Докладчик
Описание
This paper examines the limitations of military approaches to counterterrorism and explores how terrorist organisations can challenge militarily superior state actors. Drawing on the US-led intervention in Afghanistan and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, it identifies three characteristics that enable terrorist organisations to offset conventional military advantages: decentralised organisational structures, ideological mobilisation, and the strategic provocation of disproportionate responses. These characteristics contribute to terrorism’s characterisation as a “wicked problem”, in which military action alone cannot address the underlying political, social, and ideological conditions sustaining terrorist activity. The paper further examines the tensions between military objectives and the principles of legality, legitimacy, morality, and effectiveness, particularly in the context of attacks affecting civilian infrastructure. It argues that the military eradication of terrorism is an infeasible policy objective and advocates a broader counterterrorism approach combining coercive and non-coercive measures. Such an approach should address radicalisation, local grievances, civilian dependence on terrorist organisations, and the social and political conditions that facilitate terrorist mobilisation.
Ключови думи
Counterterrorism; Terrorist Resilience; Operation Enduring Freedom; Gaza
Анотация
This paper deals with the paradoxes of military counterterrorism, focusing on how organisational adaptability, ideological underpinnings, and aggravating nature of terrorist groups render their opponents’ military superiority irrelevant. Using Operation Enduring Freedom and the war in Gaza as case studies, it argues that eradicating terrorism through military means alone is infeasible and calls for approaches addressing the conditions that sustain terrorism.