Message from Directors ARW Skopje 2018 to the Reader

How should you use this book on “Defence Against Terrorism Keeping Democracy Safe”, which the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme gave us the opportunity to prepare during the Advanced Research Workshop in Skopje last spring? The invitation to participants at the beginning of this conference included the comment: “listening is even more important than talking”. From what the Directors have understood, it has been a success for all. But it will only really be one if what has been concluded will also be applied, in this specific discipline and in all related ones. It was impressive that from both sides of the Atlantic and from East to West in Europe, the central conclusion was that, from whenever point of view or discipline: more effective democracy, and not less, is the key for the resilience of our societies against the “new threats”, at least for containing the criminal violence of terror.

If you are expert on terrorism, you will find in this book perceptions, information, opinions and points of view from experts from geographic area that you do not deal with every day but that globalisation brings to your door, from disciplines you perhaps rarely come across, but that you will need to integrate into your thinking to meet the complexity of our current societies. All of these presentations point at concepts and phenomena that should be taken into consideration when you intend to enhance security in your own society, in your own field of work, but also make clear the risks you take would you disregard them.

Even if you only marginally encounter security questions related to terrorism in your discipline of work, in the military, in foreign affairs, in some public security department but also in the overall public sector, in utilities and private companies, these articles will give you insights into understanding what is at stake when confronting threats against democracy, and help you reflect on what should and should not be done to keep your sector safe.

Read about what you do not know, because soon or later, directly or indirectly, you will need it. And as you certainly don't have time, we tried to make it easier, with short and more extended abstracts and summaries.

The scope of this book is not to test technical measures in order to prevent or to confront terrorism. The scope of this book is to help understand what is at stake when faced with criminal organisations that all, soon or later, apply extreme violence against our societies. But also to understand what happens when you take specific measures, or when you are invited to apply then. The question dealt with is how to make those measures work better, but also how to prevent them from doing more harm than good. Of course, the background of this all is: “democracy is the worst form of government on earth except for all the others …” (Winston Churchill, November 11th 1947).

We want to particularly thank His Excellency Dr Gjorge Ivanov, President of the FY Republic of Macedonia

Turkey recognizes the Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name (this note applies to any mention of the name FY Republic of Macedonia in this document).