Defense against Terrorism

Book excerpt: Global terrorism is a double-edged threat to democracies. Physically, because of the number of people killed and wounded, structurally, because it threatens social peace and over-reaction tends to undermine our basic values. The authors of the chapters in this book are multinational and interdisciplinary. Their papers were presented for discussion at the Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) held in Skopje (FYROM) 11-14th April 2018 on “Defence Against Terrorism, Enhancing Resilience of Democratic Institutions and Rule of Law”, organized within the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme. Results can be summarised as follows. Counter-terrorist strategy must aim to achieve less, not more, terrorism. The countries with best results are the ones that cultivate human intelligence, confidence between security services and the local population, together with a tradition of effective respect of the Rule of Law. Militarization of internal security, and intelligence systems mainly based on databases (“big data”) and artificial intelligence, though popular, are showing serious limits. More effective democracy, not less, is the key to the resilience of our societies against the “new threats”, particularly for confronting the criminal violence of terror. In discussion, some core necessities were identified: to recognize that it is the method used, not the aims, that define criminal organisations as terrorist; that there is a structural link with organized crime for financing and operative support, and that corruption facilitates and protects any illegal activity; social capital must be developed as a fundamental basic tool for enhancing resilience. This book aims to help analyse the networks and contexts that feed terrorism. It provides anyone confronted with security issues an understanding of the negative as well as the positive aspects of specific counter-measures.