International Terrorism-post-9/11 Comparative Dynamics and Responses (2008 - 10)

Researcher: Asaf Siniver (a.siniver@bham.ac.uk)

This project considers comparative responses to international terrorism post 9/11 and contributes to current debates over state responses to political violence. Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, governments across the world have found themselves confronted by the dual challenge of adapting to a new security environment whilst almost simultaneously trying to propagate an adequate response to this seemingly new wave of terrorism. The fast flow of actions and reactions since the 9/11 attacks have left policymakers little time for close introspection or long-term planning and evaluation of their chosen counter-terrorism (CT) strategies. This invariably resulted in a plethora of approaches, diverse in scope and objectives, many of them with little coherence and coordination of and between themselves.

Project aims and objectives

The project aims to:

• Identify common lessons from failed and successful attempts to counter the terrorist threat post 9/11, by examining a wide range of case studies of western as well as non-western responses.
• Explore the changing dynamics of terrorism from a range of perspectives – from the global threat posed by homegrown terrorism in North Africa and the larger security dimensions in the Middle East, to the various strategies employed by western and non-western societies in their efforts to develop effective counter-terrorism strategies.
• Compare the divergent dynamics of the phenomena categorised under the 'terrorism' label, and the domestic, national and regional variants of international terrorism. This is achieved by analysis of the relationship between the local and the global, both in the root causes of, and responses to, terrorism.