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Building Stability Overseas Strategy United Kingdom Department for International Development // British Foreign and Commonwealth Office // United Kingdom Ministry of Defence
Abstract: When violent conflict breaks out, the costs to the country and the international community are enormous. Lives are lost, people are displaced and trade links are cut. Schools shut down, hospitals are destroyed and businesses cannot operate. For these reasons, war is often termed development in reverse.
The new paper, known as the Building Stability Overseas Strategy, details how Britain aims to tackle these problems by promoting democracy, security and prosperity in countries and regions where its interests are at stake.
The strategy is based on three strands:
1. Early warning: improving our ability to anticipate instability and potential triggers for conflict
2. Rapid crisis prevention and response: improving our ability to take fast, appropriate and effective action to prevent a crisis or stop it spreading or escalating
3. Investing in upstream prevention: helping to build strong, legitimate institutions and robust societies in fragile countries that are capable of managing tensions and shocks so there is a lower likelihood of instability and conflict
Abstract: The aim of this research was to see whether the groups/cells and their 38 core individuals who had taken part in the six most serious terrorist conspiracies and attacks in the UK between 2004 and 2007, all of which were driven by the ideology of violent Jihadism as espoused by Al Qaeda, exhibited any specific types of behaviour. In each case the terrorists successfully launched or unsuccessfully attempted an attack, or were arrested and convicted of conspiring to carry out a terrorist attack. The research provides a detailed examination of the behaviours exhibited by violent Jihadist groups/cells and the individuals within them.
The report outlines the history and background before examining the organisation, characteristics and behaviour of the groups/cells involved. It also examines individual behaviours carried out on behalf of the group/cell and individual behaviour more broadly. It demonstrates there are certain distinctive behavioural characteristics displayed with their planning, preparation and implementation of an act of terrorism. The six UK case studies show three categories of behaviours, from "radicalisation" into "transition to violent Jihad" and finally to "terrorist attack planning and preparation".
These findings open up the possibility of identifying through their behaviour individuals and groups engaged in the planning and preparation of a terrorist attack, thus allowing such attacks to be prevented or disrupted before they can be implemented. However, additional refinement and testing will be necessary to identify substantive "signal indicators" of potential use to police and security forces.
Abstract: The UK faces a range of terrorist threats. The most serious is from Al Qa’ida, its affiliates and like-minded organisations. All the terrorist groups who pose a threat to us seek to radicalise and recruit people to their cause. But the percentage of people who are prepared to support violent extremism in this country is very small. It is significantly greater amongst young people. We now have more information about the factors which encourage people to support terrorism and then to engage in terrorism-related activity. It is important to understand these factors if we are to prevent radicalisation and minimise the risks it poses to our national security. We judge that radicalisation is driven by an ideology which sanctions the use of violence; by propagandists for that ideology here and overseas; and by personal vulnerabilities and specific local factors which, for a range of reasons, make that ideology seem both attractive and compelling. There is evidence to indicate that support for terrorism is associated with rejection of a cohesive, integrated, multi-faith society and of parliamentary democracy. Work to deal with radicalisation will depend on developing a sense of belonging to this country and support for our core values. Terrorist groups can take up and exploit ideas which have been developed and sometimes popularised by extremist organisations which operate legally in this country. This has significant implications for the scope of our Prevent strategy. Evidence also suggests that some (but by no means all) of those who have been radicalised in the UK had previously participated in extremist organisations.
Prevent is part of our counter-terrorism strategy. Its aim is to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. Prevent will address all forms of terrorism but continue to prioritise according to the threat they pose to our national security. At present, the majority of our resources and efforts will continue to be devoted to preventing people from joining or supporting Al Qa’ida, its affiliates or related groups.
Abstract: The Examples from the Ground are concrete illustrations of ways in which a gender perspective has been integrated in different security sector institutions around the world. They range from measures to counter human trafficking in Kosovo, to women’s organisations’ involvement with security institutions in Nepal, to female parliamentarians’ contribution to post-conflict reconstruction in Rwanda. These examples can help policymakers, trainers and educators better understand and demonstrate the linkages between gender and SSR.
