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International Reports 8/2010


A European Perspective on International Terrorism | Fanatics in Our Midst: The Phenomenon of ‘Homegrown Jihadists’ | The Fight Against International Terrorism and the Question of International Security - What Role Will NATO Play in the Future? | Counter-Terrorism as a U.S. National Security Priority | Afghanistan and Pakistan - A Paradigm Shift in the Fight Against Terrorism? | Al-Qaeda Organization in Yemen | India: International and External Security - Current Challenges to the Government | “Nothing New in the South?” – Analytical Observations on the Conflict in the Southern Provinces of Thailand

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  • Editorial

    International Reports 8/2010

    The contributions in this issue argue how Germany and the West can appropriately engage in combating terrorism – from both European and transatlantic perspectives. Crucial in this respect are not only the international networks that threaten us from without, but also “homegrown terrorists” – those who radicalize within European societies. In Germany the spectacular case of the Sauerland Group demonstrated that a decisive political challenge lies at the interface of integration and internal security.

    by Gerhard Wahlers

  • A European Perspective on International Terrorism

    Formulating a European perspective on international terrorism in 2010 is a difficult undertaking for various reasons. Initially, simply because – as all surveys illustrate – the citizens of the member states of the European Union don’t all perceive terrorism as a threat to the same degree. In states that have been directly affected by the activities of terrorist organizations, the awareness of public opinion with respect to the threats emanating from international terrorism for these states is far greater than in those states that have so far been unscathed by such attacks.

    by Carlo Masala

  • Fanatics in Our Midst: The Phenomenon of ‘Homegrown Jihadists’

    “I had only been a Muslim for four months. But I knew my duty, I wanted to join the jihad. We followed the events in the jihad regions and watched films about how the mujaheddin fought against the crusaders. Hate grew in me”, wrote German jihad fanatic and convert Eric Breininger in his diary in 2007. These words sound strange coming from the mouth of a young man with a thoroughly western lifestyle.

    by Kai Hirschmann

  • The Fight Against International Terrorism and the Question of International Security

    What Role Will NATO Play in the Future?

    The fight against international terrorism is high on NATO ’s agenda. Not even twenty-four hours after the attacks on September 11 2001, NATO declared collective defense under Article 5 of the NATO agreement for the first time in its history.

    by Dirk Peters

  • Counter-Terrorism as a U.S. National Security Priority

    In remarks given in January 2010, the U.S. State Department’s coordinator for counter-terrorism policy, Daniel Benjamin, declared that a critical test for anyone’s counterterrorism (CT) policy is “to see how they emerge from contact with a genuine terrorist event.” Perhaps not surprisingly, Benjamin gave relatively high marks to the Obama Administration of which he is a part, though he admitted that the “underwear bomber” episode of December 23, 2009 – which we shall discuss further below – showed that some of its most important “operating assumptions were no longer adequate”.

    by Christopher A. Ford

  • Afghanistan and Pakistan - A Paradigm Shift in the Fight Against Terrorism?

    September 2001 can be seen as a historic turning point for Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is due firstly to the fact that the NATO Council passed resolutions citing Article 5 of the NATO Treaty of 4 April 1949 in response to severe terrorist attacks. This was a first in the history of the alliance. The creation of an International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in UN Security Council Resolution 1386 followed a short time later.

    by Babak Khalatbari, Janna Kazim

  • Al-Qaeda Organization in Yemen

    The attempted terror attack on board a Northwest Airlines plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25, 2009 was a wake up call for the international community. By claiming responsibility for the attack, al-Qaeda in Yemen clearly demonstrated that it would no longer limit its actions to the national “theater of operations” and that targets in the international arena were now within its reach.

    by Nicole Stracke

  • India: International and External Security - Current Challenges to the Government

    “Terrorism, communalism, Naxalism and regionalism” – this is how the Indian prime minister defined the largest challenges facing India at the beginning of 2010. The bomb attack in Pune of February 2010, which bore similarities to the Mumbai bombing, and the almost daily attacks by the Maoist Naxalites are horrifying examples of the threats currently posed to the country’s internal security.

    by Beatrice Gorawantschy, Martin-Maurice Böhme

  • “Nothing New in the South?” – Analytical Observations on the Conflict in the Southern Provinces of Thailand

    It is now six years that the historic conflict has been going on in Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, southern provinces of Thailand, and it has already caused more than 4,000 deaths. The beginning of the escalation dates to January 4th, 2004, when Muslim youths got away with nearly 400 machine guns in a barracks hijack. Since then, militant groups have been committing bomb attacks and aggressive acts almost on a daily basis in these three primarily Malay Muslim provinces.

    by Canan Atilgan, Patrick Schneider

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About this series

International Reports (IR) is the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung's periodical on international politics. It offers political analyses by our experts in Berlin and from more than 100 offices across all regions of the world. Contributions by named authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial team.

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Editor

Dr. Gerhard Wahlers

ISBN

0177-7521

Benjamin Gaul

Benjamin Gaul

Head of the Department International Reports and Communication

benjamin.gaul@kas.de +49 30 26996 3584

Dr. Sören Soika

Dr

Editor-in-Chief International Reports (Ai)

soeren.soika@kas.de +49 30 26996 3388

Rana Taskoparan

Rana Taskoparan

Referentin Kommunikation und Vermarktung

rana.taskoparan@kas.de +49 30 26 996 3623

Fabian Wagener

Fabian Wagener

Desk Officer for Multimedia

fabian.wagener@kas.de +49 30-26996-3943