Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism: A Global Perspective Report

This report provides an analysis of global terrorism, focusing on the evolving landscape of Islamic extremism, including the enduring influence of ISIS and the resurgence of Al-Qaeda, alongside the rise of white supremacy extremism. It examines key trends such as shifts in demographics, technological advancements utilized by terrorists, and the impact of geopolitical factors. The report highlights the role of Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism and discusses the potential for increased attacks. Furthermore, it offers recommendations for governments and policymakers, including the need for enhanced counter-terrorism funding, designation of state sponsors, utilization of all available resources, and the development of special legal teams to handle catastrophic events. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of securing reliable networks and making decisions based on a comprehensive understanding of terrorism threats. This report is a student submission and is available on Desklib, a platform offering AI-powered study tools and academic resources.

Terrorism and counter
terrorism

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
Islamism globally over the years............................................................................................3
Key trends in global terrorism................................................................................................4
Recommendation for government and policy makers...........................................................6
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
ISIS has a global presence which has affected the various nations across the globe.
There is a saying that even though the ISIS has received territorial defeat but its ideology still
survives and it will not vanish so easily. This report states about the future outlook of
Islamism over the next years along with the factors that will drive terrorism trends on the
world.
Islamism globally over the years
It has been rightly said that the despite the territorial defeat of ISIS, but the militant
group still remains alive as an insurgency and is still having a strong influence over the war
torn region. ISIS in Iraq has been defeated in the sense that they are no longer in a quasi state,
that is, they no longer hold any ground but are still alive and working well in the background
with the purpose to expand their influence and undermine the Iraq and other nations
government (Hartleb, 2020). The ideology has in no way being defeated or eliminated but it
is ways away from the complete elimination. The Iraqi government has been criticized for not
providing basic amenities and services to its citizens along with not doing anything with the
widespread existence of corruption and discrimination in the nation against the other ethnic
groups. These factors have been sited as the key contributor to the Islamic state.
The Islamic State entered the year 2020 as a completely different group in comparison
to the six years ago when it rises to power. The physical caliphate seems to have been
destroyed and the organization also seemed to have been at the nadir especially when it is
compared to its peak and the time when it used to control massive swaths of territory. It has
been expected and forecasted that the Islamic State will continue to atomize and might create
a weaker group but still it will continuously work on making the strongest network which
will be very difficult to be targeted since it is expected to be more decentralized. There is
already report that the Islamic State is working in rebuilding itself in Iraq and Syria by
relying on the guerrilla tactics, some sort of hit and run attacks as against the Iraqi security
forces along with the Assad regime in Syria. There are also reports that the sleeping cells are
also lying in wait in order to launch attack which might include bomb blast and
assassinations.
Apart from this, the threat posed by the fighters returning to their countries of origin
has been much less in comparison to the expectation but then too there are significant number
of militants who are unaccounted and might have travelled to the conflict areas or zones and

might have served as the force multiplier for the jihadist groups and would be fighting the
civil wars and insurgencies in the weaker or the failed states (Pokalova, 2020). There is a
question about what will happen to the IS members who are being held in detention under the
deplorable conditions which is growing more like an incubator with women ad children being
left lingering whereas the nation states are procrastinate on developing the policies for the
purpose of dealing with their citizens. There are chances in the future that the large number of
terrorists will now be released from the prison in the coming years and the impact of which
will be very worse because the countries are finding it difficult to deal with the how to
reintegrate these individuals in the society.
There is a thing that cannot be ignored is that the Al-Qaeda and its affiliated
organizations is looking for an opportunity to recapitalize after the death of their leader Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi. Al-Qaeda has gained ground in the conflict in Syria and Yemen as well as
other parts of the Africa (Hendricks, 2020). In case, the United States as said by the president
Trump on withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan then it will be beneficial for the Al-Qaeda
to take advantage of it which will result into power vacuum and work in enhancing and
creating strong network all across the South Asia. Al-Qaeda has its operation globally and
continuously demonstrate its ability to launch attacks in a different way which can be easily
evidenced by the truck bombing in Mogadishu which killed 80 people. Therefore, there is full
chances that the in coming year Al-Qaeda will do something big.
Iran remains the primary state that sponsors terrorism across the world. In coming
years there are chances of other big attacks. Since Tehran provides funds, train and equip its
groups with the variety of capabilities and tactics which is not only used in fighting wars in
Syrian civil war but is also in maintain the global foot impression and is also at the cutting
edge to take the advantage of the emerging technologies (Mahoney, 2020). Iran has provided
advanced weaponry to the Shia group along with Kata’ib Hezbollah group which was
responsible for rocket attack that killed the several US soldiers and a US contractor that in
return triggered a retaliatory strike in against both Iraq and Syria. There are number of
conflicts between the nations are taking place such as Iran vs. the United States, Iran vs.
Israel and the Iran vs. Saudi Arabia and UAE etc. and all these will lead Tehran to use its
strong networks to launch a massive attack.
Key trends in global terrorism
Shift in demographics