The examples are organised around the following nine themes, for which a short introduction is provided:
• Police Reform and Gender
• Defence Reform and Gender
• Justice Reform and Gender
• Penal Reform and Gender
• Border Management and Gender
• Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector and Gender
• National Security Policy-Making and Gender
• Civil Society Oversight of the Security Sector and Gender
• SSR Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation and Gender
Individual examples can also be downloaded individually, in English or in French, at: http://gssrtraining.ch/index.php?option=com_content&view;=article&id;=4&Itemid;=131⟨=en
Abstract: The death of Osama bin Laden has once again flooded the media with images of Islamic terrorism, while a recent bomb threat from Irish dissidents in London has heightened the fear of new terrorist attacks in the UK. In this context, and ahead of the publication of the review of the ‘Prevent’ strand of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy (CONTEST), this paper analyses the main Islamic terrorist attacks in the UK since 9/11. The conclusions made from this analysis aim to challenge commonly held assumptions and provide a background for an assessment of the current ‘Prevent’ strategy. Drawing on common criticisms and positive lessons gained from the strategy implemented in Bristol, this paper makes six recommendations:
1. The difference between extremism and violent extremism must be defined to ensure that the policy is not viewed as a government attempt to shape religious ideology.
2. The sense that Prevent is a general intelligence-gathering mission must be removed to gain trust and acceptance from Muslim communities.
3. The drivers of violent extremism must be addressed directly by discussing the impact of and justification for British foreign policy in the Middle East.
4. Local authorities must understand the make-up of the different Muslim communities in the area so as to tailor the strategy to each.
5. Muslim communities must be engaged with local authorities while the strategy is being formulated at the operational local authority level to ensure it is appropriate and accepted.
6. Events need to be focused on the discussion and demystification of violent extremism framed within a wider religious and cultural context.
Abstract: An increase in asylum applications and refugee populations from conflict zones since
the late 1980s has led to considerable public, political and policy concern within the
European Union. Somalia has been one of the top refugee-producing countries in the
world for more than twenty years given the protracted nature of its conflict. Around
245,000 Somali asylum applications have been lodged in Europe since 1990, after
civil war began affecting large parts of country. Estimates of the remaining
population vary, but one World Bank estimate put this at 8.9m in 2008. There were
approximately 1.5m internally displaced persons in 2009, in addition to a total
estimated refugee population of nearly 700,000.
Based upon qualitative research with Somali refugees in two European host
countries – the UK and the Netherlands - this paper explores the micro-level
experiences and ongoing effects of the Somali conflict on their lives in exile.
Challenging predominant macro-level framings of refugees in these settings, it
supports a micro-level analysis of their experiences and lives. It analyses their
ongoing connections with the conflict in Somalia, and reveals how this can affect
aspects of their integration and emotional health while in exile, alongside social
problems such as poverty, drug use and divorce.
Abstract: Popularised as a result of the so-called surge in Iraq, the concept of counterinsurgency has since experienced a marked decline, mostly due to the difficulties of implementing its core principles in Afghanistan. Across the United States and Europe, counterinsurgency now seems to be on its way out, as a concept to be studied and as a priority to inform policy.
This article examines the value of retaining counterinsurgency as a concept, along with its associated principles and theory. Much depends on what is expected from this term, which lacks both definition and clear substance. Counterinsurgency provides neither a strategy for military intervention nor a campaign plan for deployed soldiers and will fail if mistaken for more than what it is. Counterinsurgency does offer a collection of insights, which, if used in a manner sensitive to local context, can help in the design and execution of expeditionary campaigns. These insights are often largely commonsensical but have nonetheless played an important role in challenging previously dominant misconceptions about the nature of war and peace, both in Europe and the United States.
Abstract: Comments in this testimony are largely derived from a compilation of studies that the author commissioned in previous years looking at how key countries in Europe (the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain) were addressing the threat of Islamist terrorism domestically. I then analyzed those studies and set out to compare their respective findings with the post-9/11 counterterrorism regime here in the United States. The result was a volume published last summer by the American Enterprise Institute entitled Safety, Liberty and Islamist Terrorism: American and European Approaches to Domestic Counterterrorism. The author provides context to United States counterterrorism policy by comparing it with the policies and practices of our European allies
Abstract: Over the course of 2010 plans have been put in place to strengthen the capabilities of the Afghan National Security Forces, with a view to transitioning security responsibility so that Coalition military forces can begin to draw down from mid-2011 onwards.
As part of that new counterinsurgency strategy, a surge of 30,000 US and 10,000 additional Coalition forces were deployed to the country in the first half of 2010, which brought the total ISAF force in Afghanistan to approximately 132,000 personnel by year end.
The timetable for drawing down ISAF forces was endorsed at the NATO Heads of State and Government Summit in Lisbon in November 2010.
This note examines the timetable for transferring security responsibility to the Afghan National Security Forces; the current commitment of contributing nations, and any plans for withdrawal.
