Question ‐ What trends are evident in terrorism over the past 5 years? How have these trends impacted on the ways in which counter terrorism has responded in the Australian context?
Introduction
Terrorism poses a serious security challenge to the Australia and globally as it prevalence has increased over a decade although less attacks occur in the Western nations. The purpose of this assignment is to examine what trends and terrorist tactics are evident internationally over the past 5 years and how Australia responded to these trends.
Definition
To have an understanding of the trends in international terrorism, it is essential to have an understanding of the meaning of the term terrorism. There are hundreds of proposed definitions of terrorism and researchers, experts, security professionals, NGOs, etc have adopted their own definition.
In covering the trends and responses, the assignment also examines the debate over a definition of terrorism that distinguishes acts of terrorism from criminal acts. One of the definitions that the international communities had agreed when violence is used for political objectives is as follows; “Terrorism is the deliberate use of violence aimed against civilians in order to achieve political goals (nationalistic, socioeconomic, ideological, religious, etc.)”. It is important to note that this framework is not for regular criminal activity, which warrants the application of criminal legal norms (Boaz Ganor, pp 11-42, 27 May 2009).
Modern terrorism, as deduced from this literature, is acts to violence strategically used by secular groups spanning international borders with the aim of achieving a desired outcome. Further, it can be seen as organized activity whose genesis can be traced back to the 1880’s. From then to now there are identifiable traits and patterns observed from different (terrorist) groups which have allowed for the conceptualization of the term modern terrorism. This concept therefore, can be best explained in the context of being a wave or having a life cycle. That means it is a cycle of activity demarked by phases from inception and expands along the way then eventually it declines. The world, thus far, has experienced four waves of modern
In 1978, on Monday the 13th of February, Australia faced what is believed to be its first experience of terrorism, when a bomb hidden in a bin outside the Sydney Hilton Hotel exploded, killing two council workers and a policeman (Cahill & Cahill, 2006). At the time, the hotel was hosting eleven heads of government who were in Sydney for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting (Cahill & Cahill, 2006). The Australian government reacted by mobilising the military, which came to be referred to as ‘Siege of Bowral’, that highlighted issues with the legislation that dealt with terrorism and how unprepared Australia was at responding to a terrorist event (Hancock, 2002). Over the following years, a range of legislation was enacted to handle matters associated with terrorism, laws such as allowing for defence to aid to the civil power, aviation and shipping safety, chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, surveillance and intelligence services (Hancock, 2002).
Australia’s first anti-terror laws were enacted in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 (Prof Andrew Lynch 2010). In recent years, increasing Australian involvement in international conflict has seen these laws shift to accommodate alarming trends in home grown terrorism (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation 2014). Sydney’s 2014 terror raids prompted the most significant changes to Australia’s counter terrorism legislation in the last decade (Commonwealth of Australia Department of Defence 2015). Amendments granted law enforcement and intelligence agencies new and somewhat controversial powers, in the name of national security.
Using the concepts of security, terrorism and risk learnt in this unit, critically evaluate the record of global counter-terrorism measures since the 9/11 attacks.
Law enforcement response to counter-terrorism fundamentally changed as a result of the unprecedented events of September 11th 2001 in New York and Washington (Kaldas, 2002, p61-62). This essay will examine how law enforcement has evolved in response to the changing nature of terrorism, with an emphasis on how this has impacted Australia. An analysis of arrests and subsequent
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
The terms terrorism and domestic terrorism are very similar concepts. There are, however, slight differences in each. Entities that are apart of the Government have slightly different ways of explaining what they believe to be the correct definition of terrorism and domestic terrorism. In this paper the author will offer definitions of the two terms and state which one they agree with the most. The author will also state how the two terms are best differentiated.
The purpose of the text by John Howard is to inform Australian citizens of the current situation of the possible terrorist threat that may face Australia and requests that all people report suspicious behaviour of those around one another to the National security hotline in which, all reported behaviour will be investigated to protect Australia. Uniting the community as one, to help protect Australia. The letter containing information of the counter-terrorism also includes reassuring information about Australia’s ‘strong counter-terrorist capability’ and emergency preparedness, to avoid panic from the public. The purpose of the text is to acknowledge Australia’s vulnerability to international terrorism following
“Terrorism is a criminal act that influences an audience beyond the immediate victim”. A lot of the time when someone commits an act of terrorism, it is because they are demonstrating faith and loyalty to their religious views and beliefs, political, or ideological and the persecutors aim to intimidate governments and put fear into the eyes of societies. In Australia this year, there are about 7 known terrorist groups spread around the country. These seven groups in Australia at the moment includes: "Ahmed Y" group, Benbrika group in Melbourne, Al-Shabaab, Syrian syndicate, Cheikho group in Sydney, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Mantiqi (Jemaah Islamiah). All around the world, terrorism is growing quickly and it is damaging countries, communities and families. Something needs to be done about the issue and some people are already acting on it today.
After the Prime Minister delivered his National Security Statement outlining the Government’s response to the Review of Australia’s Counter-Terrorism Machinery for a Safer Australia on 23 February 2015 questions were raised on the available methods to face the finding of the review.
Compare and contrast the pre and post 9/11 law enforcement response to terrorism. What strategies could be implemented to increase future law enforcement capability in countering terrorism?
Countries around the world have developed their own legislations to fight terrorists. Fighting terrorists depends on two things, the laws amended in the country. Australia has always been a main factor in fighting terrorism internationally, after witnessing a number of modern terrorism act (Healey, 2011). Australia has also put some laws to prevent terrorists from terrorizing Australia (Healey, 2011). Although Australia have put laws to fight terrorism but it depends on the severity of the response to the assaults. Australia follows the UK’s system of respondents against terrorists, which includes five levels: low, moderate, substantial, severe and critical (Bergin, 2014).
Terrorism in the twenty-first century has some similarities and differences from terrorism in the twentieth century. Terrorism is, in its broadest sense, the use or threatened use of violence in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological aim. Also useful to remember that because the two entities involved, the terrorists and the terrorized, are on the opposite end of the political, religious or ideological continuum, the same act is viewed by them differently. There is much sense in the phrase one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
Over the years there have been significant changes in how terrorism is carried out. With the changes in how terrorism is carried out there have also been dramatic changes in how countries counter terrorist attacks. The modifications in the way a country counters these terrorist attacks affects international relations of these countries. These issues bring about the question of how have counter terrorism methods affected international relations. To answer this question several things must be addressed which are, methodology, history of terrorism, and a literature review of multiple authors that have discussed this subject.
Terrorism, which has been around for as long as people can remember, has been on the rise for the past ten years. Terrorists usually use murdering, kidnapping, hi-jacking and bombings to achieve their political purpose. For instance, according to Wikipedia.com (2006), in 1985 816 deaths, then in 2003, more than 1,000 people died by terorist acts around the world. In recent years, terrorism seems to be at a new height and attacks are much more violent than in the past. Unfortunately, in spite of many anti-terror campaigns, projects and organizations are being created for prevention (to prevent) terrorism, the number of terrorists only is increasing. These days terrorism is all over the world.