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The article highlights an attempt to define the system of criminal offenses related to crossing the State border of Ukraine in an illegal manner and/or for a criminal purpose. It is proved that criminal offenses under Articles 332, 332-1, 332-2, 333, 334 of Section XIV of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine encroach not only on the inviolability of the state borders of Ukraine, but also on border security, which is a component of Ukraine's national security. The author establishes the difference between crossing the State border of Ukraine, transportation of goods across the State border of Ukraine and transportation of persons across the State border of Ukraine. Based on this comparison, it is determined that crossing the State border of Ukraine in an illegal manner and/or for a criminal purpose is characterized by the physical movement of a person across the State border of Ukraine without the purpose of moving a certain product or other object. In addition, unlike illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine, crossing this border in an illegal manner and/or for a criminal purpose is characterized by the direct physical movement of a person across the state border of Ukraine, which in itself is criminalized if carried out in an illegal manner and/or for a criminal purpose, while illegal transportation across the state border of Ukraine is characterized by such a property as indirectness, which is of paramount importance for criminal law enforcement of border security. The system of criminal offenses related to crossing the state border of Ukraine illegally and/or for criminal purposes should include terrorist financing in the form of providing, collecting or storing any assets directly or indirectly with the intent to use them or with the knowledge that they will be used in whole or in part for any purpose by an individual terrorist or terrorist group (organization) to cross the state border of Ukraine for terrorist purposes (Art. 258-5), crossing the state border of Ukraine for terrorist purposes (to carry out activities that are considered terrorist according to the law) (Art. 258-6), illegal crossing of the state border of Ukraine (Art. 332-2), violation of international flight rules (Art. 334) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific article examines a group of issues related to the historical development and genesis of the criminal law concept of terrorism, starting from its first manifestations in ancient times to the modern period. The author focuses on the evolution of terrorism as a social phenomenon that has undergone significant transformations, turning from an instrument of strict state management into an effective means of fighting against government structures in various countries. The article reveals both methods and forms of terrorism that have transformed over time, and in particular the impact of globalization on modern manifestations of terrorism. Particular attention is paid to criminal legal aspects of terrorism in the context of national and international legislation. The author analyzes the role of Ukrainian legislation in countering terrorist acts, in particular, legislative initiatives of Ukraine in the fight against terrorism and its accession to international anti-terrorist documents. The provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On Combating Terrorism" and the corresponding articles of the Criminal Code regulating liability for terrorist acts are being studied. At the same time, emphasis is placed on the need for legislativ e improvement of these provisions. The author's positions of Ukrainian and foreign scientists regarding the scientific understanding of the phenomenon of terrorism and its antisocial manifestations and legal features are analyzed and highlighted. The article also provides a comparative analysis of counter-terrorism measures in some countries of the world. The importance of a unified approach to the definition of terms related to terrorism and the need to clearly distinguish the concepts of "terrorist act", "terrorist organization", "terrorism" for a more effective criminal law assessment of these crimes are analy zed. Emphasis is placed on the complexity of modern forms of terrorism, which are characterized by a wide range of illegal activities, well-established international coordination, the absence of clear state borders, and significant material support. The importance of developing new legal and practical mechanisms for combating terrorism, which will meet modern challenges and threats, while not violating the basic guaranteed rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen, is em phasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the issue of legal regulation of the fight against nuclear terrorism. The purpose of the article is to highlight the problems of legal regulation of the fight against nuclear terrorism. The authors of the article conducted a retrospective review and analyzed the state of development of Ukrainian legislation in the field of legal regulation of the fight against nuclear terrorism. As a result of such consideration, it was determined that the last decades of the 20th century, as well as the 21st century, showed that the greatest threat is terrorist organizations that have an international (transnational) character and are connected to organized criminal societies. Terrorist organizations have largely reoriented themselves from single murders or serious explosions of