Terrorism, one of the few words that insidiously worked it way up our everyday dictionary, with a recent increase in terrorist acts over the past few years it is important to understand what terrorism is and how can it be stopped. This essay will show how nations such as The United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia and organizations like NATO combat terrorism by the means of covert operations, intelligence sharing and state legislation and how these various means can be used to limit terrorist acts.
Before combating terrorism, it is important to understand what terrorism is and what are the different forms of it. Terrorism is the unjustifiable use of violence against civilians in the pursuit of specific aims which are mainly politically or religiously motivated. There are five main categories of Terrorism which are: State-sponsored, Dissent, Left and right, Religious and criminal. (Emmel,2018) Out of these five categories, we can further divide left and right, dissent and state-sponsored terrorism into politically affiliated forms of terrorism as in all the three cases, the main intention is to destabilize a nation or an organization. Out of these five main categories, it is argued that religious terrorism is the one form that receives most of the attention. This is evident due to the rise of refugees coming in from countries such as Syria and Yemen into European countries thus contributing in an increase in radicalized terrorism. Whatever the form of terrorism is, the grotesque nature of these unjustifiable acts remains the same for all.
Furthermore, the first step in combating terrorism is to acknowledge the major terrorist acts that have hit several nations over the past few years. One of the most notable acts of terrorism over the past few years is the “9/11” attack which rendered 2753 people dead. This terrorist act was orchestrated by orchestrated by Osama Bin Laden and included 19 hijackers. The main reason behind this cowardly attack was due to a holy war called by Osama Bin laden on the United States. Till today, 9/11 remains one of the most horrifying examples of religiously affiliated terrorist acts in the world. (Bird,2015) Moreover, one of the most notable examples of state sponsored terrorism is the Libyan government and its involvement in terrorist activities in European countries. The Libyan government has been involved in financing terror cells in Europe in pursuit of the Libyan objective for an increase in power and influence around the region. (Alexander,1985) To counter these heinous acts, several steps are being taken by leading countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom as will be shown in later paragraphs.
One of the leading nations that actively fights terrorism is the United States of America led by the FBI. One of the main difficulties in combating terrorism anywhere in the world is how secretive and loyal the members are to one another thus making it extremely hard for the intelligence community to stop these acts pre-emptively. At the forefront of fighting terrorism in the USA is the FBI where they implement several tactics to spot and tag potential terror risks. For example, one way in which the FBI aid in reduce terrorist acts is by using informants and undercover agents who infiltrate suspicious groups. Therefore, by infiltrating them, the FBI gains valuable insight into any potential strike and eventually increase the chances of them stopping it. Furthermore, another new technique used by the FBI is psycholinguistics. Psycholinguistics is the study of the relationship between what the person writes and how does his/her mentality contribute to this writing.. This technique can be implemented on written or oral communications between members whom the FBI suspect but have no background on them, by using this technique the agents are able to obtain the background, age, sex and race of the individuals involved. As a result, although this technique can not completely replace the positions of informants and undercover agents, it adds a new way in which terrorism could be combated; a way which could be introduced to the internet and help in tagging potential online radicalization acts. Consequently, by using these two techniques alongside other conventional methods the number of terrorist incidents has decreased in the USA from 111 to 69 attacks from 1977 to 1980. (Monroe,1982)
In addition to, other nations such as Australia have also been victims of terrorist attacks thus prompting the Australian government to find new ways to tackle this issue. Unlike the United States, the Australian government approach is an increase in public spending towards the intelligence community and an increase in the flow of information between the different federal and state agenices present in Australia. For example, the budget allocated to policing in general and counter terrorism in specific has increased from $332 million Australian dollars to $659 million Australian dollars in 2014. As a result, an increase in the budget would corelate with an increase in the number of staff involved in counter terrorism thus making it easier to spot and act on terrorist acts before they occur. Moreover, the Australian government has increased the coordination between state and federal agencies to share the information they have much more frequently. Due to this increase in coordination, the chances of flagging potential risks are greatly reduced as the information is distributed between all the agencies. (Veit,2005)To sum up, this shows that an increase in government funds towards intelligence agencies is one way in which terrorism is fought.
Furthermore, the United Kingdom is another nation fighting terrorism; terrorism is in part fought from a legal perspective. The United Kingdom fights terrorism from a legal and defensive perspective. An example of defensive methods that are used is the installation of concrete blocks to prevent the entry of cars into areas of public gathering. (Travis, 2017) On the other hand, legislation such as the “Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security” act in 2001. One of the features of this act is that it allows a police officer to arrest someone in an airplane without needing a warrant. As a result, the main implementation of these laws within the act help in increasing the police power towards arresting subjects that are considered dangerous. (Turner,2016) thus, what makes the United Kingdom different that the other countries in this essay is that the UK is focusing on fighting terrorism in part from a legislative standpoint.
On the other hand, apart from these nations, the role of organizations such as NATO are also crucial in fighting terrorism in several ways.,
On the other hand, apart from nations, combating terrorism is also fought by organizations such as NATO. NATO approaches terrorism in two ways. One of the ways is enhancing intelligence sharing between different countries that are part of NATO. Due to this, it is easier for nations to be alerted about any incoming attacks that have been planned in a different nation as now the intelligence community in one country can relay their information to all the countries that are part of this organization. NATO is also involved in launching operation “Active Endeavour” in which NATO ships patrol the seas of the Mediterranean. As a result, they help in preventing terrorist groups from obtaining weapons as weapons distribution through the sea is the most common and cost-effective way for the terrorists. Therefore, NATO is an essential asset in combating terrorism as it brings to the table something which nations cannot simply do which is sharing of information between several nations at once. Also, considering that NATO is an international organization, nations would be more comfortable In allowing an international body to patrol its seas rather than having another nation doing so. Consequently, NATO approaches terrorism from a unified standpoint; a unification that is necessary to combat terrorism. (Bird,2015)
To conclude with, terrorism continues to pose a threat to the democratic values that western civilization and countries see as being fundamental to their stability. These countries are attempting to combat challenges created by terrorism in a number of inter-related ways. In a number of countries, greater resources have been invested in anti-terrorist measures such as; increasing the number of people working to identify and prevent terrorist attacks take place and developing new technologies to support security agencies in preventing terrorism occurring. Finally, governments are recognizing the importance of understanding the psychology behind individuals who become terrorists. This measure is not attempting to support or sympathize with terrorists but does accept gaining knowledge of terrorists’ values and belief systems will be an invaluable tool to support other initiatives in reducing terrorist atrocities.