This volume presents the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on National Counter-Terrorism Strategies: Legal, Institutional, and Public Policy Dimensions in the US, UK, France, Turkey and Russia, which was held at the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center of American University in Washington, DC on 4–6 May 2006.

The central idea of this NATO Advanced Research Workshop was to discuss and compare various reactions to the challenges of mass-scale terrorism. Five countries are at the center of the research: the United States, Great Britain, France, Turkey and Russia, each of them being a victim of multiple terrorist attacks. The conference brought together the authors represented here, as well as a much wider community.

This work is a collaborative effort that grows out the research carried out in the five countries. Andrey Makarychev was the first to propose the project and, in this sense, this volume is a continuation of the previous research project entitled “Anti-Terrorist Strategies and Domestic Policies: Comparing Russian and American Approaches” implemented by a group of Nizhny Novgorod scholars. That project-based book appeared in fall 2005, constituting a conceptual base for further research in this important field of security studies.

This volume is grounded in a conceptual presumption that the countries directly affected by terrorism produce different types of responses. Of course, there is much in common in all five country cases, but the most interesting part of the research exercise is identifying the divergences. Based upon this comparative analysis, this volume discusses a variety of counter-terrorism policies and strategies. Hopefully, these analyses will provide the basis for improving the counter-terrorism approaches for each of the countries as we learn from each other.

Many people participated in preparing the conference and this volume and deserve to be recognized for their work. Louise Shelley helped shape the intellectual content of the conference and recruited many of the participants. Alon Daniel also helped recruit many of the participants. Irina Morozova handled the logistical arrangements. Kristin Kowalew and Anthony Latta provided enormous help in making the conference successful.

The conference discussants offered extremely insightful comments for the presenters, helping them revise their papers. They were, Esther Brimmer, Ed Kane, Angela Stent, Kim Thachuk, Jeremy Shapiro, and Michelle Egan. The panel chairs also provided invaluable help: John Picarelli, Sally Stoecker, and Ethan Burger.

Finally, Evagelia Tavoulareas tirelessly worked in preparing the text for publication. The dedication of all the contributors was truly inspiring.

We are also grateful to the NATO Science Programme, Cooperative Science and Technology Sub-Programme, for funding the conference and this publication.

Of course, any errors in the publication are our responsibility.

Robert Orttung, Andrey Makarychev