An Outline Of Terrorist Threats During Africa With The End Goal Of Advising Counterterror Operations On The Continent

So far, terrorism has been a key obstacle to many foreign nations, as they are struggling to prevent terrorist attacks. From the year of 1997 up to the year of 2003, international terrorist attacks have gone from less than 500 to almost 3000. Overall, global terrorism has grown by almost 1200% from 1997 to 2003. (Johnston 1). This massive increase in terrorism reflects on other nations' lack of control of the safety of their nation. These statistics also show that something needs to be done to protect the

In a Western perspective, Africa is perceived as a poor, insecure, and violent continent. Although this statement is ignorant and disregards the multidimensional issues that are in each of the 54 countries, security and violence is a general issue in most African countries. African countries have not endured an easy history, and their history continues to create present conflicts. Their violent colonial past has left certain countries with ethnic rivalries and left their legacies with agents of security. Although the colonial past of African countries have been the leading cause of many of their current problems, they cannot be blamed for everything. Additionally, there is a positive correlated relationship between the state and the violence

The operating environment is very complex in the AFRICOM AOR with several security and transregional threats. These threats include terrorism, instability due to intrastate conflicts as a result of political tensions or social issues, as well as proxy wars among African countries.

In an attempt to gain local perspective of the most recent terror attacks in Western Africa, reporter Carley Petesch of the Associated Press has been stationed in the region as their lead West-African correspondent. In the article she discusses how the beach massacre in Ivory Coast and the attack on a Mali hotel have forced the United Nations and European Union to dispatch troops to the area, with the hopes of improving local security measures. She speaks with locals and an area security consultant to discuss how the terrorist group known as Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) continue to terrorize the region, and local governments are in need of international assistance to prevent future attacks.

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the United States, including its allies, waged brutal campaigns directed at the Al Qaeda leadership and, the Taliban in the Middle East. America’s fight against terrorism nonetheless consumed billions of dollars since the 9/11 attacks. Earlier, countries such as England, Spain, Italy, and Russia, similarly waged wars against the Provisional Irish Republican Army, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, the Red Brigades and the Chechnya separatists. In most of these cases, research shed light on the mechanisms that led to the demise or the defeat of these terrorist groups. However, when it comes to similar groups located in the southern hemispheric countries such as Nigeria, the mechanisms leading to the group

Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 11 September 2001, there have been different U.S. strategies to try and combat the rise of global terrorism. The attacks made the entire world all too aware of the scale and scope of threats that terrorism can carry. The post-9/11 global climate has thus seen a shift in awareness of and response to terrorist threats. For the last thirteen years now the United States has denoted terrorism as one of the largest threats to national security and the “highest strategic objective of U.S. embassies worldwide”, a challenge which demands no less resolve than the was required to combat Nazism and Fascism during the last century. This is due to the subversive and penetrative nature of global terrorism, as terrorist groups have the potential to undermine governments and strike devastatingly and completely out of the blue. For this reason, the Unites States has ramped up its antiterrorism and counterterrorism efforts in order to combat the aforementioned transnational and global threat of terror.

In Kathy Gilsinan’s With World Focused on Boko Haram, al-Shabaab Steps Up Offensive (http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/13841/with-world-focused-on-boko-haram-al-shabaab-steps-up-offensive), the topic of al-Shabaab’s legitimacy and terror is discussed. As Boko Haram (another terrorist organization in Africa) has begin inflicting fear through the abduction of schoolgirls and other acts of terror, al-Shabaab has began to take up arms. Its acts of violence are beginning to spread outside the borders of Somalia.

Current U.S. policy toward counterterrorism efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa is incredibly vague, which is a strength of the policy as the needs of this developmental concern evolves constantly. Presently, Africa seems to be nearing a stage of transition as the largest threat arguably changes from al-Qa’ida to other extremist groups, such as Boko Haram and

Our foreign accounts for as high as about 8% to 10% of total gross national product of countries such as Philippines. To tackle the problem of widespread terrorism in the African countries where terrorist group posses more military strength and equipments than most African nations, and needs presence of foreign military

Al-Shabaab as a terrorist group poses a significant threat in Somalia and in the global community. This paper will start by discussing the background. In this part the paper will show how the group has evolved from Al-Ittihad Al-Islam (AIAI) to the Islamic Court Union (ICU) and lastly to Al-Shabaab. Before discussing the group’s threat of national security, homeland and international, this paper will provide the conceptual meaning of key terminology, such as national security, homeland security, international security and globalization. It is important to understand these concepts before moving toward the main argument of the paper. After providing the framework for key concepts, the paper will discuss the group’s threat to Somalia in two areas, national security and homeland security. The paper will go further and identify the threats posed by the group on other nations’ homeland security and international security. We will use East African countries and the United States examples. The paper will provide evidence to support how globalization has shaped and fueled the threats from Al-Shabaab. It will then discuss the primary response from the United States and from African countries through AMISOM. The paper will provide the way forward and suggestions for the response of the international community to Al-Shabaab. In conclusion, we will try to alert the international community that although the group has been experience hard times in Somalia, it is unwise to

In November, terrorists connected to Al-Qaeda stormed an upscale Malian hotel and left 21 people dead. Earlier this month, the Islamic State (IS)-allied Boko Haram group bombed two marketplaces in Nigeria with over 50 fatalities. The US’s missionary zeal to impose democracy on tribal societies has again backfired, a story replayed across the Middle East after the so-called “Arab spring” of 2011.

It will begin with more in-depth descriptions of the 1998 and 2013 terrorist attacks in Kenya, including accounts of the Kenyan government’s immediate actions in response to these events. These descriptions will be followed by a broader study of recent terror and intelligence reforms in Kenya. This paper will analyze these reforms and consider the support they received, the reactions that they provoked, and their effectiveness at dissuading

Furthermore, root causes of conflict on the continent are often associated with internal issues or an ‘African problem’. Alison Ayers discusses the false perception of civil war and ‘failed states’ that have been created and implemented by the West (Ayers 2012). She disputes that civil war is internally instigated and only portrayed this way due to western representations of Africa through media. Ayers states that these efforts are made by hegemonic powers and are ‘ideologically and politically convenient’ (Ayers 2012, 261). Her implications here suggest that these ideological subjugations render African regions vulnerable for the use of exploitation and continuous dependency on external powers. This becomes the norm of African perception

The African Continent has had numerous problems in the last century that have caused low development, low hygiene, and high death rates. These problems include finances, lack of clean food and water, poor weather, diseases, and terrorist attacks. All of these problems can cause death, poverty, or a need to emigrate from the area. For years these problems have made it difficult to develop these countries to enable them to help their citizens and vanquish these problems. Terrorism is a large threat to Africa, but mainly in Western Africa, due to the large group known as Boko Haram. Boko Haram has done mass abductions, displaced millions from their homes, and killed thousands. To understand how Boko Haram effects Africa one must be familiar with their history and attacks,tactics and strategy, and their organization and recruitment.

As a direct consequence of September 11, a number of substantial challenges lie ahead in the area of counter-terrorism..   The most prominent of these is the changing nature of the terrorism phenomenon.  In past years, when terrorism was largely the product of direct state sponsorship, policymakers were able to diminish prospects for the United States becoming a target using a combination of diplomatic and military instruments to deter potential state sponsors.  Today, however, many terrorist organizations and individuals act independently from former and present state sponsors, shifting to other sources of support, including the development of transnational networks.