Trends in Terrorism and Counterterrorism - Term Paper Example

Trends in Terrorism and Counterterrorism Name: Institution: Date: ТRЕNDS IN TЕRRОRISM АND СОUNTЕR TЕRRОRISM Introduction Terrorism in its broadest sense and meaning may not have one wholly agreed upon definition but it is a full consensus that it is unwanted and uncalled for whatsoever. A variety of formal systems and government bureaus use varied definitions. Furthermore, governments have always been so unwilling to come up with an agreed upon, lawfully requisite definition. These complexities arise due to the fact that the term has emotional and political reservations (Kegley & Blanton, 2014). This has however not jeopardized the international community’s efforts to come up with a way or mechanism to define and subsequently criminalize terrorism activities (Uzer, 2012). The biggest international organization otherwise known as the United Nations General Assembly has put together things or activities or acts that would deem as terrorism in nature. The members of this organization have agreed that any act or action that seeks to cause or seems to cause a state of panic or terror amongst the general public or within a given group of people or within a given area because of any reason whatsoever justifiable whether political, religious, psychological, economic, ethnic or racial is terrorism (McCoy & Knight, 2015). Historical background of terrorism During the early terrorist schemes that were carried out around the late 1800s, most of the initial tradecraft prerequisites were assisted by the general ease of these times. Amongst the initial tradecraft prerequisites widely employed during this period was obtaining identification documents. Public reports were so thin and never contained people's images and seemed to be devolved to lower levels thus making them not easily searched through (Burch, Nanda & Warther, 2014). (This is still the case in some fewer parts of the world till date, such asSomalia and Afghanistan.) There was a great absence of worldwide identification documents like driver licenses, because vehicles had not yet turn into common stuff. Visa and passports were not extensively necessary for travel till after the World War I, and yet the information regarding visas and passport issuance together with tourist exits and entries were restricted, hand-written permits put into ledgers and proved to be very difficult to search (Mullins, 2011). During this period, it was not hard for Irish Fenian, anarchist or nihilist terrorist perpetrators to move from one point to another and from state to state, hire safe-houses or come up with and send funds. Communication was, without doubt, more hectic for everyone during those times — terrorists as well as authorities (Byman & Shapiro, 2014). The mail method was sluggish, and even if telegrams could easily and quickly sent, they could be seen and read by many people. Law enforcement bodies never coordinated nor communicate very well over territorial boundaries within a country, let alone on an international magnitude (Forest, 2012). These trends have however changed and presently we have witnessed very strange and new terrorism trends, techniques and methods. Terrorist seems to be able to understand fully the rapidly changing world in terms of technology and societal perceptions on a varied number of issues, and use this knowledge to come up with new ways to carry out and perpetrate their heinous acts against humanity (Briefel & Miller, 2012). Terrorism in the 21st Century It is very clear that modern terrorists try so hard to take advantage of the liberal ethics of independent states, coercing governments to give in to their demands due to the psychological, economical and physical complications of terrorist attacks (Zafirovski & Rodeheaver, 2013) One major source of financing for so many terrorist groups is criminal doings: counterfeiting, smuggling, narcotics and extortion. At the start of the twenty-first century, the danger of international terrorism increased due to the rise of the Global Jihad Terrorism. Entailing complex systems of pyramid terrorist organizations are an affiliate and proxy organizations, international and local terror networks, indoctrinated radical activities and sleeper cells (McCoy & Knight, 2015). It is evident that modern terrorism is not essentially dependent on the numbers. Most current terrorist assaults, in as much as they are violent in nature, generally result in limited fatalities. In its place; they depend on mental warfare as a technique for realizing their objective: creating anxiety and fear amongst members of the society (Pham, 2012). In most cases, a terrorist attack is indiscriminate, not aimed at an individual but rather people that share a common feature and signifies the group’s larger target (Israelis, Americans, etc.) (Mehra, 2014). By concurrently transmitting some messages, these assaults increase the intensity of anxiety felt by the targeted group, which then makes civilians to put pressure on their government and decision makers and subsequently lead them to reviewing policies and laws and giving in to terrorists’ demand. Some of the information terrorist groups and organizations aim to transmit through their assaults include (Nesser, 2014). 1. Defencelessness– this is usually aimed at showing that an attack can take place anywhere, anytime thus making everyone feel vulnerable. 