Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Credits
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Nature of Terrorism
- 2 Theories of Aggression and Terrorism
- 3 A Brief History of Terrorism
- 4 Two Trajectories of Humankind: Globalization or Clash?
- 5 Religion, the State, and Terrorism
- 6 Nonreligious Extremism and Terrorism
- 7 Technology and Terrorism
- 8 Terrorism throughout the World
- 9 Responses to Terrorism
- 10 Fear of Terrorism
- 11 Preventing Terrorism: Short-Term Approaches
- 12 Preventing Terrorism: Long-Term Strategies
- 13 Balancing Security and Rights to Liberty and Privacy
- 14 Toward a Safer and Saner Twenty-First Century
- Notes
- References
- Index
11 - Preventing Terrorism: Short-Term Approaches
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Credits
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Nature of Terrorism
- 2 Theories of Aggression and Terrorism
- 3 A Brief History of Terrorism
- 4 Two Trajectories of Humankind: Globalization or Clash?
- 5 Religion, the State, and Terrorism
- 6 Nonreligious Extremism and Terrorism
- 7 Technology and Terrorism
- 8 Terrorism throughout the World
- 9 Responses to Terrorism
- 10 Fear of Terrorism
- 11 Preventing Terrorism: Short-Term Approaches
- 12 Preventing Terrorism: Long-Term Strategies
- 13 Balancing Security and Rights to Liberty and Privacy
- 14 Toward a Safer and Saner Twenty-First Century
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
Clearly, it is preferable to prevent acts of terrorism in the first place than to have to respond to them after they occur. In this chapter and the next we consider ways of preventing individual acts of terrorism, first as a set of tactics and policies for the short term to deal with immediate threats, and then as a long-term strategy to address the deeper sources of terrorism. In this chapter we consider approaches that appear to have merit for the near term, focusing on obtaining and analyzing intelligence information about terrorist plans, the removal of opportunities for terrorists to carry out their acts and, where dialogue and understanding are either impractical or impossible for warding off immediate threats, exploring alternatives such as the use of hard power and homeland security protections.
Introduction
We noted in Chapter 2 that the key to preventing aggression is to understand its sources and that an array of crime prevention strategies have been developed following extensive and systematic inquiry into the nature of crime. This inquiry has been systematic in that it has been based on the accumulation of reliable data and use of research methods that provide a more thorough and unbiased understanding of crime's causes than had ever been available before. Like crime, terrorism is a manifestation of aggression. If we are to prevent terrorism through the design of effective intervention strategies and policies, it will be essential first to better understand its causes too.
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- Terrorism, Crime, and Public Policy , pp. 339 - 374Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008