Teaching Terrorism

COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER CJEANYS James JF Forest, Ph.D.

at West Point 19 October 2006 Director of Terrorism Studies
 CTC Education on
Terrorism and Homeland Security
Courses
• Terrorism & Counterterrorism
• Advanced Terrorism Studies
• Homeland Security Seminar
• Intelligence and Terrorism
• Information Warfare
• Forthcoming, Fall 2007:
Terrorism and Weapons of Mass
Destruction

• Minor in Terrorism Studies

• JTTF Seminars

• FBI Academic CT Curriculum

COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER James JF Forest, Ph.D.

at West Point Director of Terrorism Studies
 CTC Education on
Terrorism and Homeland Security
Central Course Topics
 Visions & Enabling Environments
 Critical, strategic thinking about threats and response

Core Course Lessons

 Definitions and History of Terrorism
 Understanding Contemporary, Networked Terror Organizations
 Ideologies and Strategies: Religious and Non-Religious
 Means and Methods (Crime, Finance, Internet, Suicide Bombings, etc.)
 U.S. and Al Qaeda Pre-9/11 and Post-9/11
 Organizing to Fight Terrorism (Strategy, Legal Issues, etc.)
 Future of Terrorism (Potential for Weapons of Mass Destruction, etc.)

COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER James JF Forest, Ph.D.

at West Point Director of Terrorism Studies
 CTC Seminars for Joint Terrorism Task Forces
Day 1 Day 3
 Islam and the Evolution of Militant Islamic  Terror Financing
Ideologies  Security and Control: The
 Beginnings of Sunni Extremism weaknesses of AQ
 Global Terrorism and the rise of Al-Qaeda  Tools for investigators/Survey
 Al Qaeda, From 9/11 to Now

Day 2
 Virtual Caliphate: Jihadi use of the
Internet
 Hizballah New FBI Academy Curriculum:
 Hamas 60 hours of CT instruction, with
 Iraq and Bleed out from the Levant  case studies of terrorism and CT,
 North African Terror Organizations WMD issues, interagency
 How do you win? Building a framework cooperation emphasis, etc.
for investigation

COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER James JF Forest, Ph.D.

at West Point Director of Terrorism Studies
 SAMPLE LESSON
Root Causes, Facilitators and Underlying Conditions of Terrorism

COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER James JF Forest, Ph.D.

at West Point Director of Terrorism Studies
 Root Causes, Facilitators and
Underlying Conditions of Terrorism
Agenda
 Goal: Brief overview of the spectrum of topics addressed in
the academic literature on root causes, facilitators and
underlying conditions of terrorism

 Underlying Conditions: Local

 Underlying Conditions: Global
 Facilitating Ideologies of Violence
 Summary
 What to Do?
COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER James JF Forest, Ph.D.
at West Point Director of Terrorism Studies
 Underlying Conditions: Local
• Could include political, economic
and social conditions, before
terrorism
– Unemployment
– Socio-demographic pressures
– Authoritarian/repressive regimes
– Ethnic fissures (Tamils, Chechens)

t ations
ec
Exp • Chaos & capacity
– Weak/failing states
Opportu
nities
• These conditions exist in numerous
places without history of terrorism
– Think globally, act locally?
(e.g., London, Madrid)

COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER James JF Forest, Ph.D.

at West Point Director of Terrorism Studies
 Underlying Conditions: Global
• Could include global animosities
– e.g., Sunni vs. Shia

• Could foreign policies

– U.S. relations with Israel, Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Iran
s
vance – Democracy mandate?
s/Grie
and
– Perceptions (bias/hypocrisy)
De m
– State-sponsored terror
Power t
o enact c
hange
• Energy dependence facilitates
funding streams for violent groups
as well as vulnerabilities for
industrialized nations

COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER James JF Forest, Ph.D.

at West Point Director of Terrorism Studies
Other Global Conditions & Facilitators
• Global weapons proliferation (especially in weak/failing states)

• Technology
– Communication and transportation shrinks time and space; enable
networked forms of terrorism (including fundraising aspects)
– Weapons: invention of dynamite helped launch capabilities

• Global criminal networks

– Profit motive
– Money laundering
– Trafficking in drugs, humans, explosives, other ‘bad stuff’

• Ideologies fuel both local and global perceptions of injustices and need
for action/retribution

COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER James JF Forest, Ph.D.

at West Point Director of Terrorism Studies
 Facilitating Ideologies of Violence
 Nationalist (e.g., Anti-colonial groups)
 Left-wing (e.g., radical Communists revolutionaries)
 Right Wing (often target race and ethnicity)
 Anarchist
 Religious (e.g., militias, jihadists, etc.- “attack on Islam”)
 Others (e.g., apocalyptic, charismatic cults, philosophies of
“Man is evil” - Hobbes, et al.)

 Overall: These all reflect the importance of

perceptions, emotions, strategic influence,
information warfare; The Vision Thing

COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER James JF Forest, Ph.D.

at West Point Director of Terrorism Studies
 Summary
 Economic opportunities (lack thereof)
 Political conditions (distribution of power)
 Chaos & capacity (weak/failing states)
 Think global, act local?
 Global animosities
 Foreign policies (incl. state sponsorship)
 Energy dependence
 Weapons proliferation
 Technology
 Criminal Networks
 Ideologies for Action (Retribution?)
 Other grievances . . .

COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER James JF Forest, Ph.D.

at West Point Director of Terrorism Studies
 What to do?
 Economic and political dimensions
 Create economic & political opportunities to meet aspirations
 Consider foreign policy dimensions (state sponsorship, bias)
 Chaos & capacity
 Law enforcement, border security; containment
 Weapons proliferation & criminal networks
 Pressure states and private companies to prevent
 Energy dependence
 Alternatives to fossil fuels
 The battleground of ideologies is particularly
important for attacking the motivation and morale
of terrorists in Iraq
 Exploit ideological vulnerabilities

COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER James JF Forest, Ph.D.

at West Point Director of Terrorism Studies
“You have to be lucky everyday – We only have to be lucky once”
- IRA Bomber

Questions?

COMBATING TERRORISM CENTER James JF Forest, Ph.D.

at West Point Director of Terrorism Studies