2. Improbability– The uncertainty of the assault is supposed to put in some sense of lack of surety in the public with regard to “harmless behaviour,” provoking fear that any other person could be next in the line of terrorism victims. 3. Personalization –this kind of messages are meant to make other people be very afraid and be in a state of a dilemma since it could be them who are next as the previous victims have profiles that are same as theirs. 4. Vulnerability– this kind of information is meant to prove that the government’s security apparatus and machinery cannot detect, prevent or stop an attack. 5. Vengeance– this kind of information is usually directed at the public who are meant to believe that their government is against the interests of the terrorist group, and, therefore, they should be pressured to support the terrorist group and keep off its activities. 6. Disproportional price– The cost that an individual must bear due to his/ her government’s policy is so high. It is because of this reason that/ she he must do something to bring a change in the national or international areas of priorities in such a way that it will succumb to the terrorist’s demands. A proper analysis of the narration of terrorism shows that terrorists have knowingly decided on targets that are deemed as unpredictable or taboo so as to capture the attention of international and national media coverage (Ackerman, 2014).The media element is vital to modern terrorism’s technique and strategy. In the absence of media coverage, a terrorist group or organization has very little or no opportunity to pass its message, let alone being able to scare or shock its target population (Radsch, 2014). The victory of a modern terrorist advocacy is reliant on the quantity of publicity it gets. While in the search for funding to help current infrastructure or operations, terrorist organizations in Europe, Middle East, Far East and Latin America, have quickly and sporadically come to fully rely on traditional criminal acts and operations, such as human trafficking, extortion, petty crime, drug trafficking, and counterfeiting (Voica, 2012). Actually, over the last five years, law administrators have reported an unwavering and increased cooperation between criminal actors and terrorist organizations, including assaults that which been funded as a result of money from suspects who have been sued for crimes in which incomes were channelled towards illicit international terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah (Spaaij, 2016). Growing expenses related with terrorist activities such as payment for organization workers, accommodation, training, procurement and transportation of weapons, have acted as motivation for terrorist groups to be fully involved in petty crime. These activities do nothing other than further escalating the danger brought about by terrorist groups to the universal economy and the wellbeing and safety of the world’s inhabitants (Hor, Ramraj and Roach, 2012). By making currency counterfeits, for instance, a terrorist group can destroy a country’s budget and economy while its fund raises. In the same way, by manufacturing and trafficking drugs to some countries, organizations activities can easily cause a huge damage to the local people and subsequently fund its dirty activities (Zafirovski & Rodeheaver, 2013). Sometime in the early 1970s, terrorist groups, especially those not aided financially by governments, financed their actions through illegal activities such as, kidnappings for ransom, bank robberies and blackmail. Terrorist groups, for instance, the Red Brigades in Italy, worked closely together with criminal figures in the region, recruiting them into the levels of their organization. During the late 1970s and especially over the early 1980s, terrorist organizations came to notice that drug smuggling was way more profitable than other basic and normal criminal acts, causing an aspect r occurrence known as narco-terrorism. Effective prevention and coping with the aspect of terrorism requires international and local action at two different stages. The first level is looking into both terrorists’ motive and their operational capacities. It is a state’s duty and responsibility to defend its citizens; therefore, it must work so hard to eradicate fully or minimize terrorist organizations’ operational capacities by the use of offensive action and preventative after gathering of intelligence information (Sageman, 2014). With the growth of modern terrorism together with its continuous international extent, the moral and physical damage borne by terrorist actions has risen to such a level that it debatably intimidates the best operations of open society, the economy of the world and the protection of humanitarian and open-minded values and practices (Brunvand, 2014). Terrorism in Australia Australia has experienced its own hare of terrorist threats and the ways it has dealt with makes it exemplary. In the year 2014, a self-proclaimed Muslim cleric took around 17 people hostage in Sydney café, and forced them to raise high jihadist flags. In 2015, a young boy shot two people, and it was believed to have been politically motivated and therefore an act of terrorism. Both the terrorism acts were dealt with by the Australian authorities in a swift way thus making it a very good case study here (Mullins, 2011). Counterterrorism strategies in Australia Australia has not been left out in the fight against terror and other terrorism-related activities. As a country, it has put in place quite some counter-terrorism measures and actions that need to be adhered to carefully and strictly (Underhill, 2014). The Australian counterterrorism strategy has got very important components and elements that include: 1. Analysis: this refers to putting in place intelligence-focused rejoinder to terrorism guided by well networked and properly well-versed members of the national security group. 