The war on terror ‐ future trends
| Pages | 104-111 |
| Date | 01 April 2005 |
| Published date | 01 April 2005 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13590790510624927 |
| Author | Gary Scanlan |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Journal of Financial Crime Ð Vol. 12 No. 2
The War on Terror Ð Future Trends
Gary Scanlan
INTRODUCTION
The last 20 years has seen a fundamental change in the
perception of terrorism and the terrorist, with com-
plementary and developing legal regimes evolving
both in national jurisdictions and on the international
scene, which are designed and intended to counteract
the activities of the terrorist and terrorist organisa-
tions. International cooperation is growing in this
®eld, but is hampered frequently because of purely
national interests and perceptions of what constitutes
terrorism.
1
It is perhaps in the areas of international
cooperation that the future war against terrorism
lies, but the securing of this cooperation may not be
simply based on the enactment of treaties, and states
implementing and enforcing complementary anti-
terrorist legislation, albeit that such provisions are a
potentially eective means of combating terrorism,
but in changing perceptions of the terrorist in many
countries.
2
This change of perception needs to take
place not only in countries which are perceived by
the international community as sympathetic or sup-
portive of terrorism, but also within countries such
as the USA and the UK which are otherwise promi-
nent in the current international ®ght against terror-
ism. The UK's less than laudable attitude to the
operation of terrorist organisations operating in the
UK in respect of `causes' in the Indian sub-continent
and the Middle East
3
considerably weakens the argu-
ment that the UK is engaged in a principled war
against international terrorism. It will be a central
theme of this paper that in conducting the war
against terrorism intelligence gathering and in®ltra-
tion of terrorist organisations, military operations
and the growing international cooperation in depriv-
ing the terrorist organisations of ®nancial resources
must continue, to have a palpable eect on terrorist
activity. Nevertheless, in the future there must be
added to this arsenal an eective means of depriving
terrorists in all their manifestations of the monopoly
of the dissemination of information, or more accu-
rately misinformation. This dissemination of misin-
formation takes place in various states and among
certain groups not only in states which are sympathetic
to the terrorist, but also in states such as the USA
and the UK. The terrorist, through the propagation
of misinformation, and without apparent reply or
opposition from the democracies, and relying on
ignorance and bigotry, continues to recruit terrorists
of the present and the next generation throughout
the world, in both non-democratic and democratic
states. If this chain of recruitment cannot be entirely
eliminated or broken, with a counter eort to dissemi-
nate the myths of the terrorist as `freedom ®ghter', at
least the terrorist cause can be signi®cantly damaged,
as in the case of the interdiction of ®nancial resources
accruing to terrorist organisations, or the eectiveness
of the dissemination of such misinformation can be
reduced. Preparation has to be made to engage upon
what may be de®ned in this paper as a battle if not a
war of information.
4
The terrorist as freedom ®ghter?
In this context it is still the comment of apologists for
terrorism, or at least terrorism of which such indivi-
duals approve, that: `one man's terrorist is another
man's freedom ®ghter'. Perhaps the combating of
this myth, which is bereft of moral sense and historical
perception, is the greatest challenge for the future.
THE ANTI-TERRORIST REGIME IN
THE UK
In considering the future as regards the combating of
terrorists and their activities, in both a national and
international context, the history of the terrorist
should be reviewed by reference to the UK, a
country which has been the subject of terrorist
attack for generations. The ways in which the UK
has perceived terrorism and then sought to combat
the activities of the terrorist would seem to provide a
model for how a state evolves a philosophy and
strategy to oppose terrorists and their organisations.
Terrorism in the 19th century
English law perhaps ®rst began unambiguously to
address the question of terrorism, at least in its
modern form, in the early to mid-19th century. The
actions of the Fenians in seeking an independent and
united Ireland produced several legislative provisions,
such as the Oences against the Person Act (OAPA)
Page 104
Journalof Financial Crime
Vol.12,No. 2, 2004,pp.104±111
#HenryStewart Publications
ISSN1359-0790
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