conventional explosives to active attempts to acquire or manufacture means of mass destruction with the subsequent threat of use. The level of risk of using nuclear weapons and radioactive materials can be pre-estimated by threats of committing acts of nuclear terrorism and theft of nuclear materials. The authors of the article provide separate data related to terrorist acts, as well as the most dangerous cases of their abduction. The article analyzes the basis of the provisions of the International Convention on Combating Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. The authors concluded that the International Convention on the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism plays a key role in ensuring nuclear security. Before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, Ukraine was considered to be an example of a consistent and balanced policy in the field of nuclear non-proliferation. The events that have been going on in Ukraine for almost three years have shown that nuclear legislation, both international and domestic, in the sphere related to the use of nuclear energy is imperfect and does not provide adequate answers to many questions. Externally, the political activity of states that possess nuclear weapons is decisive for the future of humanity, for the survival of human civilization. To prevent the unthinkable - the destruction of life on earth, to defend peace - there is no more important task for all peoples of our planet today. According to the authors, it is expedient to develop and adopt an international act on the norms of relations between nuclear states, which would be of great importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aims to conduct an epidemiological analysis of the country, race, weapon type, and type of attack, along with the medical consequences of terrorist attacks on ambulances. Methods: The population of this retrospective cross-sectional epidemiological study consisted of terrorist attacks on ambulances, as documented in the Global Terrorism Database provided by The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, covering the period from 1970 to July 2021. Incidents, deaths, and injuries from these terrorist attacks were analyzed according to country, attack type, and weapon type. Additionally, incidents, deaths, injuries, and material losses from attacks against ambulances were analyzed by year. Results: In the last 52 years, 80 terrorist incidents occurred, and 444 people were adversely affected medically in 75 of these incidents. In 96.3% of these cases, the terrorist organization achieved its desired goal, and 71.3% resulted in material loss. During this period, terrorist attacks on ambulances were reported in 27 countries. In 17 of these incidents, the nationality of the attacker was different from that of the target person, and 70 people were adversely affected medically. These incidents featured seven different types of attacks and five different types of weapons. The most preferred type of attack was bombing (n=38), while the most commonly used weapon type was explosives (n=39). Conclusion: In the last six years, there has been an increase in terrorist attacks, adversely affecting many people medically. The main reasons for this increase include growing civil unrest in countries, easy access to ambulances, perceived lack of threat, and a rise in individual armament. Due to these issues, it is crucial to train health workers, take precautions, make preparations, and create emergency action plans to mitigate terrorist attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing line of research examines causes and consequences of militant group competition. However, empirical work on these topics has limitations. Most quantitative research uses relatively rough proxies for competition, such as counts of groups in a country. Other work uses dichotomous indicators, ignoring the intensity or degree of rivalries. Additionally, many studies examine either terrorist organizations or rebel groups, overlooking cross-type rivalry (e.g., terrorist vs. rebel). We address these issues by introducing time-varying dyadic rivalry data on hundreds of groups – rebels, terrorists, and pro-government militias – in Africa and Asia, 1990-2015. Rivalry levels include denouncements, threats, and violence. After presenting the data, we test the "outbidding" hypothesis: the notion that inter-organizational competition leads to more terrorism. This argument has found support in qualitative analyses, but quantitative tests using rivalry proxies show mixed results. Using our data we find support for the hypothesis. We conclude with research questions that could be addressed with the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs a bibliometric analysis of emerging trends in money laundering for terrorism financing (ML/TF) to provide direction for future research. The authors used VOSviewer and analyzed 2577 published documents retrieved from the SCOPUS database using the PRISMA methodology. The findings reveal a growing research interest in understanding the complex interplay between money laundering and terrorism financing. This research emphasizes the significance of ML/TF for economic stability, as understanding terrorism financing mechanisms allows authorities to trace and block funds going to terrorist groups, which is crucial for national security. Critical insights for policymakers underscore the need for robust legislative frameworks, effective Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), and international