Server Countering Terrorism Abstract Terrorism
Added on 2020-04-07
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Countering TerrorismAbstractTerrorism is one of the biggest reasons of unrest and mass killing all over the world. The term terrorism refers to the use of violence in order to instill a sense of fear amongst the general public. There is almost always either a religious, political or ideological aim behind a terrorist act. As terrorism results in the deaths of millions of people at a time, it is essential to control and suppress the root cause of such violence. This leads to the generation of countering violent acts that lead to killing of men, women and children and is called as counter terrorism. Governments, private agencies and also the army sometimes comes together to form alliances which tackle extremist groups which refuse to settle to agreements.This paper aims to talk about risk associated with the return of foreign fighter. This paper also discusses how counter terrorism emerged, the challenges faced by counter terrorism agencies andhow states can respond to the return of these foreign fighters.IntroductionTerrorism means the destructive activities taken recourse to by a group of people to coerce a government to yield to their demands[ CITATION Anu13 \l 1033 ]. The term “terrorism” is associated with violent activities and mass killings. Even though, there is no fixed definition of the word terrorism, almost every human being is aware of it and some have even experienced its horrific consequences. Terrorism is not an ideology like communism or capitalism. Rather, terrorism is a tactic – a strategy used to achieve a specific end[ CITATION Fre16 \l 1033 ]. Terrorismis usually the act of instilling fear in people in order to show power, rage or is backed by the fulfillment of some sort of political, religious or ideological agenda. Terrorism is responsible for the killing of people in large numbers. The violence is aimed at creating fear in the targeted population and often provokes prompt and violent response from the state[ CITATION Fre17 \l 1033 ]. Therefore it is necessary to take strong precautionary measures to avoid as well as fight back extremist groups who try to create hue and cry.
This leads to effective planning and making of strategies used to tackle terrorism. This is called counter terrorism. The act of preparation, planning, constructing and implementing strategies to control and combat the gruesome acts of terrorism is what is called as counter terrorism. Counterterrorism holds extreme importance as it not only a precautionary measure but a well thought outstrategy that aims to prevent and combat terrorist groups when the situation gets out of hand.HistoryThe first ever counter terrorism group was formed by Sir William Harcourt who was Home secretary at the time in British. This was back in 1880s when the Irish militant Fenians was carrying out a terror campaign resulting in extreme violence and deaths of innumerable innocent people. The idea was to infiltrate the Irish group and tackle the violent activities happening from inside. It was Harcourt who have the idea of undercover infiltration and the name of the unit form by him was later changed to “Special branch” as the group expanded and became more permanent. The general role of the unit was to tackle terrorist groups by foreign subversion. This helped immensely in the governments knowing about the planning and strategies of the terrorist groups without the latter realizing it. From here on, under cover infiltration of organized crime became the norm and law enforcement agencies and government authoritative forming similar units in order to nip the violent extremism in the bud.Counter terrorism gained extreme importance in the late 20th century. This happened post the 9/11 attacks on world trade center in America. History tells us that nations fall or rise depending on the efficacy of their intelligence machinery and the quality of their counter-terrorism strategy[CITATION RKR12 \l 1033 ]. The extreme loss of innocent lives and property, the unpreparedness of the government and the army was extremely shocking to one and all. Law enforcement agencies,post this event started investing a lot of their time, export and resources into the formation of such squads and units that could submerge foreign groups causing violence and be a step ahead.Such statistics increase the need for having counter terrorism systems.Planning Counter Terrorism
Terrorists tend to employ shockingly violent acts, such as beheadings, downing of commercial airlines, bombings in public markets, and armed attacks in public places, to intimidate an audience[ CITATION Tod15 \l 1033 ]. Effective and in-depth planning involving government authorities, military forces as well as private agencies are required for tackling and combating terrorism. There are a number of measures taken by the above mentioned organizations such as hiring intelligence, mass surveillance and reconnaissance. These activities take a huge amount oftime and discretion and important to national security as well as the lives of millions of innocent people. Traditional means of implementing counter terrorism activities include increasing intelligence and domestic surveillance. This requires a large task force and recruiting a larger number of police officials and other standard police personnel than usual. In addition to this surveillance of communication is also done. This includes interception of communication lines such as phone calls, emails, video calls etc. as well as tracing of important extremist head members which run their organizations. Almost every major terrorist attack on Western soil in the past fifteen years was committed by someone already on the government’s radar for one or another reason[ CITATION Jen172 \l 1033 ]. Modern methods are slightly different and a little bit more reliable and efficient. These include expanding military as well as increase law enforcement operations. Counter terrorism is not an easy job. There are a number of challenges faces by law enforcement authorities which can make their job difficult. They may also hamper the operations the need to be carried and result in failed attempts upon discovery by the opposinggroups. Counter-terrorism, to be effective, has to have a strong preventive element—the aim being to stop an attack long before it is launched, and thereby to reduce the fear, as well as effects, of terrorism[ CITATION Nig13 \l 1033 ]. Below mentioned are a few of the major challengesthat are faced by counter terrorism groups. 1.Surveillance- This is the biggest issue faced by governors and law enforcement agencies. It has a number of parameters which determine the success and ability of government authorities on finding information on target groups.A major concern with the development of mass surveillance tools is that they can be used by authoritarian regimes to suppress freedom of information and expression and track down political opponents[ CITATION Est15 \l 1033 ]. Mass surveillance means keeping an eye on a large group of people. This is a difficult job as it surveilling such a large number of people is not only very impractical but also requires an increase in the number of recruits that shall
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