Abstract: The World Bank’s World Development Report 2011, released earlier this month, concluded that insecurity “has become a primary development challenge of our time.” In Sudan ongoing conflict has stalled economic development and kept the majority of citizens living below the poverty line on an income of less than one US dollar a day.
As the international community decides how it will engage with the two new states which will be created when South Sudan secedes in July 2011, addressing the root causes of conflict and insecurity should be a top priority. A wide range of issues will need to be addressed as the period of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) comes to a close, and the international community will need to find a common approach to incentivising actors in both North and South to uphold their commitments, and mitigating any trends toward corruption or violence. This briefing gives recommendations on just some of the ways in which the UK Government can assist the people of Sudan to build sustainable peace.
Abstract: • The protection of asylum-seekers in Europe is dealt with under three principal bodies of law: the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951, the law of the European Union and the soft law developed by the Council of Europe.
• Member states of the Council of Europe are also bound by the judgments of the European Convention on Human Rights; although the convention makes no reference to refugee protection, its provisions and the judgments of its court in Strasbourg impose important obligations on states in respect of asylum.
• The entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty in 1999 initiated the first phase of the creation of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), which aimed to harmonize refugee protection among member states while enabling them to meet their international obligations in that respect.
• The harmonizing measures adopted by the EU have been subject to severe criticism and the practices of member states reveal a systemic failure to comply with international refugee protection obligations.
• While there have been improvements in European refugee policy, significant challenges must be addressed before Europe can regain its reputation as a champion of the rights of the refugee. This is given particular urgency by recent events in North Africa, which may lead to large numbers of persons fleeing violence and disorder.
Abstract: Militia, freedom fighters, rebels, terrorists,
paramilitaries, revolutionaries, guerrillas, gangs,
quasi-state bodies... and many other labels. In this
issue of FMR we look at all of these, at actors defined
as being armed and being ‘non-state’ – that is to say,
without the full responsibilities and obligations of the
state. Some of these actors have ideological or political
aims; some aspire to hold territory and overthrow a
government; some could be called organised groups,
and for others that would stretch the reality. Their
objectives vary but all are in armed conflict with the
state and/or with each other. Such actors, deliberately or
otherwise, regularly cause the displacement of people.
This issue of FMR
focuses more on the consequences of their violence and
its effects on people, and suggests ways in which these
might be mitigated. The articles included here reflect the
views of civil society groups and individuals in regular
contact with non-state armed groups, of academics and
governments, and of organisations that have years of
experience in engaging – creatively and productively –
with non-state armed groups.
This issue also includes a range of articles discussing
subjects as varied as the labelling of migrants, solar
energy in camps, gang persecution, and scoring states’
performance in respect of the rights of refugees.
Abstract: The Prime Minister announced on 15 June 2009 that an Inquiry would be conducted to identify lessons that can be learned from the Iraq conflict. The Iraq Inquiry was officially launched on 30 July 2009. At the launch the Chair of the Inquiry, Sir John Chilcot, set out the Inquiry's Terms of Reference:
"Our terms of reference are very broad, but the essential points, as set out by the Prime Minister and agreed by the House of Commons, are that this is an Inquiry by a committee of Privy Counsellors. It will consider the period from the summer of 2001 to the end of July 2009, embracing the run-up to the conflict in Iraq, the military action and its aftermath. We will therefore be considering the UK's involvement in Iraq, including the way decisions were made and actions taken, to establish, as accurately as possible, what happened and to identify the lessons that can be learned. Those lessons will help ensure that, if we face similar situations in future, the government of the day is best equipped to respond to those situations in the most effective manner in the best interests of the country."
The Inquiry committee members are Sir John Chilcot (Chairman), Sir Lawrence Freedman, Sir Martin Gilbert, Sir Roderic Lyne and Baroness Usha Prashar.
The Inquiry will take evidence over a number of months, with as many hearings as possible held in public. The first round of hearings began in autumn 2009 and continued into early 2010. After a break for the general election, the Inquiry resumed its public hearings in June for a period of five weeks. The Inquiry intends to deliver its report around the turn of the year. The Inquiry committee intends to include in the report all but the most sensitive information essential to our national security. The report will then be debated in Parliament.
Abstract: This issue includes the following articles:
- Terrorist Awakening in Sweden?
