1. Counterterror Mobilization and Democracy: A Comparison of the War(s) on Terror of the United States, and Russia, 1998-2004..
- Author
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Erickson, Christian William
- Subjects
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COUNTERTERRORISM , *INTERNAL security , *MILITARY intelligence , *HUMAN rights - Abstract
This paper examines similarities and differences in the counterterror strategies and tactics that two democratic regimes use to cope with the internal dimension of terrorist threats by either domestic or transnational terrorist organizations. I argue that in both polities one can see the emergence of counterterrorist garrison states. Each of these democratic polities has very different domestic legal structures that regulate and oversee the internal activities of the intelligence, law enforcement, and security agencies. Despite the very different historical, political, and cultural contexts, and different mix of threats, the internal security apparatus mobilization in each of these polities also has a number of distinct similarities. Each of these states has based their counterterrorism policies on the development of specialized counterterrorist military, law enforcement, and intelligence units; the reliance on research and development of surveillance, biometrics, and data base management technology; and rapid organizational reconfiguration both to deal with newly emergent threats and highly adaptive terrorist organizations, networks, and cells and in response to both perceived and real intelligence failures. ..ASA- In this paper I use case studies to develop a typology of counterterrorist responses used by democratic regimes and the ranges of factors that influence the selection of policy responses. Dependent on the nature of the terrorist threat the states are either more or less constrained in movement along a continuum of increasingly coercive and intrusive responses to terrorist threats; autonomy granted to the agencies of the security apparatus; and varying degrees of centralization or decentralization of the security apparatus. In addition to an examination of the interface between executive, legislative, and judicial branches and the law enforcement, military and intelligence apparatus I also examine the role of public opinion, human rights and civil liberties NGOs, and minority communities in the formulation of counterterrorist policies in each of these states. I principally restrict my case studies to the 1998 to the present, and compare counterterrorist tactics used to deal with the presence and activities of both domestic and transnational terrorist networks. For instance in the United States I examine counterterrorist mobilization vis-Ã -vis both the Al Qaeda network and the ultra-right Neo-Nazi, militia, and Christian Identity movements, and for Russia I examine their response to the Chechen conflict and related acts of terrorism throughout Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004