue and a tailor-made Individual Partnership has been established to enhance practical cooperation, with a specific focus on counter-terrorism. Since the release of the Strategic Concept in 2010 and with the “Berlin partnership package” working with more partners, on more issues, and in more ways, has been increasingly instrumental.
Indeed, cooperation with Partner countries in the Mediterranean and the broader Middle East is a key priority for NATO. As stated in the Warsaw Summit Declaration “we will continue to develop our partnership with countries of the Middle East and North Africa region through deeper political dialogue and enhanced practical cooperation.”
Israel's experience in counter-terrorism, the quality of its armed forces and its technological innovation capabilities are prime assets for any relevant security or defense organization, providing a unique opportunity for NATO Partner countries to exchange best practices. Hosting this NATO SPS Advanced Training Course in Israel, has allowed the participation of senior officials and policy makers from the MD and ICI countries.
This ATC has been organized by the Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA) in close scientific and academic coordination with the Inter-Disciplinary Centre of Israel (IDC) and in partnership with Israel Defence Forces.
The scope of this ATC was to improve awareness and engagement by educational programs and tailored trainings, as it is becoming more important to contribute to the prevention of terrorism and increase resilience against the threat of terrorism.
Through a unique combination of experts from NATO, EU, OSCE, UN, Israel, NATO and other partners, both in the MENA regions and NATO members, this training served as a unique platform for policy makers sharing unique insights on operational challenges in implementation of counter-terrorism activities.
This training contributed to a process of capacity-building on CT to meet emerging security challenges. In the ATC framework, simulations have taken place with experts in order to prepare and respond to emerging terrorism related threats coming from several areas.
The strong commitment from all partners, trainers and participants made this training historical and it is with full joy that I thank the NATO Science for Peace and Security program for providing its full support to this project.
Sincerely,
Alessandro Niglia
Co-Director, NATO Advanced Training Course
In today's complex operational and threat environment, the protection of civilians in urban military operations represents a daunting tactical, operational and strategic challenge, which non-state armed groups using terrorism as a tactic will exploit to its fullest. Nevertheless, given the observable trends in urbanization and armed conflicts, it is one that commanders will inevitably have to face more frequently in the coming years. The integration of gender perspective is one tool forces will have to rely on to provide efficient protection and mitigate harm caused to the civilian population.
All the information originates from open sources and/or personal research and study. The expressed opinions as well as any mistake or inaccuracy in the text should be referred solely to the author.
This paper analyzes the complexities of conducting military campaigns in highly dense populated areas. It leans on key findings of a NATO Advanced Training Course (ATC), held in November 2017 in Israel. Armed conflicts are increasingly being fought in populated areas.
United Nations, General Assembly, Report of the Secretary-General on the protection of civilians in armed conflict S/2017/414 (10 May 2017), p. 4, available on http://undocs.org/S/2017/414, referring to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, States of Fragility 2016: Understanding Violence (Paris, OECD Publishing, 2016), as well as to ICRC, “Urban services during protracted armed conflict: a call for a better approach to assisting affected people” (Geneva, 2015). Id., at page 2; Also see Rosa Brooks, “Civilians and Armed Conflict”, in The United Nations Security Council in the Age of Human Rights 35–67 (Jared Genser & Bruno Stagno Ugarte eds., New York: Cambridge University Press 2014), at https://goo.gl/EwiFoV. See Gil Avriel “Terrorism 2.0: The Rise of the Civilitary Battlefield.” Harv. Nat'l Sec. J. 7 199–240 (2016), available at http://harvardnsj.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Avriel-PUBLISH.pdf. For an expansion on the theory see http://www.civilitary.org; in addition see John Bellinger (The former Legal Adviser for the U.S Department of State 2005–2009), “Terrorism Taxonomy: Gil Avriel's “Civilitary Theory” Lawfare blog," February 6, 2016, available at https://www.lawfareblog.com/terrorism-taxonomy-gil-avriels-civilitary-theory. The term “Lawfare” in the context of this paper refers to the strategy of using law as a weapon of war. For Lawfare in general see Charles J. Dunlap, Jr., Colonel, USA, Law and Military Interventions: Preserving Humanitarian Values In the 21st Conflicts (paper prepared for the Humanitarian Challenges in Military Intervention Conference, Carr. Cnt. For Human Rights Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Washington D.C November 29, 2001); also see Charles J. Dunlap, Jr., Lawfare Today, in NATIONAL SECURITY LAW 823 (John Norton Moore and Robert F. Turner, eds., 3rd ed. 2015); Carlson, John and Neville Yeomans, “Whither Goeth the Law-Humanity or Barbarity” The Way Out-Radical Alternatives (Margaret Smith & David Crossley eds., 1975); INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE CHANGING CHARACTER OF WAR Vol 87, US Naval War College International Law Studies 315 (Raul A. “Pete” Pedrozo and Daria P. Wollschlaeger, eds., 2011). Kittrie, Orde F., Lawfare: LAW AS A WEAPON OF WAR (Oxford University Press, 2016).
