Funding

State sponsors have constituted a major form of funding; for example, Palestine Liberation Organization, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and some other terrorist groups were funded by the Soviet Union. The Stern Gang received funding from Italian Fascist officers in Beirut to undermine the British Mandate for Palestine.

"Revolutionary tax" is another major form of funding, and essentially a euphemism for "protection money". Revolutionary taxes are typically extorted from businesses, and they also "play a secondary role as one other means of intimidating the target population".

Other major sources of funding include kidnapping for ransoms, smuggling, fraud and robbery.

The Financial Action Task Force is an inter-governmental body whose mandate, since October 2001, has included combatting terrorist financing.

Responses to terrorism are broad in scope. They can include re-alignments of the political spectrum and reassessments of fundamental values.

Specific types of responses include:

Targeted laws, criminal procedures, deportations, and enhanced police powers

Target hardening, such as locking doors or adding traffic barriers

Preemptive or reactive military action

Increased intelligence and surveillance activities

Preemptive humanitarian activities

More permissive interrogation and detention policies

The term counter-terrorism has a narrower connotation, implying that it is directed at terrorist actors.

According to a report by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin in the Washington Post, "Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States."

Mass media

Media exposure may be a primary goal of those carrying out terrorism, to expose issues that would otherwise be ignored by the media. Some consider this to be manipulation and exploitation of the media.

The internet has created a new channel for groups to spread their messages. This has created a cycle of measures and counter measures by groups in support of and in opposition to terrorist movements. The United Nations has created its own online counter-terrorism resource.

The mass media will, on occasion, censor organizations involved in terrorism (through self-restraint or regulation) to discourage further terrorism. However, this may encourage organizations to perform more extreme acts of terrorism to be shown in the mass media. Conversely James F. Pastor explains the significant relationship between terrorism and the media, and the underlying benefit each receives from the other.

There is always a point at which the terrorist ceases to manipulate the media gestalt. A point at which the violence may well escalate, but beyond which the terrorist has become symptomatic of the media gestalt itself. Terrorism as we ordinarily understand it is innately media-related.

The fight against terrorism is high on NATO’s agenda. Both the new Strategic Concept¹ and the Lisbon Summit Declaration² make clear that terrorism poses a real and serious threat to the security and safety of the Alliance and its members. NATO will continue to fight this scourge, individually and collectively, in accordance with international law and the principles of the UN Charter. The Alliance will in particular enhance its capacity to deter, defend, disrupt and protect against this threat including through advanced technologies, more consultations with its Partners and greater information and intelligence sharing.

Terrorism is a global threat that knows no border, nationality or religion. It is therefore a challenge that the international community must tackle together. Since the attacks of 11 September 2001, NATO has been actively engaged in the fight against terrorism. In response to those attacks, NATO invoked Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, the Alliance’s collective defence clause, for the first time in its history. The North Atlantic Council (NAC), the Alliance’s principal political decision-making body, decides on NATO’s overall role in the fight against terrorism.

The multifaceted nature of terrorism is such that NATO has engaged in a number of initiatives – political, operational, conceptual, military, technological and scientific – to address this issue. The creation of the Emerging Security Challenges Division within NATO Headquarters in August 2010 reflects NATO’s intent to deal with a growing range of non-traditional risks and challenges, including terrorism, in a cross-cutting manner.

The Alliance contributes to the international community’s fight against terrorism in several ways. First, NATO is a permanent transatlantic consultation forum, capable of transforming discussions into collective decisions and action. Second, NATO has at its disposal unique military and civilian capabilities that can contribute to fighting terrorism or managing the consequences of an attack. Third, NATO cooperates as part of a very large network of partnerships involving other states and international organizations.

Interpol and Counter-Terrorism

Interpol is an international police organization that aims to provide and promote mutual assistance between criminal police authorities within the limits of national laws and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Originally formed in Vienna in 1923, the organization has steadily grown in membership but never substantially changed in form or objectives [1, 7]. Interpol is not a supranational police agency with investigative powers, nor an organization sanctioned by an international governing body such as the United Nations, but a cooperative network formed independently among police agencies in order to foster collaboration and provide assistance in police work across nations. To this end, Interpol links a central headquarters, located in Lyon, France, with specialized bureaus, the so-called National Central Bureaus (NCB), in the countries of participating police agencies. At present, Interpol counts 184 member agencies.