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.
Fighting Terrorists, Targeting the Roots of Contemporary Terrorism
This article, published in International Peace Academy Coping With Crisis Working Paper Series, examines the status and prospects of multilateral responses to global terrorism. It outlines what is known and perceived about the nature of the threat posed by contemporary international terrorism. It discusses current efforts directed at managing this threat, focusing on initiatives in the multilateral realm, and points to possible scenarios for the future development of a more coordinated and coherent international response to 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.