NCJ Number
91780
Date Published
1982
Length
289 pages
Annotation
Government officials, scholars, and corporate executives from the United States and foreign countries attended a 5-day conference in 1980 to identify new trends in terrorism, exchange information on countermeasures, and discuss ways to coordinate and disseminate research efforts in various countries.
Abstract
The report first presents opening speeches by officials from the Department of State and the U.S. Army. Part 2 presents the agendas and summaries of the conference's four working groups which addressed the terrorist environment, the terrorists, the governmental response, and the future course of terrorism. In examining factors which contribute to terrorism, participants reviewed the unequal distribution of terrorist incidents and concluded that no single factor was a major cause. They noted that totalitarian governments experience the least terrorism and identified the media and the presence of sympathizers as critical aspects of the terrorist environment. The group on terrorists could not identify a single terrorist type, but did offer profiles that differed from the popular image of highly disciplined gangs of fanatics and assassins. Technical approaches to countering terrorists dominated the discussions on governmental responses. Also explored were jurisdictional problems, international cooperation, and intelligence collection. Many members of the group on future trends attributed terrorism to broad social developments, predicting that incidents will continue. However, others were concerned about the impact of technological developments. All participants were worried about terrorists escalating their activities as governments adopt hardline policies. The report describes simulation exercises conducted in the conference's last days and includes 11 resource papers which describe specific terrorist incidents, responses of the Turkish and Israeli governments to terrorism, terrorists' personality characteristics, antiterrorist laws, and terrorist operations aganinst marine targets. A list of conference participants is appended. For separate papers, see NCJ-91781-87.