• Knowmad Institut

The European Union (EU) has modest but promising capacities to assist member states overwhelmed by disaster through its Civil Protection Mechanism. The EU also routinely sends civil and military missions to hotspots outside EU territory. But these capacities do not suffice in the face of transboundary crises: threats that cross geographical and policy borders within the Union. Examples include epidemics, financial crises, floods, and cyber terrorism. Nation states cannot cope with these threats without international collaboration. In this article, we explore the EU's efforts to develop transboundary crisis management capacities. We describe these budding capacities, explain their policy origins, and explore their future potential.

The European Union (EU) has modest but promising capacities to assist member states overwhelmed by disaster through its Civil Protection Mechanism. The EU also routinely sends civil and military missions to hotspots outside EU territory. But these capacities do not suffice in the face of transboundary crises: threats that cross geographical and policy borders within the Union. Examples include epidemics, financial crises, floods, and cyber terrorism. Nation states cannot cope with these threats without international collaboration. In this article, we explore the EU's efforts to develop transboundary crisis management capacities. We describe these budding capacities, explain their policy origins, and explore their future potential.

This critical appraisal of United States counterterrorism policy in Sub-Saharan Africa traces the breadth of the United States counterterrorism experience in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1991 until 2017 within the context of the overall conflicts. It does so via three case studies of the most significant Salafi jihadist insurgencies during this time. The three case studies are based around the United States efforts to counter Salafi jihadists in three separate conflicts. The first case addresses the conglomeration of groups in the Sahel now associated with the al Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin and the Islamic State groups in the region. The second focuses on Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Lake Chad basin, and the third on al Shabaab in Somalia and the Horn of Africa. The United States played an important but supporting role in these conflicts. This appraisal assembles and details that role, places it within the larger conflict, analyzes the factors that shaped the policy decided upon, evaluates the outcomes achieved and then provides recommendations for future United States counterterrorism policy in Africa.

This paper examines the role of the local police in a wider regime of counterterrorism practices in Belgium. On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews in two local police forces we intend to show how local counterterrorism police strategy is actually shaped, and how key informants perceive its strengths and pitfalls. We will argue that local counterterrorism policing is best thought of as a cultural adaptation; a specific response to terrorism that entails a shift in the practices, knowledges and norms of the local police. We conclude with a discussion about the implications of this shift.

This article assesses whether renditions of terrorist suspects are still taking place under the Obama administration.

As the battle against the Islamic State unfolds on the battleground and in cyberspace, the U.S. government has declared its commitment to disrupt-and ultimately defeat-the terrorist group. The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and ISIS, has become one of the most deadly and influential terrorist groups in the Middle East. Strategic communications cannot be underestimated. The unit tasked with countering the terrorist group's propaganda and recruitment efforts, the State Department's Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC), has recently restructured to improve its efforts. This thesis examines the Center's mission, strategy, and communications to assess the efficacy of its efforts to counter the Islamic State terrorist group and degrade its ability to recruit foreign fighters. It analyzes the Islamic State and introduces the CSCC's successor, the Global Engagement Center. Finally, it offers research findings and provides recommendations for future consideration. http://archive.org/details/strategiccommuni1094555653 Lieutenant, United States Navy Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.