collaboration to combat these global threats. This analysis offers a foundation for future research, mapping the evolving knowledge landscape in ML/TF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty years after the beginning of the transition in Argentina and 50 years after the Chilean coup d'état, this article analyzes the sexual violence against women implemented in clandestine detention centers (CDCs) as political, terrorist, and genocidal violence. Through a qualitative approach to the testimonies of former political prisoners, this paper aims to understand sexual violence against women in the experiences of concentration camps as a specific form of violence within the framework of conservative reconstructions of the civil-military dictatorships in Argentina and Chile. This violence, which was a total patriarchal act, not only sought to punish and discipline “deviant” female militants, but also to harm militant men. Likewise, it was established as a permanent threat against female detainees and a way of suppressing change and subjective, cultural, and social subversions, which, in parallel or as part of the political experience, developed in the countries of the Latin American Southern Cone. It is argued that sexual violence is a form of terrorism and genocide, since it projects terror into a specific group of the population and seeks to annul the possibility of being a woman when she breaks with the sacralized mandates of the patriarchal order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ANIAV: Revista de Investigación en Artes Visuales is the property of Universidad Politecnica de Valencia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The world faces the ongoing challenge of terrorism and extremism, which threaten the stability of nations, the security of their citizens, and the integrity of political, economic, and social systems. Given the complexity and multifaceted nature of this phenomenon, combating it requires a collective effort, with tailored methods to address its various aspects. Identifying the terrorist organization responsible for an attack is a critical step in combating terrorism. Historical data plays a pivotal role in this process, providing insights that can inform prevention and response strategies. With advancements in technology and artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in military applications, there is growing interest in utilizing these developments to enhance national and regional security against terrorism. Central to this effort are terrorism databases, which serve as rich resources for data on armed organizations, extremist entities, and terrorist incidents. The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) stands out as one of the most widely used and accessible resources for researchers. Recent progress in machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), and natural language processing (NLP) offers promising avenues for improving the identification and classification of terrorist organizations. This study introduces a framework designed to classify and predict terrorist groups using bidirectional recurrent units and self-attention mechanisms, referred to as BiGRU-SA. This approach utilizes the comprehensive data in the GTD by integrating textual features extracted by DistilBERT with features that show a high correlation with terrorist organizations. Additionally, the Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique with Tomek links (SMOTE-T) was employed to address data imbalance and enhance the robustness of our predictions. The BiGRU-SA model captures temporal dependencies and contextual information within the data. By processing data sequences in both forward and reverse directions, BiGRU-SA offers a comprehensive view of the temporal dynamics, significantly enhancing classification accuracy. To evaluate the effectiveness of our framework, we compared ten models, including six traditional ML models and four DL algorithms. The proposed BiGRU-SA framework demonstrated outstanding performance in classifying 36 terrorist organizations responsible for terrorist attacks, achieving an accuracy of 98.68%, precision of 96.06%, sensitivity of 96.83%, specificity of 99.50%, and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 97.50%. Compared to state-of-the-art methods, the proposed model outperformed others, confirming its effectiveness and accuracy in the classification and prediction of terrorist organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kashmir Valley is an abode to number of workers from different states and union territories of India. The present study attempt to investigate the causation of inflow of migrant workers to most highly militarized and conflict hit zone in the world. The study is based purely on secondary data. The migration data has been related to civilian fatalities because the fatalities of civilians create more fear of insecurity among the masses than the military causalities normally in conflicting zone. Simple statistical tools of growth and CGAR has been used to show the trend of both the migrants and civilian fatalities over more than three decades along with major massacres occurred during the period under study. The study found that despite several massacres and individual civilian killings in the conflict hit Jammu and Kashmir the migrant workers didn't stopped coming to this conflicting zone except after the abrogation of article 370 when a new trend of targeted killing started on out of state migrant workers which hitherto was not