Protecting Whiteness: Counter-Terrorism, and British Identity in the BBC’s Bodyguard

This article uses Bodyguard to trace the ways that whiteness is represented in counter-terrorism TV and so draw the links between whiteness, counter-terrorism and culture. It argues that Bodyguard offers a redemptive narrative for British whiteness that recuperates and rearticulates a British white identity after/through the War on Terror. As such it belongs to a later genre of counter-terrorism TV shows that move on from, but nonetheless still propagate, the discursive foundations of the ongoing War on Terror. This reading of Bodyguard is itself important, as popular culture is a site where much of the British population made and continues to make sense of their relationship to the UK during the War on Terror, forging often unspoken ideas about whiteness. It affords the opportunity to draw out the connections between whiteness and counter-terrorism, connections that need further scholarly attention to fully understand the complex relationships between security and race.

Terrorist Attacks in Western Europe: A Counter-Terrorism Medicine Analysis

Background: The modern concept of terrorism has its roots in the “old continent” of Western Europe, more specifically in France, during the “Reign of Terror” period of the French Revolution. At the time, this form of state terror had a positive connotation: it was a legitimate means of defending the young state. While no single accepted definition of terrorism exists today, it is universally considered an attack on both state and society. The health care impacts of terrorist attacks often extend disproportionally beyond the casualty toll, but the potential for such events to induce mass casualties remains a concern to Disaster Medicine and Counter-Terrorism Medicine (CTM) specialists. Method: Data collection was performed using a retrospective database search through the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). The GTD was searched using the internal database search functions for all events which occurred in Western Europe from January 1, 1970 - December 31, 2019. Years 2020 and 2021 were not yet available at the time of the study. Primary weapon type, country where the incident occurred, and number of deaths and injured were collated. Results were exported into an Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft Corp.; Redmond, Washington USA) for analysis. Results: A total of 15,306 events were recorded in Western Europe out of a total of 201,183 events world-wide between the years 1970 and 2019 inclusive. This resulted in a total of 5,548 deaths and 17,187 injuries. Explosives were used as a primary weapon/attack modality in 8,103 attacks, followed by incendiary attacks in 3,050 events and firearm use in 2,955 events. The use of chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons was rare and only accounted for 47 events. Conclusion: From 1970 through 2019, 9.11% of all terrorist attacks occurred in Western Europe. Compared to global trends of attack methodologies in the same study period, the use of explosives as a primary attack modality in Western Europe was similar (52.94% in Western Europe versus 48.78% Global). Firearm use was comparatively low (19.31% versus 26.77%) and the use of CBRN as an attack modality was rare (0.30% versus 0.20%). The United Kingdom, Spain, and France accounted for over 65% of all terrorist attacks and over 75% of terrorism-related deaths in Western Europe.

Winning the War on Terror

From the perspective of counter-terrorism strategies, terrorist risk assessment has become an important approach for counter-terrorism early warning research. Combining with the characteristics of known terrorists, a quantitative analysis method of active risk assessment method with terrorists as the research object is proposed. This assessment method introduces deep learning algorithms into social computing problems on the basis of information coding technology. We design a special "Top-k" algorithm to screen the terrorism related features, and optimize the evaluation model through convolution neural network, so as to determine the risk level of terrorist suspects. This study provides important research ideas for counter-terrorism assessment, and verifies the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed scheme through a number of experiments, which greatly improves the efficiency of counter-terrorism early warning.

Terrorism Eradication in ASEAN Countries: Human Rights Perspective

This research aims to discuss ASEAN counter-terrorism policy and its impact on human rights protection. The terrorism act of Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, the spread of terrorism in Indonesia by JAT and JAD, and the rebellion movement in Pattani-Thailand are the most heard of terrorism cases in Southeast Asian countries. The research focused on the regulatory through comparative approaches. The result found that ASEAN has an agreement known as ASEAN Convention on Counter-Terrorism (ACCT) for combating terrorism. ACCT implementation in national legal regulations of ASEAN members in the midst of the spread of terrorism plays a crucial role in combating terrorism and its impact on human rights protection. However, the effort of eradicating terrorism in Southeast Asian countries is not in line with the principles of peace and regional integrity. The practice of authoritarianism and militarism has instead become most prominent as a result of perpetuating militarism-based legal regulations in resolving terrorism. Efforts for combating terrorism in Southeast Asia, therefore, leave a serious problem regarding the protection of human rights, the issue of impunity, attacks on civil society, and the involvement of the military which threatens territorial integrity. Those are at cross purposes with ACCT policies as well as national sovereignty, integrity, and security of ASEAN members. (Penelitian ini bertujuan membahas kebijakan anti-terorisme ASEAN dan dampaknya terhadap perlindungan hak asasi manusia. Aksi terorisme Abu Sayyaf di Filipina, penyebaran terorisme di Indonesia oleh JAT dan JAD, serta pemberontakan di Pattani-Thailand adalah kasus-kasus terorisme terpopuler yang terjadi di Asia Tenggara. Penelitian ini fokus pada peraturan perundang-undangan dengan pendekatan komparatif. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa ASEAN memiliki kesepakatan yang disebut Konvensi ASEAN tentang Kontra-Terorisme (ACCT) untuk memerangi terorisme. Penerapan ACCT dalam peraturan hukum nasional negara anggota ASEAN di tengah maraknya aksi terorisme sangat penting dalam upaya pemberantasan terorisme dan dampaknya terhadap perlindungan hak asasi manusia di ASEAN. Akan tetapi dalam praktiknya, pemberantasan terorisme di ASEAN masih belum sejalan dengan prinsip perdamaian dan keutuhan kawasan. Praktik otoritarianisme dan militerisme justru menjadi praktik paling menonjol yang dilakukan oleh negara-negara di ASEAN seiring dengan langgengnya regulasi hukum berbasis praktik militerisme dalam menyelesaikan kejahatan terorisme. Pemberantasan terorisme di Asia Tenggara menyisakan masalah serius terkait perlindungan hak asasi manusia, isu impunitas, serangan terhadap masyarakat sipil, dan keterlibatan militer yang mengancam integritas teritorial. Isu-isu tersebut bertentangan dengan Kebijakan ACCT serta kedaulatan, integritas nasional, dan keamanan anggota ASEAN.)

