Trends and Developments in Contemporary Terrorism

Understanding changes in the nature of terrorism is crucial to formulating a response to terrorist acts. Terrorism continues to increase in diversity in terms of geography, demographics and methods, and terrorist acts can now be expected to occur in almost any country, involve a widening range of ethnic communities and employ an expanded arsenal of weapons. Knowledge gained from the direct experience of dealing with the terrorist threat is an essential component in developing improved policy and practice to meet and defeat these changes. This book presents the full workshop papers from the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW), held in Ankara, Turkey, in October 2010. The aim of this ARW was to take stock of developments across the spectrum of terrorist activity, both actual and potential, and examine the scope for improvement. Some of the areas explored by the 18 expert contributors to the workshop include: the increase in suicide bombing and terrorist acts by women; transnationality; the structure of terrorist groups; improved training and equipment of terrorists; terrorist use of the Internet; sponsor states and the importance of failed or failing states in terrorist strategy. Whilst the book by no means offers a complete or definitive picture of terrorism, it makes a significant contribution to raising the awareness of the law enforcement and security agencies who must continuously update their counterterrorist capabilities and keep abreast of new terrorist methods.