visible. It is only after abrogation of said article the migrant workers started out flowing from the UT especially Kashmir valley temporarily when spate of attacks were carried out by Terrorist groups with fear of demographic change. The main reason behind the in-migration of workers in spite of having conflicting zone are lack of economic opportunities at their place of origin and better wages and community support at the destination place. It is also revealed by study that livelihood is paramount to security for the migrant workers. The workers are ready to take risky employment to feed their dependents than caring about their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, relations between Türkiye and the US have been influenced by periodic developments and can become strong or fragile at times. In this context, relations between Türkiye and the US have been dragged into a deep crisis due to the presence of the PKK/PYD/YPG in northern Syria and the US’s support for these groups. Türkiye views the PYD/YPG as an extension of the PKK, considering it a terrorist organization and a direct threat to its national security. The existence and activities of these terrorist organizations raise serious concerns for Türkiye’s security. The US supports this group by rebranding it as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and describing it as the most effective ground force against DAESH. This situation has damaged relations between the two NATO allies, leading to diplomatic crises and regional strategic incompatibilities. Türkiye’s cross- border operations and the US’s support for the PYD/YPG are the most significant points of tension overshadowing the common interests of the two states. Despite these challenges, Türkiye and the US have the potential to protect their common interests in the fight against terrorism and regional security issues. This study analyzes how Türkiye’s policies in Syria have been shaped by US support for the PYD/YPG and how the tensions in this context have affected the strategic goals of both countries. Türkiye’s national security strategies and cooperation dynamics with the US can be reshaped through diplomatic negotiations and strategic cooperation mechanisms. In this context, relations can progress on a more constructive basis if both parties act with mutual understanding and flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a universally accepted definition of terrorism does not yet exist, almost all researchers of this phenomenon agree that it has existed since ancient times, evolves and very skillfully adapts to the new digital age. Terrorist organizations began to feel the benefits of the Internet as soon as it appeared, especially in fast communication, which, although at first it seemed not so secure, later with the help of the encrypted platforms developed by terrorist organizations, communication not only which has become much safer, but it has given even more courage to sympathizers to join the terrorist cause and make their contribution, whether they be the so-called “worker bees” (mujaheddin/mujaheddin - the diligent ones), or join the battlefields. This paper aims to highlight how terrorists use the benefits of the developed technology especially the internet. One of the things that emerges as a challenge is precisely the role that women play in recruitment and radicalization for terrorist organizations. Namely, a woman seems to go beyond the conservative treatment in the regions where terrorism is present. Thus, terrorism begins to use all possible resources available to it. Children also become a potential target for recruitment mostly in the internet space, but also in the gaming world. Like the uneven distribution of goods, the power struggle of the great powers, and at the end of the day, systemic inequality contributes to terrorism still being treated as one of the biggest security threats in the global world.

The current study examined the validity of the forced choice test (FCT) in a forensic scenario when used to detect concealment of semantic memory (SM-FCT). We also compared the SM-FCT validity to the FCT validity in the more commonly investigated episodic memory scenario (EM-FCT). In simulating a scenario of investigating suspected members of a terror organization, 277 students were asked to deceptively deny being enrolled in a college in which they do actually study. Results indicated that the SM-FCT's validity level was within the range of the EM-FCTs' validity levels. Theoretically, the results support a cognitive-based explanation for the FCT operation mechanism. Practically, they imply that FCT can be used in criminal or intelligence investigations of suspected members of terrorist or criminal organizations or suspected perpetrators of illegal acts or acts of terrorism, in which the incriminating evidence being sought is in the realm of designated semantic memory or knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research suggests that members of terrorist groups prioritize forming network ties based on trust to improve their organizational and operational security. The homophily principle, which postulates that individuals tend to form relationships based on shared characteristics, can be a key mechanism through which people identify trustworthy associates. Next to homophily, the mechanism of establishing interconnected relationships through transitivity is also well-known to serve this purpose and shape community structures in social networks. We analyze the community structures of the Islamist co-offending