HSE625: Domestic Terrorism

The author argues that properly defining and understanding a threat is essential to developing countermeasures. Protecting the public against domestic terrorism requires an approach very different from the approach used against transnational terror organizations such as al-Qaida or the Islamic State. Patient law enforcement activity, coupled with well-crafted communication efforts, could help achieve this goal.

The concept of WMD is part of numerous national laws. Yet, the definition of what should be considered a WMD is far from established and subject to controversial debates. Academics, policymakers, and legislators have been introducing a variety of partly conflicting conceptualizations of WMD into scientific debates, public discourse, and legislation over the last eight decades.

Partnerships between public and private sector actors are expected to grow in response to calls for a broader cross-sectoral counter-terrorism strategy. However, the formation of these partnerships is a current challenge for private sector security professionals, as there is no standardized approach to securitizing terrorism or even a common understanding of how private security can contribute to prevention efforts. This paper provides a review of the literature on private sector security procedures used in response to terrorism. The results showed that physical security and security assessments (risk, threat and vulnerability assessments) were the most frequently discussed security themes for protection against terrorist threats. Security measures that received less attention in the literature were related to intelligence gathering and multi-agency cooperation.

The article discusses views of Michael McGarrity U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Assistant Director for the Counterterrorism Division over relationships with private sector to combat global terrorism. Topics include imminent threats comes from indigenous people who inspired from terrorist organizations like ISIS and Al Qaeda; talks about internal relationship with communities across the country in the conference and providing relevant information to train their workforce.

The National Prevention Framework describes what the whole community—from community members to senior leaders in government—should do upon the discovery of an imminent threat to the homeland.

The National Protection Framework describes the way that the whole community safeguards against acts of terrorism, natural disasters, and other threats or hazards.

A ready reference guide for law enforcement, intelligence, military and security personnel, contingency planners, or citizens concerned about international terrorist threats. This site contains many features across the full range of issues pertaining to international terrorism: technical pages on various threat-related topics, terrorist groups, and wanted terrorists.