- British Universities Continue to Breed Extremists
- Improving Airline Security in the United States
- Al-Qa`ida’s Yemeni Expatriate Faction in Pakistan
- Understanding Al-Qa`ida’s Business Model
- Disengagement or Deradicalization: A Look at Prison Programs for Jailed Terrorists
- Recent Highlights in Terrorist Activity
Abstract: In this paper, I argue that the successful inclusion of women in the Northern Ireland
peace process and the world class commitments to human rights and equality enshrined
in the final peace deal have all been important (but often ignored) elements
of the peace in Northern Ireland. As well, the conservatism in the post-Agreement
period in Northern Ireland, which has thwarted some of the efforts to advance important
social policy issues, along with the poor representation of women in Northern
Ireland’s new political institutions more than a decade after the peace agreement
was signed are similarly unlikely to inform prescriptions for Middle East
peace. In my view, the experiences of women, who are located largely within the
informal sector, can offer important insight into how we come to understand and define
security and also how we come to assess the kinds of changes that will improve
security for “ordinary citizens” in a post-conflict period.
Abstract: Settlement of protracted conflict involves actors changing their strategies and their views. Why they change, and why seemingly subtle shifts in opportunities or a slight adaptation of a settlement package that failed in the past allows such change, is often difficult to understand and explain. In the case of the Northern Ireland settlement, we argue that a longer historical perspective allows us to see how seemingly small institutional shifts are taken (in our view, correctly) as indicative of change in major historically-based trends (the role of the British state in Northern Ireland) to which actors respond with new strategies and changed beliefs. The case shows state reform of a type able to diffuse conflict although not to integrate minorities. Both the fact of such change and its difficulty are of general interest: the ethnic bias of the British state in Northern Ireland was not, in the contemporary period, primarily a matter of strategic intent, and this made it the more difficult to change from within. It shows how change guided by the Irish state and encouraged by the US, but much short of independence, federalism or confederalism has been enough to turn armed nationalist revolutionaries into parliamentary politicians.
Abstract: Deradicalizing Islamist extremists may be even more important than getting them to simply disengage from terrorist activities, according to a new RAND Corporation study that examines counter-radicalization programs in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Europe.
Although there has been much research about the radicalization and recruitment of Islamist extremists, there has been little study until recently about how one deradicalizes those who have been recruited into the Islamist extremist movement.
A key question is whether the objective of counter-radicalization programs should be disengagement (a change in behavior) or deradicalization (a change in beliefs) of militants. A unique challenge posed by militant Islamist groups is that their ideology is rooted in a major world religion, Islam.
The RAND study indentifies and analyzes the processes through which militants leave Islamist extreme groups, assesses the effectiveness of deradicalization programs and summarizes the policies that could help to promote and accelerate the processes of deradicalization.
Abstract: The Convention on Cluster Munitions is the only viable solution to ending the scourge of cluster munitions, Human Rights Watch said in a new book released today. As diplomats in Geneva opened discussions on a weak alternative, Human Rights Watch said that eliminating the harm caused by these inhumane weapons requires the absolute and comprehensive ban contained in the convention.
The 224-page book, Meeting the Challenge: Protecting Civilians through the Convention on Cluster Munitions, is the culmination of a decade of research by Human Rights Watch. It details the humanitarian toll of cluster munitions, analyzes the international process that resulted in the treaty successfully banning them, and presents the steps that nations that have signed the convention should take to fulfill its promise.
"The facts on the ground leave no doubt that cluster munitions inevitably kill and maim many civilians," said Bonnie Docherty, senior researcher in the arms division at Human Rights Watch. "Nations serious about stopping this suffering should join the ban convention and not settle for ineffective half-measures."
Abstract: This report compiles the latest evidence of European countries' complicity in the CIA's programmes in the context of the fight against terrorism in the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA.
"The EU has utterly failed to hold member states accountable for the abuses they've committed," said Nicolas Beger, Director of Amnesty International's European Institutions Office.
"These abuses occurred on European soil. We simply can't allow Europe to join the US in becoming an 'accountability-free' zone. The tide is slowly turning with some countries starting investigations but much more needs to be done." Intergovernmental organizations such as the Council of Europe, the European Union and the UN have been at the forefront of investigating human rights violations associated with the CIA rendition and secret detention programmes.