network in the United States, which is highly violent, to assess whether homophily and transitivity determine which extremists form co-offending ties. We rely on a new database on the individual attributes and the co-offending relationships of 494 Islamist offenders radicalized in the United States between 1993 and 2020. Using community detection algorithms, we show that the US Islamist co-offending network is highly clustered, modular, and includes many small but only a few large communities. Furthermore, results from exponential random graph modeling show that transitive relationships as well as spatial proximity, ideological affiliation, and shared socio-cultural characteristics drive co-offending among US Islamist extremists. Overall, these findings demonstrate that the processes of homophily and transitivity shape violent social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2016 to 2021, women attempted to or perpetrated suicide attacks in Indonesia. These attacks were committed by them as individuals or in family units, who were affiliated to the Islamic State. These incidents marked the first occurrence of suicide attacks carried out by women in Indonesia. Current scholarship and policy analysis of female terrorism attributed to the Islamic State or proxy groups is still catching up with the implications of trends emerging from women's actions as suicide attackers in Indonesia and worldwide. Primarily, scholarly and policy analyses of female terrorism focus on the individual woman engaged in violence, whereas women who support terrorist groups--as ideologues, wives, and online activists--are given a secondary analytical focus. This creates conceptual limitations in understanding women's pathways to violence, which can encompass violent and supportive roles within the social world in which they operate. Using Indonesia as a case study, this article advances a framework to account for the mobilisation of different identities to commit violence across personal and political linkages. In examining historical and current developments in Indonesia, this article illustrates that women as supporters or actors of violence, while largely conforming to traditional gender ideology and roles, are driven by both personal and political considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing two alternative measures of state failure, we investigate how state weakness influences resident terrorist groups' survival. Theoretically, state failure favors resident terrorist groups' survival, while state territorial control fosters resident groups' termination until some control threshold. Empirically, we uncover a robust negative relationship between a country's weakness and its control of terrorism through the lens of the resident terrorist groups' survival prospects. The discovered relationship withstands a host of robustness tests – e.g., alternative estimates and samples. We apply an instrument designed to address endogeneity concerns. In particular, our novel instrument for failed states consists of the interaction between natural disasters and ethnic fractionalization. As a state's percentage of territorial control increases, resident terrorist groups are more prone to ending until some threshold control percent. Our analysis can guide counterterrorism policy by exploiting the nuanced theoretical determinants identified here that foster resident groups' termination in failing states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turcology Research is the property of Ataturk University Coordinatorship of Scientific Journals and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Migrant remittances have become significant in poverty alleviation and microeconomic development in low-income countries. However, the ease of conducting global migrant remittance transfers has also introduced the risk of misuse by terrorist organizations to quickly move and conceal operational funds, facilitating terrorism financing. This study aims to develop an unsupervised machine learning algorithm capable of detecting suspicious financial transactions associated with terrorist financing in migrant remittances. To achieve this goal, a structural equation model (SEM) and an outlier detection algorithm were developed to analyze and identify suspicious transactions among the financial activities of migrants residing in Belgium. The results show that the SEM model classifies a significantly high number of transactions as suspicious, making it prone to detecting false positives. Finally, the study developed an ensemble outlier detection algorithm that comprises an isolation forest (IF) and a local outlier factor (LOF) to detect suspicious transactions in the same dataset. The model performed exceptionally well, being able to detect over 90% of suspicious transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The European Court of Justice recently annulled Council Decision (EU) No. 2019/217, which had authorised the conclusion of an agreement—in the form of an exchange of letters—between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco. This agreement initially extended coverage of preferential trade treatment between the two parties to products originating in Western Sahara and subject to the control of Moroccan customs authorities. The ECJ’s ruling has removed those trade preferences and imposed a de facto EU embargo on the region. This article critically discusses the ECJ’s ruling on both legal and policy grounds. From a legal standpoint, the ECJ’s decision foregoes consideration of