Reducing Terrorist Opportunities: A Framework for Foreign Policy (From Reducing Terrorism Through Situational Crime Prevention, P 33-59, 2009, Joshua D. Freilich and Graeme R. Newman, eds., see NCJ-229596)

• NCJ Number: 229598
• Author(s): Graeme R. Newman
• Date Published: 2009
• Length: 27 pages
• Sale Source: Criminal Justice Press/Willow Tree Press
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter examines how counter-terrorist foreign policy can be used to reduce opportunities for terrorists.

Abstract

Major counter-terrorism foreign policy of the United States and other Western Nations has been driven by traditional strategies based on concepts of nation states using economic and military power to exploit and maintain access to natural resources and labor markets. While these policies have contributed to the vibrant global markets of the 21st century and unprecedented economic development in many developing countries, they have also created ample opportunities for terrorists, helping them reach their targets and kill with greater efficiency and lethality. Using an approach adopted from situational crime prevention, it is argued that counter-terrorism foreign policy must focus on reducing opportunities for terrorists in two different ways: (1) by identifying the characteristics of globalization that provide opportunities for terrorists to carry out their attacks successfully, and (2) by understanding the specificity of terrorist attacks at the local level so that opportunity-reducing techniques can be tailored to address each specific kind of terrorist attack. This approach will serve to directly link foreign policy that is traditionally confined to treaties and geopolitical debates, to actual operations on the ground. Tables, notes, and references (Published Abstract)