2. Protection: taking all possible and realistic actions to defend Australia and her people from terrorism while at abroad and even at home (Uzer, 2012). 3. Response: this involves putting up a targeted and immediate reaction to specific terrorist risks and terrorist attacks just in case they occur. 4. Resistance: this involves all activities within putting in place a resilient and strong Australian people mindset to resist the rise of any nature of violent extremism and terrorism in their vicinity. Australia has had to make drastic changes in the ways in which it counters terrorism and violent attacks within its borders because terrorists have changed their tactics too. As a country, it has moved very fast to put in place responses that are suited to match the modern terrorism trends and ensure that any possible or forthcoming attacks are thwarted and kept at bay even before they happen (Sorkin, 2013). The capacity to verify the identity of every person travelling to Australia is of great significance to a variety of Australia’s security interests. Individuals taking part in terrorism or grave organized criminal activities have formerly assumed fake identities and used false or fraudulently procured credentials in a bid to avoid border control arrangements (Enders & Sandler, 2012). The Government has strengthened Australia’s boundaries by shifting towards the gathering of biometric information from all those who are not citizens of this country as part and parcel of visa dispensation. The information collected is then checked against law enforcement and immigration biometric databases in the whole of Australia and other partners around the world (Drewer & Ellermann, 2016). Getting to know fully the reasons for a person’s entry into Australia, before giving a visa or giving a go ahead to the border, is also an important element of Australia’s new border management plans. A small number of possible visitors to Australia try to intentionally misrepresent the motive and reason for their travel, and measures to increase our capability to determine the motive and guard Australia against the movement of people who may pose a risk to the security or other concerns. The Government of Australia is currently working on new, improved and innovative technologies to better screen, identify and make it difficult for high-risk travellers to get into Australia, and at the same time effortlessly facilitating the travel of authentic travellers (Jenkins, Nolan & Rubenstein, 2014). While Australia works closely together with local and international partners to screen and identify foreign individuals of security risks who may want to move to Australia, the Government is also committed to preventing Australian nationals from engaging in terrorism-related activity overseas. The Government uses all available avenues to prevent people from Australia who are of security concern from travelling across borders. This involves denying or revoking passports. More than 40 Australian nationals have had their passports denied or revoked because of reasons that are associated with terrorism. According to Fomenko (2015), since terrorists have turned to using business to carry out their heinous acts and launch attacks, Australia has seen how businesses play an important role in guarding Australia’s infrastructure from terrorism and other criminal activities. The government works closely with the business community to achieve normal security interests and concerns, while recognizing separate private and public responsibilities. As the operators and owners in a variety of areas that are possibly vulnerable to manipulation or attack by terrorist organizations – such are the transport sector, utilities and financial markets – the business population, therefore, has a great role to play in Australia counterterrorism efforts (Kluch & Vaux, 2016). We have known from past experiences that large transport systems, public places where people usually come together in large numbers and vital infrastructure have always been the main aim and target of the terrorist attack abroad. The newly formed Critical Infrastructure Protection Program guarantee that Australia’s vital and very important infrastructure must be better protected from any possible and potential attacks of terrorism. Modern day terrorism activities have also been moving towards the launch of cyber-attacks in different sectors of the economy like the financial market. This is usually carried out by cyber criminals who may cripple or infect a country’s important system thus putting most essential activities on hold (Lou, 2013). The Australian Government has, in turn, formed a cyber-security operations center to ensure that information about protection from cyber security is made public to everyone. It also works closely with the private sector such as banks and those in the telecommunication industry to ensure that they put in place strict and effective measures to keep their systems safe from any form of cyber-attacks by terrorist or criminals. References Ackerman, S. (2014). 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