Following disclosures in their reports, inquiries into state complicity or legal processes aimed at individual responsibility took place or are currently in progress in countries such as Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Abstract: The summer months of 2010 saw Northern Ireland return to
the world’s media headlines for all the wrong reasons. Life
in the province was punctuated by periodic bomb attacks,
shootings and serious rioting – phenomena once thought to have
been consigned to the past. There has, it should be made clear, been
no return to ‘the Troubles’. The principal threat to the future stability of the province emanates
from within the world of dissident Irish republicanism. The brutal
truth of this was made clear in March 2009, when three members of
the British armed/security services were murdered inside forty-eight
hours. Even prior to those lethal attacks, it was clear that there remained a
significant minority of Irish republicans for whom the peace process
did not represent a satisfactory end to their ‘long war’. There was a
growing recognition too of the potential for such people to resort to
violence. Return of the Militants analyses the origins and the nature of the threat posed by violent dissidents, provides a timeline of their recent activity, and an introduction to the various groups associated with the dissident cause. Drawing on the expert testimony of former security service personnel, the report also examines the changing security environment and evaluates the potential responses to the increase of the threat.
Abstract: ICSR’s new paper explores the impact of the Bosnian conflict on the Muslim community in the UK in the 1990s. It argues that the failure of Western governments to intervene during the massacre of Bosnian Muslims caused many British Muslims to question their own security and place within Europe. It also shows how the Bosnian crisis became an important plank in the narrative put forward by a number of Islamist groups. Through this case study, Bronitsky offers a more sophisticated understanding of the relationship between foreign policy and radicalisation.
Abstract: Public opposition to Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan has reached a high point, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.
Only one-in-four respondents believe sending troops to Afghanistan was the right course of action.
Public opposition to Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan has reached a high point, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.
The online survey of a representative national sample of 2,003 British adults also shows that respondents maintain negative views on the likely outcome of the war n Afghanistan.
Prime Minister David Cameron recently presented a package of military budget reductions, which will not affect the current state of affairs in Afghanistan. However, as the months go by, animosity towards the mission and the decision to send troops in the first place continues to mount. Three-in-five Britons both oppose the conflict and believe the government made a mistake in ordering the deployment of soldiers in the first place.
The main gap in public opinion lies in the high level of “strong opposition” to the war, which outranks “strong support” by a 4-to-1 margin.
Abstract: Western jihadi foreign fighters and the bridge figures that help inspire, radicalize, and motivate them pose a significant threat to the security of Western states, and to their counterinsurgency and counterterrorism missions around the globe. Foreign fighters have the potential to bolster insurgent or terrorist factions within a given theatre of conflict, both operationally and motivationally. The intent of this paper is to shed light on and contextualize the complex and volatile phenomenon of foreign fighters, which is of increasing concern to the Western intelligence and law enforcement communities. This paper is not a strict academic treatise designed to provide clear causal arguments. Given the complexity of this issue, such arguments would be difficult at best. Instead, it is a primer on an emergent threat, one crafted in such a manner as to provide a basic understanding of the challenges and opportunities at hand - from the perspective of those entrusted with stopping it.
Abstract: In the last year the military campaign in Afghanistan has taken on a fresh slant as Coalition allies have moved towards counterinsurgency operations that emphasise population security, and have begun drawing up longer term plans to strengthen the capabilities of the Afghan National Security Forces with a view to transitioning security control to the ANSF from the end of 2010 in order that Coalition military forces can begin to withdraw from mid-2011.
As part of that strategy a surge of 30,000 US and 10,000 additional Coalition forces have been deployed to the country in the first half of 2010, which will bring the total ISAF force in Afghanistan to approximately 150,000 personnel by the end of 2010. Following the announcement in July 2010 that 300 additional military personnel would temporarily be deployed to Afghanistan, British forces in the country are expected to total 10,300 personnel.
However, questions are being increasingly asked whether that timetable for transition is too ambitious and whether the Afghan National Security Forces will be capable of effectively taking responsibility for security in the country, thereby allowing Coalition forces to draw down.
Although the military campaign is increasingly being viewed within the context of the wider political and economic strategy for Afghanistan this note does not examine those issues, except where they impact upon the military campaign.
Abstract: Quilliam is the world’s first counter-extremism think tank set up to address the unique challenges of citizenship, identity, and belonging in a globalised world. Quilliam stands for religious freedom, human rights, democracy and developing a Muslim identity at home in, and with, the West. Extremism, a prelude to terrorism, cannot be contained by Muslims alone. Not least because religious rigidity and extremism are products of the failures of wider society to foster a shared sense of belonging and to advance liberal democratic values among all sections of society. That said, we believe a more self-critical approach must be adopted by Muslim leaders to free communities from Westophobic ideological influences, escape social insularity and facilitate the organic growth of Western Islam. Quilliam seeks to challenge what we think, and the way we think. It aims to generate creative thought paradigms through informed and inclusive discussion to counter the Islamist ideology behind terrorism, whilst simultaneously providing evidence-based recommendations to governments for related policy measures.
