Brian A Jackson

Whether U.S. terrorism-prevention efforts match the threat continues to be central in policy debate. Part of this debate is whether the United States needs a dedicated domestic counterterrorism intelligence agency. This book examines such an agency's possible capability, comparing its potential effectiveness with that of current efforts, and its acceptability to the public, as well as various balances and trade-offs involved.

U.S. communities depend on reliable, safe, and secure rail systems. Each weekday, more than 12 million passengers take to U.S. railways. This book explains a framework for security planners and policymakers to guide cost-effective rail-security planning, specifically for the risk of terrorism. Risk is a function of threat, vulnerability, and consequences. This book focuses on addressing vulnerabilities and limiting consequences.

Develops approaches for assessing asymmetric attacks using cruise missiles or unmanned aerial vehicles, a novel potential threat to homeland targets, in the context of other options available to terrorist actors and for identifying the factors that might make these technologies attractive to adversaries. These approaches provide the basis for exploring defensive options.

Examines how terrorists make technology choices and how the United States can discourage terrorists' use of advanced conventional weapons. Concludes that the United States should urgently start discussions with key producer nations and also decide on an architecture needed to impose technical controls on new mortar systems that should enter development soon.

Terrorist groups - both inside and outside the al Qaeda network - sometimes form mutually beneficial partnerships to exchange "best practices." Operation Enduring Freedom and the global war on terrorism forced many members of al Qaeda to disperse, while like-minded terrorist groups have formed regional alliances and other terrorist groups that are not linked ideologically have formed mutually beneficial partnerships. Understanding these interactions is essential to ongoing and future efforts to counter terrorist threats. This volume examines how eleven terrorist groups in three distinct areas (Mindanao, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and southwest Colombia) have attempted to exchange technologies and knowledge. The authors chose case studies in regions where terrorist groups are highly capable, thus the technologies and exchange processes are weighed toward success and should be of significant concern to the U.S. national security community. The authors examine a variety of technologies and exchange processes, ranging from remote-detonation devises to converted field ordnance to katyusha rockets.The authors' conclusions relate to improving threat assessments, disrupting innovation processes, and affecting terrorist groups' cost-benefit analyses. This volume should be of interest to homeland security policymakers, the national security community, as well as academics, students, and professionals in counterterrorism, homeland security, and organizational learning.

Understanding how terrorist groups learn may aid in developing strategies to combat terrorist activities Better ways are needed to understand how terrorist groups become more effective and dangerous. Learning is the link between what a group wants to do and its ability to actually do it; therefore, a better understanding of group learning might contribute to the design of better measures for combating terrorism. This study analyzes current understanding of group learning and the factors that influence it and outlines a framework that should be useful in present analytical efforts and for identifying areas requiring further study.

This book includes case studies of the organizational learning activities of five major terrorist groups and a methodology for ascertaining what and why they learned.

Focuses on the nation's emergency management infrastructure and prioritises a future research and development portfolio for thwarting potential terrorist bio-attacks against U.S. livestock and related produce. Motivated by the growing threat of terrorism to the nation's homeland, the Office of Science and Technology, in conjunction with the RAND Science and Technology Policy Institute, organized and convened a Blue Ribbon Panel in early December 2003 to prioritize a future research and development agenda for combating biological acts of agro-terrorism directed against U.S. livestock and related produce. This report contains the papers submitted for the two-day conference, provides an overview of the findings and recommendations of the forum's breakout groups, and discusses the wider threat contingencies related to agro-terrorism.