notions of sovereignty applicable to Western Sahara in virtue of Islamic law, which would have led to recognition of its enduring ‘allegiance’ to Morocco. Moreover, the same decision amounts to an instance of extra-territorial application of EU law and infringes the principle of indivisibility of agreements. From a policy standpoint, by acknowledging standing in virtue of mere non-State armed military presence, the ECJ’s ruling has offered to terrorist groups and rebel militias—in a context of profound instability in the Sahel region—a blackmail strategy vis-à-vis regional governments. Methods: This critical review uses the descriptive approach to outline, analyse, interpret, and criticise the 2021 ECJ ruling, which denies preferential trade treatment to products from the Western Sahara region, even when under the control of Moroccan customs authorities, while Moroccan products continue to receive such treatment. Results and conclusions: The European Court of Justice partially used the concepts of international law as it paid no regard to the concept of sovereignty in the Islamic world, which is connected to tribe, allegiance and loyalty. Further, extending the application of the European Law to a third state, which has several agreements with the European Union, must be devoid of any political dimension affected by regional conflicts and international balances. The enforcement of the referred ruling is tantamount to the economic embargo on the Western Sahara Region, which will inevitably affect the security situation thereof and thus bring it closer to the influence of terrorist groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although organised criminal networks and non-state armed groups (NSAGs) have historically exploited conflict situations to commit various crimes, the extent of human trafficking by these entities in the Sahel has barely been interrogated in academic literature. In principle, while states have an obligation to criminalise trafficking in persons, problems arise where the state has lost parts of its territory to NSAGs or is facing ongoing conflicts with such groups. Boko Haram, for instance, controlled a large swath of territory in Northeast Nigeria from 2009 to 2015, with evidence of human trafficking. Therefore, this paper examines two specific aspects of human trafficking in the Sahel conflicts: trafficking by organised criminals and trafficking by NSAGs, especially terrorist organisations. It argues that while domestic laws may be useful in combating trafficking linked to organised criminal networks, the traditional state-centric approach to human rights protection makes human trafficking governance more complicated where NSAGs are involved, especially where they exercise territorial control. The paper unpacks these complexities and highlights the deficits in existing international law treaties. It argues that customary international law could provide a solution to the anti-trafficking governance challenge in the Sahel and makes a case for the adoption of an anti-trafficking Deed of Commitment within the Geneva Call mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's world, where globalization has led to the emergence of various state and non-state actors, including sub-national ones, with differing interests and motivations that often conflict with one another, the provision of essential services such as transportation, electricity, drinking water, medical and digital services, and others is of critical importance to contemporary society. About half a decade ago, when the critical infrastructures that provide these services were built, threats to them, such as terrorism, organized crime, asymmetrical or hybrid ones, were almost non-existent and not as much of a concern to the critical entities responsible for protecting them. The present research is intended to carry out an analysis of two threats to critical infrastructures - terrorism and organized crime, with the aim of identifying their typology, the effects they produce, the method of operation employed by the non-state actors that conduct such activities. The article's findings have demonstrated that ideological, political, and religious motivations of terrorist organizations, as well as the financial motivations of organized crime hold special significance as they yield effects in the modus operandi of these entities and also shape the response of law enforcement authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known to the scientific, professional and lay public that the United States of America, after the terrorist act of September 11, 2001, which was carried out on its territory, designated Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda as the culprit. The subject of research in this paper is the financing of terrorism from the territory of the United States of America. The aim of the work is to provide reasoned, objective and systematized findings on the support of terrorist financing on the territory of the USA, through the activities of charitable organizations that collected money on its territory. Almost all basic analytical and synthetic methods of knowledge were applied in the preparation of the work, with an emphasis on analysis, synthesis, generalization and the inductive-deductive method. From the corpus of general scientific methods, the general scientific statistical and hypothetical-deductive method was applied in the research of the topic, and from the group of methods for data collection, the method of content analysis of available documents was used, that is, its technique of qualitative analysis of documents. Two results emerged from the research. One, which indicates that in the decades before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Islamic charities in the United States developed donor networks, perfected techniques and covertly aided and financed terrorist groups and individuals, often with the tacit approval of American security organizations. Second, that just a few days after the terrorist attacks carried out on September 11, 2001, the President of the United States of America, with Executive Order 13224, designated a number of Islamic charitable organizations in the United States that covertly worked, supported and financed terrorism with funds collected from American citizens and organization.