Situated Testimony: Forensic Architecture’s Memory Objects

“Forensic Architecture” describes both the research agency, founded in 2011, as well as its investigative method and aesthetic practice. As an emerging discipline, forensic architecture exploits the relation between space, material, and memory. My aim in this article is to consider how the agency’s “memory objects”—aestheticized virtual renderings of their investigations—operate as testimonial objects, evidentiary archives, and simulated sites of conscience. I attend to one “memory object” in particular, a film titled “Drone Strike Investigation Case no. 2: Mir Ali, North Waziristan, 4 October 2010; The Architecture of Memory,” an investigation which the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism and Human Rights commissioned Forensic Architecture to undertake. This article suggests that this virtual “memory object” troubles the status of both the human witness and the physical landscape to which it refers.

Schengen Borders and Multiple National States of Emergency: From Refugees to Terrorism to COVID-19

The re-introduction of intra-Schengen state border controls has been a constant feature of the area since the abolition of those controls in 1995. The seriousness of the controls introduced and the justifications which have been put forward for them have varied substantially. At the moment there are three overlapping regimes of temporarily reintroduced border controls in the area: those reintroduced to counter terrorism, those reintroduced to counter so-called secondary movements (the movement of people seeking international protection within the Schengen area) and those introduced to counter the spread of COVID-19. The article examines the three frameworks of temporary controls, the justifications provided by states using them for their operation, and the response of the EU institutions.

PERSEPSI MAHASISWA TERHADAP SOLIDARITAS SOSIAL DAN INTEGRASI BANGSA (Survei Kualitatif Pada Mahasiswa FISIP Universitas Lampung)

Researches conducted by the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) and the Indonesian National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) have revealed that students in some of the major universities in Indonesia have become potentially radical. This study aims to: (a) find out students' perceptions on social solidarity; (b) understand the student perceptions on national integration; (c) analyze the potential of being radical among the students. We conducted a qualitative survey to analyze the student’s perception of radicalism, social integration, and national integration. The study results show that: first, the majority of informants have a positive perception toward social solidarity to their fellow citizens in the community who have a different social, cultural, religious, ethnicity and language background. Second, the majority of informants have a very positive perception of national integration. Third, there is no indication of increasing radical behavior among FISIP University of Lampung’s students.

Seeing reason or seeing costs? The United States, counterterrorism, and the human rights of foreigners

It is well known that in the wake of 9/11, the United States committed various extraterritorial human rights violations, that is, human rights violations against foreigners outside of its territory. What is less known is that the United States has gradually introduced safeguards that are, at least on paper, meant to prevent its counter-terrorism policies from causing harm to foreigners abroad or, at least, to mitigate such harm. Based on three case studies on the development of safeguards related to torture, targeted killing, and mass surveillance, we show that two mechanisms, coercion and strategic learning, deployed either on their own or in combination, can account for the development of such safeguards. By contrast, we found no evidence of a third mechanism, moral persuasion, having any direct effect. In other words, US policymakers opt to introduce such safeguards either when they face pressure from other states, courts, or civil society that makes immediate action necessary or when they anticipate that not introducing them will, at a later date, result in prohibitively high costs. We did not find evidence of US policymakers establishing safeguards because they deemed them morally appropriate. From this we conclude that, although the emerging norm that states have extraterritorial (and not just domestic) human rights obligations may not have been internalized by key US policymakers, it nevertheless has a regulative effect on them insofar as the fact that relevant others believe in the norm restricts their leeway and influences their cost–benefit calculations.