Multilateral cooperation on counterterrorism activities offers a window into the roles of agenda-setters at the top political levels of government and the working-level experts whose command of intricate practicalities is so essential to implementation. As multilateral counterterrorism efforts have drawn more than 100 international agencies, councils, and offices into the effort, clear and effective collaboration between the two levels has become that much more important. The synchronization of international objectives in the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy has created an opening for better technical and political multilateral coordination. A risk remains, however, that, by focusing on a short list of priority areas, such as countering violent extremism in Yemen, the international community might be giving short shrift to other regions where political violence could also threaten future peace and security. This brief, published by the Stanley Foundation, finds that input from technical experts is essential to keep those who set the agenda from putting all the attention on a narrow set of current hot spots and missing opportunities to prevent future hubs of terrorism from emerging.
Multilateral Counterterrorism: Harmonizing Political Direction and Technical Expertise
Due to geographical proximity to the Sahel, the European Union and its member states cannot ignore the consequences of political instability that already spill over their own borders, whether through migration or various forms of smuggling. This policy brief offers thoughts on improving regional counterterrorism cooperation in the Sahel and the positive role that the EU might play.
This article, published in The InterDependent as part of a series on “What the UN Can and Cannot Do Alone,” argues that despite the United Nations’ inability to define terrorism and other shortcomings, it has a crucial role in addressing the multidimensional threat of terrorism, namely in establishing norms, facilitating technical cooperation between states, and in providing assistance to improve the capacity of all states to combat terrorism.
This article, published in UNF Insights, argues that, “[i]n the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the [United States] succeeded in reaching out” to the United Nations, in particular the Security Council, “to help globalize the ‘war on terror,’” but that in recent years, U.S. attention has waned, letting “much of the critical international counter-terrorism machinery, which it was instrumental in creating, atrophy.” The article points out, however, that the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, unanimously adopted by the General Assembly in September 2006, offers the United States the opportunity to reassume its leadership role on the issue and urges the new UN Secretary-General and U.S. Ambassador to the UN to renew the U.S.-UN partnership against terrorism.
This article, published in Journal of Conflict and Security Law, briefly outlines the current terrorist threat posed by militant Islamist radical terrorism and the complexity and evolving nature of the threat. The article summarizes the current capacity of multilateral institutions to contribute to the fight against terrorism. It concludes that maintaining international cooperation and the focus on capacity building and other nonmilitary counterterrorism measures, as well as the need to address the proliferation of counterterrorism bodies, highlights the need for an effective multilateral body at the center of the effort.
This report provides an assessment of core counterterrorism standards and best practices. Using UN Security Council Resolution 1373 as its basis, the report identifies best practices in three broad areas related to the resolution: combating terrorist financing, improving legal practice and law enforcement, and enhancing territorial control.