Lesson and task for Instruments counter terrorism in English

1. Adapted from:
THE INSTRUMENTS OF
COUNTERTERRORISM
By Paul R. Pillar
National Intelligence Officer for Near East and South
Asia
National Intelligence Council, Central Intelligence
Agency
U. S. FOREIGN POLICY AGENDA, AN ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF THE

2. Combining efforts
• Counterterrorism includes effective use of diplomacy, law
enforcement, financial controls, military power, and
intelligence gathering. Every counterterrorist instrument is
difficult to use. Using them well together is even more
difficult. But using them all is critical in the fight against
terrorism.

3. DIPLOMACY
• Diplomacy is critical to
combating modern international
terrorism. Agreements between
countries on cooperation,
coordination, and exchange of
information set the frames for
combatting terrorism. There
are documents and regulations of
UN, EU, and NATO which are
the basis for international efforts
in counterterrorism.
• The limitations of diplomacy as
a counterterrorist tool are
obvious. Terrorists do not change
their behavior in response to a
treaty or UN resolution. But
diplomacy supports all of the
other tools by providing an
international legal framework for
their use.

4. LAW ENFORCEMENT
• Use of the criminal justice system
can help reduce terrorism in several
ways. Imprisoning a terrorist for
life (or executing him/her)
obviously prevents him/her from
conducting any more attacks. The
prospect of being caught and
punished may deter other terrorists
from attacking in the first place.
• A limitation of applying the
criminal justice system to terrorism
is that the prospect of being caught
and punished does not deter some
terrorists. That prospect is
irrelevant to suicide bombers, and
also to other low-level operatives
who feel commitment and
desperation. High-level terrorist
leaders — who typically stay
farther removed from the scene of
the crime and are more difficult to
catch — may care little about
whether those below them are
caught.

5. FINANCIAL CONTROLS
• The funding makes it possible
for the terrorists to get trained, to
obtain weapons, and to travel.
There are two types of financial
controls to combat terrorism:
1.the freezing of assets belonging
to individual terrorists, terrorist
groups, and state sponsors; and
2. the prohibition of material
support to terrorists.
• Cutting off terrorists’ funding has
two major limitations: 1. most
terrorism does not require large-
scale financing. Less money is
involved than in illegal narcotics,
arms trafficking, and some other
transnational criminal activities.
2. the flow of terrorist money is
extremely difficult to track.
There are false account names,
the use of financial
intermediaries, etc.

6. MILITARY FORCE
• Modern, precision-guided
munitions have made armed
force a more useful
counterterrorist instrument, but
one whose use is still
appropriately rare. Over the last
three decades they have been
used to rescue hostages. More
recently the military instrument
has been employed to react
against terrorist attacks.
• The major limitation of military
force is that terrorist assets,
unlike conventional military
assets, are not large, fixed targets
that can readily be destroyed.
With the terrorist threat now
coming much more from groups
than from states, there are even
fewer targets to strike, either to
damage terrorist capabilities or
to deter future terrorism.

7. INTELLIGENCE
• The collection and analysis of
intelligence is the least visible
but in some ways the most
important counterterrorist tool,
and is considered the “first line
of defense” against terrorism.
• There are limitations, mainly
because very specific, tactical
intelligence is vital and it is
difficult to collect because it
requires penetration of groups
that are small, suspicious to
outsiders, and very careful about
their security. Most intelligence
about terrorist groups is
fragmentary, ambiguous, and
often of doubtful credibility.