Proceedings of the NATO Centre of Excellence - Defence against Terrorism (COE-DAT) Advanced Training Course entitled "Analyzing Different Dimensions and New Threats in Defence Against Terror," Kiev, Ukraine, 23-27 May 2011.
Contemporary Debates on Terrorism is an innovative textbook, addressing a number of key issues in terrorism studies from both traditional and 'critical' perspectives. This second edition has been revised and updated to cover contemporary issues such as the rise of ISIL and cyberterrorism. In recent years, the terrorism studies field has grown in quantity and quality, with a growing number of scholars rooted in various professional disciplines beginning to debate the complex dynamics underlying this category of violence. Within the broader field, there are a number of identifiable controversies and questions which divide scholarly opinion and generate opposing arguments. These relate to theoretical issues, such as the definition of terrorism and state terrorism, substantive issues like the threat posed by al Qaeda/ISIL and the utility of different responses to terrorism, different pathways leading people to engage in terrorist tactics and ethical issues such as the use of drones. This new edition brings together in one place many of the field’s leading scholars to debate the key issues relating to a set of 16 important controversies and questions. The format of the volume involves a leading scholar taking a particular position on the controversy, followed by an opposing or alternative viewpoint written by another scholar. In addition to the pedagogic value of allowing students to read opposing arguments in one place, the volume will also be important for providing an overview of the state of the field and its key lines of debate. This book will be essential reading for students of terrorism studies and political violence, critical terrorism studies, security studies and IR in general.
The traumas resulting from terrorism and political violence have profound implications for the stability and normal operation of modern societies, and a negative impact on the effectiveness and legitimacy of their governments. This publication presents articles from the NATO Advanced Training Course (ATC) ‘Defence Against Terrorism: Different Dimensions and Trends of the Emerging Threat – Terrorism’ held in Kabul, Afghanistan in May 2010. This course was attended by serving Afghan officers of various ranks and also by a number of Afghan civilians, and was designed to have a practical focus for the participants, all of whom were involved in counterterrorism operations.The book begins with an overview of terrorism, which sets the stage for the articles of the other contributors. Subjects covered in the remainder of the book include the importance of social stability to the fight against terrorism; adjustments to change; the role of intelligence and the importance of international cooperation between intelligence agencies; suicide bombing; terrorism and organized crime; as well as future trends in terrorism. This title will be of great interest to all those concerned with countering the threat from terrorism and political violence.
This book brings together research that covers perspectives and case studies on terrorism, radicalisation and countering violent extremism (CVE). Written by experts involved in these issues at the grassroots, the book bridges the academic-practitioner gap in the field. The proliferation of academic studies and conferences devoted to these subjects has meant that policymakers and practitioners in the same fields sometimes struggle to digest the sheer volume of academic output. The same critical questions keep coming up, but it is debatable the level to which there have been tangible improvements to our real state of knowledge: knowledge in especially in terms of what “best practices” exist in the field (and what can be translated, versus what approaches remain context and location specific). Written in an accessible manner for the general interested reader, practitioners, and policymakers in the field, this volume comprises edited versions of papers presented at CVE workshops run by the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) at the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2016 and 2017.
This book provides a comprehensive guide to the different aspects of deradicalization theories, programs and methods. It analyzes the practical and theoretical aspects of deradicalization programs and the methods being employed to bring extremists and terrorist back to a non-violent life. The book includes in-depth case studies on programs and former extremists, including interviews with former German neo-Nazis and families of Jihadists who have received deradicalization counselling. Using a coherent theory of radicalization and deradicalization, it integrates existing programs into a typology and methodology regarding the effects and concepts behind deradicalization. In addition, a current state of the art assessment of deradicalization programs around the world provides a collection of programs and landscapes worldwide. It thereby functions as a unique guide for practitioners and policymakers in need of evaluation or construction of such programs, as well as a resource pool for academics interested in research about deradicalization programs and processes. The major aim of this book is to consolidate the existing scholarship on deradicalization and to move the field forward by proposing a coherent theory of deradicalization, including ways to measure effectiveness, standard methods and procedures, different actors of such programs and cooperation on national and international level. In essence, this work enables the reader to identify how, when and why deradicalization programs work, how they can be built and structured, and to identify their limitations. This book will be of interest to students of radicalisation, counter-terrorism, radical Islam, criminology, security studies and IR.
This book examines how de-radicalisation programmes have been portrayed in the media and details the role of public relations (PR) strategies employed by such programmes and Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) to create positive coverage of their work. CVE and de-radicalisation programmes have seen a significant rise in recent years and are now cornerstones of many countries’ counterterrorism strategies. Despite the increased importance of these tools to counter violent radicalisation leading to terrorism, they remain controversial and sometimes receive fierce public criticism and opposition. This work looks at how CVE and de-radicalisation programs are able to influence a country’s discourse on de-radicalisation, and how far governmental programs differ from non-governmental initiatives in terms of their PR strategies. The book also provides a theoretical basis of how the discourse on CVE is constructed in the media. As major case studies, this book examines the United Kingdom, Germany and Nigeria. For these countries, the authors have gathered and assessed roughly 3,000 newspaper articles on de-radicalisation programmes over a decade to provide an empirical base. This book will be of much interest to students of countering violent extremism, de-radicalisation, and terrorism studies.
This revised edition is a comprehensive account of the technological and political possibilities and dangers presented by weapons of mass destruction in the wake of September 11th, 2001. The technical and organizational sophistication of the attacks on September 11th heralds a new era in the age-old war against terrorism. After these attacks, attention became focused on the activities and capacities of Islamic extremist groups, such as Osama bin Laden' s al-Qa' eda organization, but the reality is that terrorist threats could come from almost any quarter.
In compiling this annotated bibliography on the psychology of terrorism, the author has defined terrorism as "acts of violence intentionally perpetrated on civilian noncombatants with the goal of furthering some ideological, religious or political objective." The principal focus is on nonstate actors. The task was to identify and analyze the scientific and professional social science literature pertaining to the psychological and/or behavioral dimensions of terrorist behavior (not on victimization or effects). The objectives were to explore what questions pertaining to terrorist groups and behavior had been asked by social science researchers; to identify the main findings from that research; and attempt to distill and summarize them within a framework of operationally relevant questions. To identify the relevant social science literature, the author began by searching a series of major academic databases using a systematic, iterative keyword strategy, mapping, where possible, onto existing subject headings. The focus was on locating professional social science literature published in major books or in peer-reviewed journals. Searches were conducted of the following databases October 2003: Sociofile/Sociological Abstracts, Criminal Justice Abstracts (CJ Abstracts), Criminal Justice Periodical Index (CJPI), National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts (NCJRS), PsycInfo, Medline, and Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS). Three types of annotations were provided for works in this bibliography: Author's Abstract -- this is the abstract of the work as provided (and often published) by the author; Editor's Annotation -- this is an annotation written by the editor of this bibliography; and Key Quote Summary -- this is an annotation composed of "key quotes" from the original work, edited to provide a cogent overview of its main points.