During the 2019-2020 season, six television programs about ETA were broadcasted in Spain. The aim of this research is to analyze the "television" story that has been built about the terrorist group ten years after the cessation of violence. For this purpose, a qualitative methodology based on textual analysis is used, since these are independent formats. The conclusions show a new narrative in which the recovery of certain historical facts and the ostensible protagonism of the victims coincide. The result is a renewed discourse that builds collective memory to learn and advance towards coexistence and reconciliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do terrorists persuade otherwise decent citizens to join their violent causes? Guided by early mass communication research investigating propaganda's efficacy and the model of intuitive morality and exemplars, we investigated the persuasive moral appeals employed by terrorist organizations known to be successful at recruiting others to their causes. We compiled a database of N  =   873 propaganda items created by N  =   73 violent terrorist organizations and content analyzed the moral appeals emphasized in each. Results revealed that terrorist groups' ideologies and motivations predicted the moral values they emphasized in their propaganda, and that ingroup loyalty and fairness appeals featured prominently across all propaganda. Terrorist groups' emphasis on purity in their propaganda was positively correlated with their attack frequency and with the number of human casualties they caused worldwide and in the USA. Terrorists' emphasis on ingroup loyalty in propaganda was also positively correlated with the number of US human casualties they caused. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrorism has shown a trend of organizational cooperation in a large number of terrorist attacks around the world, posting a great challenge to counter-terrorism efforts. To investigate the trend and pattern of global terrorist organizational cooperations and to propose effective measures for effectively enforcing and restricting terrorist attacks, based on the Global Terrorism Database and the UN sanctions list of terrorist groups, this study constructs a cooperative evolutionary network of terrorist organizations from 119,803 terrorist attacks that occurred globally between 2001 and 2018. The evolution of worldwide terrorist cooperation is evaluated in terms of network characteristics, including key nodes, cohesion, and motifs. The network keeps expanding, with a large number of new nodes emerging each year. On average, there are 13 additional organizations entering in the collaboration network each year, with a yearly survival rate of about 34.66%, and the rank of node importance iterate and update frequently. Through k-core decomposition, for which the breakdown of the network has increased from three to five partitions, we find that the core of the terrorist organization's cooperation network changes much less frequently than the edges. The dominating modal structure of the network is the "star" motif (90%), and "triadic closed" motif (9%). We conclude that, over time, the cooperative network of terrorist groups has gradually evolved into a cluster of star-shaped networks, with various organizations serving as the centers of the networks and showing core-periphery structure in their individual communities. The core organizations are highly connected and stable, whereas the periphery organizations are loosely connected and highly variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrorist designation has increasingly become an important counterterrorism tool used by intergovernmental organizations and state governments. This article examines the determinants of terrorist listing and argues that terrorist listing is driven by security as well as political concerns. While countries tend to designate groups that pose a greater security threat, terrorist listing can also be influenced by interstate relationships including alliance ties and state rivalry. We test these arguments using a dataset on 35 countries that currently maintain their own lists of designated terrorist organizations. Our findings show that governments are more likely to list groups that have a record of attacking their domestic interests. Domestic groups are more likely to be designated than foreign groups. Moreover, countries are more likely to designate groups that are designated by their allies, even when these groups do not pose a direct threat. Our study contributes to the literature on terrorism and more broadly international security by systematically examining the determinants of terrorist designation and explaining the heterogeneity of terrorist lists across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the