Counter Terrorism Blog

Introduction Looking back on the past 15 years, there is little doubt that the 9/11 attacks profoundly altered the landscape of international security. Over the last decade and a half, there has been a tremendous multiplication of counter terrorism measures, laws, policies at regional, national and international levels. The events of 9/11 and -more recently- the phenomena of ISIS, “homegrown terrorism” and “foreign fighters”, set states and international bodies on an accelerated path of law making and institution-building, (Kaunert & Leonard, 2012). Domestic and international counter terrorism initiatives include specific provisions to permit, require and fund technologically innovative measures to counter terrorism; thus smart borders, (smart) surveillance, data retention/collection and sharing, passenger name record exchange etc., feature heavily in the hyper technologized operational continuum of contemporary counter terrorism, “where the production, retention, processing, ...

Looking back on the past 15 years, there is little doubt that the 9/11 attacks profoundly altered the landscape of international security. Although terrorism is by no means a new phenomenon, (it has existed since 66AD with the sicarii, a splinter group of the Hebrew Zealots, whose activities easily fall within the scope of terrorism), the September 11 attacks certainly marked the end of an era and the beginning of another. While the association of transnational terrorism with Islam pre-dated 9/11, was often narrowly limited to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the association of Arabs and Muslims in general with terrorism became the quintessential stereotype evoked in all international security debates, following the 9/11 attacks. Despite the fact that there is no universal agreement regarding the definition of terrorism (as it is dependent on individual worldviews, belief continua and personal experiences) and the debate continues to be contentious, most people agree that terroris...

                                                          Photo Credit:World Economic Forum The study of terrorism has always been a complex, challenging and multifarious task. Though Terrorism Studies were largely part of a niche epistemic community –at least for the first part of the 20 th century-, after 9/11 the multidisciplinary field of terrorism experienced tremendous growth. The unprecedented attacks of September 11 th provoked a vivid interest from counter-terrorism related research communities and previous attacks were reevaluated in order (for experts) to gain further insight into the ever-changing international security milieu. The increased frequency and wide persistence of acts of terrorism in all its forms has transformed the erstwhile fledgling field of terrorism into the “haut” field, more popular than ever. The commo...

TERRORISM VS ORGANIZED CRIME It is no secret that after the fall of the “Iron Curtain”,  the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent opening of the borders, radical changes were brought about in all aspects of social life. It was around that time that the boundaries between terrorism and organized crime became problematically indiscernible. Years before terrorism had its “golden age”, organized crime was on a pedestal, flourishing and expanding at an unprecedented pace. It was the most profitable business thanks to its transnationality, manifold nature and globalized marketplace. Organized crime includes -but is not limited to- drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, arms trafficking, counterfeit goods etc. While Europol’s 2007 Organized Crime Threat Assessment stresses that organized crime does not pose a substantial security threat to EU Member-States, when it is linked to transnational terrorist groups, the threat assessment changes dramatically...