At the end of the day, confronting non-State organizations in highly populated environments is a growing challenge and one shared by Western militaries as a whole. In this context Israel's threat environment makes it into a natural testing ground. The understandings drawn from its experience as well as NATO's own experience derived from the past two decades of operations beyond its borders, underline the basic need for a new and comprehensive conceptual framework that recognizes the unique characteristics of campaigns in populated areas.
Terrorism is about instability and fear. Today, countering terrorism is more complex than before. Asymmetric threats and extensive use of technology created a difficult environment for law enforcement agencies to deal with. Therefore, any organization should understand the importance of a comprehensive and holistic doctrine at national level for emergency and crisis, which will be followed by the concept of an all hazard approach. Seamlessly integrating technology, human resources and procedures as integral components of the preparation, response and recovery.
The Mediterranean Sea is strategically important. Today's international environment is very articulated and many actors are playing a stronger role in in this area. NATO, Russia, Turkey, Russia, Iran as well as China are developing plans of action to be more influential and get ahead of their geopolitical positioning. This paper will focus on how NATO and the other players are also developing key counter-terrorism activities and how Israel is being more determinant as a member of the Mediterranean Dialogue.
Resulting from the Joint Declaration of 2016, NATO-EU cooperation continues to advance in the political and military domains, having attained multiple areas of substantive partnership in cyber defense, strategic communications and maritime cooperation but with much more remaining to be accomplished in the countering of hybrid threats and bolstering of resilience. Through a combination of military and civilian CSDP missions, the EU's efforts to address the threat of terrorism and hostile information operations are currently underway in the form of 6 on-going military operations and 10 ongoing civilian operations with more than 4 000 personnel currently in deployment.
Terrorism is not a new phenomenon in itself, but compared to the past it has become an extraterritorial threat, and due to the new conditions it can only be effectively countered by having a global response. The religious aspect of radicalisation must be properly addressed, as it is what gives today's terrorism its global nature and what makes it extremely dangerous. The Muslim world, which is the one which suffers the most from the current situation, is the best placed to provide us with the right answers. Morocco in particular established a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy which includes specific training for Imams and spiritual guides, and opened it to foreign countries. This is an element that should be considered by all western counterterrorism strategies, because it represents a fundamental component of the fight against the root causes of terrorism and we alone do not have the knowledge and the competences to be successful in this field. However, while it is essential that national counterterrorism strategies also address the religious aspect, it is equally important that they are coordinated among themselves, and the work of the UN, NATO, EU, OSCE and all other relevant organisations is crucial from this point of view.
This is an updated and extended article of the one published by Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM), October 10, 2017. The US-led coalition and Russia, Iran and its proxies have systematically decimated the ranks of ISIS's local and foreign fighters, during the battles for the liberation of ISIS strongholds of Mosul, Raqqa and other minor cities in Syria and Iraq.
Since the fall of Mosul last summer, the strategic Iraqi city of Tal-Afar and the al-Ayadiya district has been liberated by Iraq's Rapid Response Forces, claiming the lives of more than 3,000 ISIS members. The strategy of suicide bombings has also killed over a thousand ISIS fighters with the organisation boasting of 1,112 such operations in 2016 alone. Moreover, in late August, Igor Korobov, head of intelligence in the Russian Army, said that according to Russian estimates there were no more than 9,000 ISIS operatives in Syria, concentrated mainly in central Syria and in the eastern regions of Iraq with Sergei Sorovkin, commander of the Russian forces in Syria, saying that over the last three months the terrorist organisations have lost over 8,000 men.
Ahead of the operation to retake Raqqa, US Defence Secretary James Mattis announced that Washington was beginning to use “annihilation tactics” instead of attrition to defeat ISIS, saying: “Our intention is that the foreign fighters do not survive the fight to return home to North Africa, to Europe, to America, to Asia, to Africa. We are not going to allow them to do so.”
With the looming defeat of the ISIS, and with many of the surviving fighters unable to return to their homes, the question arises as to where the remaining ISIS fighters will scatter as they look for safe havens and attempt to rebuild a territorial stronghold.
In the next fifteen years, we will assist to a political and world powers' transfer from traditional hegemonic states, to a network of diverse kind of actors, including non-state actors: megacities. These overcrowded urban areas will offer many benefits to dwellers but also result in many complex, diverse and potentially contrasted challenges, which will require innovative solutions in scale and scope, from policy makers, military and police forces
Since September 11, 2001 when the United States, a NATO member state faced a world-changing terror attack, states have been forced to face enemies in non-conventional war settings. Since, NATO member states have been hit repeatedly by acts of terror, highlighting the need to develop strategies for preparedness, response and engagement to combat terrorism. With Israel's vast experience in the field of counter-terrorism, and its membership in the Atlantic Treaty Association, the NATO Advanced Training Course was created. This article will provide an overview of the counter-terrorism lessons learned throughout the five-day course, which were taught through a variety of lectures, tours and a final hands-on war-game scenario.