Mara Barrio 18 (18thStreet Gang) are two of the most notorious Maras. Their army-sized membership and extraordinary levels of brutality once led them to commit more murders than the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Boko Haram, and Al Qaeda. Currently, their activities have expanded to the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Africa. While they are undoubtedly terrorist organizations, Bukele's formula has proven effective in combating them. Nonetheless, Bukele's government needs to implement measures to effectively counteract terrorism without affecting the rule of law, transparency, and the respect of human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociology & Technoscience / Sociología y Tecnociencia is the property of Universidad de Valladolid, Escuela Universitaria de Educacion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Before the emergence of the Boko Haram terrorist group in the early 2000s, religious extremism in Nigeria had sparked large-scale crises in Kaduna and Plateau, among other states in the country. Since the inception of the Nigerian Fourth Republic, such crises have been undermining public safety and, by implication, the country's quest for national integration and sustainable development. In light of mob violence that resulted in the gruesome murder of a college student who allegedly uttered blasphemous comments, this paper examined the rise of religious extremism in Nigeria. Looking beyond human security threats like poverty and illiteracy, the paper utilised desk review of published documents to establish the historical and political factors that sowed in the country, the seeds of religious extremism now germinating. The paper found that the nature of the pre-colonial empires that now make up the Nigerian state, coupled with colonial and post-colonial factors, including the dissipation of knowledge on the Islamic justice system, competition over political powers, and the politics of divide and rule, have converged to make religion a volatile phenomenon in the country. Therefore, the paper concludes that until the multidimensional factors are addressed through mitigating and preventive efforts--such as robust religious education, religious regulation, interreligious dialogue and economic empowerment--the country's quest for peace, justice, and strong institutions among other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will remain a mirage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 changed Afghanistan's strategic dynamics. The Afghan Taliban now control the whole Afghanistan and have taken some adverse measures that affect not only Pakistan but also regional and global security. After 2021, Transnational terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and East Turkestan Islamic Movement operate in Afghanistan with greater impunity and freedom. The Afghan Taliban also welcomed India to Afghanistan after 2021 to get financial assistance and support in reconstruction and development. But India’s renewed hybrid warfare from Afghanistan has seriously jeopardised the internal security of Pakistan. Pakistan-focused groups like TTP, BLA, and ISKP suddenly got reorganised under the umbrella of India in Afghanistan. They started a vicious cycle of violence against the civil and military installations of Pakistan in Balochistan and the ex-FATA region, besides attacks on the Chinese citizens to disrupt CPEC and slow down FDI to Pakistan. This article analyses the whole debate under the regional security complex theory, which evaluates that simple physical adjacency generates more security interaction among neighbours than among states located in different areas. Adjacency is potent for security because many threats travel more easily over short distances than long ones. The RSCT aptly applies to Afghanistan’s changing strategic dynamics and regional implications, focusing on Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general terrorism threat landscape in the Philippines has improved significantly. Through military and non-military interventions, terrorist elements across the country have retreated and surrendered. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has maintained its leadership decapitation strategy, killing significant leaders like Abu Zacariah and Pasil Bayali in 2023. The surrender of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF)'s leader, Abu Turaife, also marked a significant development. Nonetheless, the threat still persists, as illustrated by the December 2023 deadly bomb attack at a gymnasium in Marawi City, and amid the persistence of factors such as the entrenched rido (clan wars) culture, the impending Bangsamoro elections and the persistence of poor conditions of vulnerable communities in conflict-afflicted Mindanao. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses developments in Indonesia's terrorism landscape and counter terrorism efforts in 2023. In line with the trends of the past five years, the threat posed by terrorist organisations in the country declined last year. While the number of terrorist plots increased, no attacks were successfully conducted in 2023. While major terrorist organisations in Indonesia do harbour intentions to exploit the sociopolitical dynamics in the upcoming 2024 national elections, it is unlikely that they will possess the necessary operational capacities to successfully execute them -- if counter terrorism efforts are sustained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]