The most important and the concerning trend in the terrorism is the “proliferation of
the violent white supremacy extremist organization”. The Ukraine has been the growing and
expanding hub for the transnational white supremacy and there is no sign of threat that can be
posed by neo-Nazis and other motivated extremists anytime soon. On the other hand, it is
seemed that these groups are expanding at a higher rate and are more popular in North
America, Europe, Australia and in other places with the aim of main stream their ideologies
and utilizing social media for the purpose of spreading the propaganda, recruiting the new
members and also finance their operations (Beydoun, 2020). The shift in demographics in
the west along with increase in the migration and combination of populism and Islamophobia
all these factors accounts into more terrorism by the right wind extremists in the coming
years (Hartleb, 2020). The issue of domestic terrorism in US and the various attacks in the
past years the violent white extremists along with neo-Nazis might attempt to use their
perceived momentum for the purpose of recruiting the more members and launching the
similar attacks in the year coming in future. Therefore, the shift in demographics will lead to
drive the terrorism worldwide which is assumed to be very severe.
Technological advancement
Terrorists has continuously working on taking the advantage of the latest technologies
with the aim of gaining an asymmetric advantage. The use of 3-D printed guns in the anti-
Semitic attack in the Halle, Germany gives an indication of growing sophistication and an
increase in the use of advanced technologies. Also, artificial intelligence (AI) and the
machine learning is the biggest barrier and the use of disinformation and deep fakes presents
the counter terrorism forces which also includes the law enforcement and the intelligence
services possess as the complex challenge (Jackson and et.al, 2020). The social media
companies also find it difficult to counter terrorists use of social media platforms. These
groups come with a new way of producing and spreading the propaganda. Another point of
concern is that the terrorist perpetrated by the individuals who are under the influence of neo-
Luddite ideology or those who use violence in order to call for attention to the issues with
respect to the climate change and other things remains the distinct possibility.
Geopolitics
Last is the geopolitics having an influence over the terrorism is the new trend in the
coming up years. The protest movements are the perfect expression of the political and
economic grievances and there is always the chance of existing fringe element in order to

engage in the political or ideologically motivated violence (Duru and et.al, 2020). The
coming up years seems to have an uptick in terrorism in the various countries like N. Ireland
and Colombia which are accustomed to political violence which is now seems to be the
bygone era of terrorism which was driven by separatism and the ethnonationalism. Another
major effect is the second order effects in association with the US transition away from the
counter terrorism and moving towards the great power competition. This led to shifting in the
attention and the reallocation of the resources in the direction of focusing towards China and
Russia. This move might seem to be strategically making sense but it will have some
consequences. Therefore, geopolitics is the new trend in the coming years which will have a
strong impact on the terrorism.
Recommendation for government and policy makers
The key steps that can be taken by the government and the policy makers to counter
terrorism are stated below.
 First is as per CIA guideline which restricts the recruitment of the unsavoury sources
should not be applied at the time of recruiting the counterterrorism sources.
 The government should work on providing higher funding to the counterterrorism
which helps in ensuring that the continuation of the crucial operational activities along
with closing the technological gap that pose as a threat to the ability to gather the
relevant information and destroy the terrorist communication.
 Iran and Syria should be designated and put in the list of state sponsors until and
unless they stop themselves from supporting the terrorists. Also, the Afghanistan
should be considered as the sponsor of terrorism and should also be subject to the all
the sanctions which are applicable to the state sponsors. Along with that sanctions
should also be imposed on the countries which are not the direct sponsors of the
terrorism but are actually not cooperating the fully on the counterterrorism such as
Pakistan and Greece.
 All the relevant agencies should make use of all the relevant sources and means along
with the full array of the criminal and civil sanction including the administrative
sanction with the aim of blocking the non-governmental sources that works on
providing support to the international terrorism.
 A special legal team should be formulated which deals in catastrophic circumstances
or terrorism. Along with that the Défense of the country should have a detailed plan in
respect to the criteria for decision making under any of the event of catastrophic

terrorist attack. Also, the government should make it illegal for anyone who is not
possessing the certificate to having certain pathogens and the law should be enacted to
exercise the control on transfer of equipment which are used as the biological agent.
 The backbone of the terrorism is the technology which is largely created and
facilitated by the US government and the private industries. This enables more and
quick transaction all across the world which the same terrorist uses, that is, the
publicly available technologies in order to provide command and control their
operation and plot the attack. It also leads to abusing the global financial system and
procuring fuds for weapons and other necessities. Therefore, the government should
work on securing the more reliable and safer network in order to reduce the chances
of such abuse which will result into effectively handling the terrorism to some extent.
 Also, the government of the respected countries should make their decisions thinking
about its overall impact on the country in terms of threat from terrorism.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above that there are various factors that is throwing light
on the Islamic terrorism all across the world and the coming up trends which are expected to
have an impact over the world in terms of terrorist attack impacting the various economies.
Certain steps and policies that can be implemented by the government and the policy makers
for mitigating or reducing the chances of terrorism in the world.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Beydoun, K. A., 2020. Exporting Islamophobia in the Global War on Terror. NYUL Rev.
Online. 95. p.81.
Duru, A. and et.al, 2020. Terrorism Activities and Management Forecasts. Available at SSRN
3513352.
Hartleb, F., 2020. Offenders and Terrorism. Ideology, Motives, Objectives. In Lone
Wolves (pp. 63-122). Springer, Cham.
Hartleb, F., 2020. Lone Wolves: The New Terrorism of Right-Wing Single Actors. Springer
Nature.
Hendricks, M. N., 2020. The United States: Pivotal in the Terrorism Debate in Africa.
In Manufacturing Terrorism in Africa (pp. 17-43). Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.
Jackson, R. and et.al, 2020. Critical Terrorism Studies at Ten: Contributions, Cases and
Future Challenges. Routledge.
Mahoney, C. W., 2020. United States defence contractors and the future of military
operations. Defense & Security Analysis. 36(2). pp.180-200.
Pokalova, E., 2020. Georgia's Experiences with Foreign Fighters: Global Recruitment, Local
Roots. Europe-Asia Studies. pp.1-25.