The Counter-terrorism Puzzle : A Guide for Decision Makers

The escalation of global terrorism has left populations across the world and decision-makers unprepared.

This book is the first attempt to create a manual of counter-terrorism measures on all relevant operational levels.

The author's main purpose is to give decision-makers the tools to make rational and effective decisions in both preventing and countering terrorism.

The need to contend with terrorism can be found in almost every sphere of life: Security, prevention and suppression of terrorism, legal and ethical dilemmas regarding democratic issues, such as the individual's human rights, intelligence interrogations, the right of the public to know, as well as coping with social, psychological, and media-related issues.

The book deals with all relevant aspects of counter-terrorism and analyzes decision-makers' main dilemmas.

It is based on accumulated experience in the field all over the world, particularly in the State of Israel. The method of presentation is to portray the main dilemmas in each sphere of counter-terrorism - defining the threat and appropriate countermeasures, evaluating intelligence, offensive and defensive action, legal and judicial issues, media coverage, international cooperation - and to analyze them in terms of Israel's accumulated experience, comparing them, in many cases, to the experience of other countries.

The conceptual models used, and the indexed charts appearing at the end of the discussion of each respective dilemma, enable decision-makers to think rationally without outside considerations, and are based solely on cost/benefit considerations, in order to resolve the dilemma most effectively.

This is an essential book in its field. Its professional importance is unrivaled in counter-terrorism, both theoretically and in the scope of its research.

It will be of interest to security professionals, students of counter-terrorism methods and those dealing with the planning and application of foreign policy, and journalists.