Global Context Of Policy-Making

Prior to the 1993 bombing, the threat of international terrorism had never really hit home for most Americans, “It couldn’t happen here”. But it did. A group of Middle Eastern terrorists placed explosives in the back of a rented van and parked it in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center. The result was a large crater, over a thousand

Much has been made of terrorism and political crime lately. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon most have asked questions such as: How could this happen? Why would someone do this to so many innocent people? And possibly even more importantly, how do we prevent this from happening again? The attacks on that tragic day weren’t the first in our country though they were the most devastating to date. They were devastating in accordance with casualties and also emotionally for the whole country. One could only hope they would be the last, though this has not been the case. Before one can begin to analyze how the United States should combat such a horrific form of warfare and political change, one must first start to understand a few key elements. One must begin to understand what terrorism is, where it came from, and why terrorism exists.

Terrorism has had a negative effect on the world. In the United States the role of terrorism is steadily a growing, creating new issues and situations which the United States government must battle. The department of Home land security has an active and significant role on ensuring the security and safety of the United States of America. Acts of terrorism differs in every region, what one might consider terrorism the other might not. Terrorism comes in several forms such as domestic, international, bioterrorism and cyber terrorism. Every law enforcement agencies has a different approach to terrorism. Strategies for battling terrorism in multicultural communities are different compared to communities inhabited by a less diversified group.

As we all know, our vision and our hearts were imprinted by the heinous acts of violence on 9/11. The USA was assaulted by terrorist, and these acts of violence’s have continued ever since. It is like cancer, once you think you have parts of it under control it rears its ugly head and sprouts up somewhere else. The USA and other Nations like England fight against terrorism is always an overriding priority for the Department of Justice. They spend every waking hour, devoting all their resources to weaken, try to eliminate, and weaken their infrastructure, but just like a mythological creature, we cut off their heads and another one just grows back. The main issue that cause the terrorists attack was “our failure to talk about the possibility of such an event before it occurred, and it was identified by many professionals as creating a climate which made us more vulnerable” (“Schools & Terrorism”, n.d.). The next thing on our list is trying to develop a strategy to combat this, and in my conclusion I am going to explain why this is an impossible idea, based on my train of thought.

With this mindset, there has been a greater emphasis on collecting intelligence on possible terror attacks and the prevention of, or the response to, these types of attacks. One part of this intelligence process is understanding what targets are valuable to terrorists and why, and not worrying to heavily about why the terrorists are attacking in the first place. “Local police cannot hope to deal with these distant causes; but by focusing on the four pillars of terrorist opportunity—targets, weapons, tools, and facilitating conditions—all of which are accessible to intervention, police can control the opportunities for terrorist action and planning. This means that the opportunities for terrorist exploitation must be identified at the local level where actions can be taken to reduce these opportunities. ” By collecting intelligence on terrorists, their potential targets and the possible effects of these attacks, those responsible for countering and responding to terrorism can better prepare themselves, and those they are responsible to, for these attacks. Some of the possible ways to attack U.S. citizens are nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, along with explosives, firearms, and even automobiles. Intelligence can be collected at the Federal, state, and local levels, but needs to be shared also. With proper dissemination of

Terrorism is a unique sort of savagery. It is a strategy utilized as a part of peace, struggle, and war. The risk of terrorism is ever present, and an assault is liable to happen when slightest anticipated. A terrorist assault may be the occasion that denote the move from peace to strife or war. Combatting terrorism is a variable to consider in every single military arrangement and operations. Combatting terrorism requires a persistent condition of mindfulness; it is an essential practice instead of a sort of military operation. Definite direction for setting up an authoritative system to battle terrorism, including preventive and defensive measures and episode reaction arranging, can be found in Joint Publication 3-07.2 (1993). Terrorism is a criminal offense under almost every national or universal legitimate code.

After reviewing the assigned text this week, I determined that a successful counterterrorism can consist of many different tactics and strategies (Maras, 2012). Some on which I agree with and some, not so much so. For the sake of the assignment I will highlight what I believe to be the most important.

Terrorism is the use of physical violence whether it be a threat or an actual act of aggression. They create a common surrounding of fear in a selected target of the population. This is done so that they may provoke some kind of political and/or social change. Since the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, there has been a lot of controversy on why terrorist attacks are so frequent in the United States. By doing some research I have found that there are several possible answers to this question. This paper will explore the possibilities and hopefully help America prevent future attacks.

Section one will provide a survey covering a span of a decade since the September 9/11 attacks. It provides an overview of Terror Trends, 40 Years’ Data on International and Domestic Terrorism and how the data provide critical information that could be utilized by agencies engaged in counterterrorism formulation of policy and possibly help enhance homeland security policies for future preventions.

The United States and other nations in the world are subjected to constant terrorist threats. The 9/11 catastrophe was one of the most significant in the United States as it led massive infrastructural destruction and the loss of several lives. The disaster was also elemental for the United States because it demonstrated that terrorism was one of the biggest concerns that needed attention. Besides the United States, the terrorists have operated in various countries across the globe leading to numerous deaths and loss of lives (Mathieu, 2010). As a result, the United States in collaboration with other countries have adopted strategies to assist in mitigating the issue.

All conflicts contain elements of both regular and irregular warfare and the nature of the conflict can easily shift between them. As a result, the U.S. military must maintain the ability to be prepared to do both successfully and one must not come at the expense of the other. The 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance asserts the “Wholesale divestment of the capability to conduct any mission would be unwise, based on historical and projected uses of U.S. military forces and our inability to predict the future.” Traditional and non-traditional warfare are not mutually exclusive and one form of warfare should not take priority over the other, so it is critical that the U.S. military balance the capabilities necessary to succeed across a wide spectrum of operations.

Until the moment a bomb exploded in the underground garage of the World Trade Center, terrorism in the United States existed only as an abstraction. As rescue workers rushed to the scene, the unthinkable had become the undeniable. What was commonplace in cities around the world - London, Athens, Paris, and Tel Aviv - had now become the concern of the United States (The Siege – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 1998).

In the military, times of peace must not birth complacency. This is because humanity is living in dangerous times. Due to this, like never before, the Military has become a core component of stability and progress in any country. The U.S, and by extension the Western world has

The state-centric construction of the international politics has forever made forceful interventions a contentious issue. In defining forceful intervention, Pattison states that “ the conceptual condition of a forceful intervention requires the intervention to occur against someone’s wishes, particularly those who are responsible for the humanitarian crisis for the sole purpose of preventing, reducing or halting actual or impending loss of life and human suffering. It is crucial to note that this ‘humanitarian crisis’ is politically induced and is not the result of any natural disasters and that the only viable option left to deal with this circumstance is a military intervention. Hence this paper holds that a humanitarian crisis under above mentioned conditions justifies a forceful intervention i.e. a military intervention by one state in another state. The nature of these humanitarian crises has been similar throughout the history, but justifications for the interventions that follow after these crises have indeed evolved.

Acts of terrorism has greatly affected multiple countries, including the United States. The horrific events that took place on 9/11 left the American people shocked, devastated, and furious. Many innocent American’s lost their lives on this infamous day. While airports and airlines are not free from security breaches, a set of new security measures and requirements have been implemented by the International Air Transport Association and the International Civil Aviation Organization (Beirman, 2011). Increased security at airports and airlines, have left terrorists to target more vulnerable areas such as tourist destinations. Attacking tourists’ spots such as hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, conference venues and other forms