Lessons learned from terror attacks: thematic priorities and development since 2001—results from a systematic review

Purpose The threat of national and international terrorism remains high. Preparation is the key requirement for the resilience of hospitals and out-of-hospital rescue forces. The scientific evidence for defining medical and tactical strategies often feeds on the analysis of real incidents and the lessons learned derived from them. This systematic review of the literature aims to identify and systematically report lessons learned from terrorist attacks since 2001. Methods PubMed was used as a database using predefined search strategies and eligibility criteria. All countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) were included. The time frame was set between 2001 and 2018. Results Finally 68 articles were included in the review. From these, 616 lessons learned were extracted and summarized into 15 categories. The data shows that despite the difference in attacks, countries, and casualties involved, many of the lessons learned are similar. We also found that the pattern of lessons learned is repeated continuously over the time period studied. Conclusions The lessons from terrorist attacks since 2001 follow a certain pattern and remained constant over time. Therefore, it seems to be more accurate to talk about lessons identified rather than lessons learned. To save as many victims as possible, protect rescue forces from harm, and to prepare hospitals at the best possible level it is important to implement the lessons identified in training and preparation.

Some Critical Notes on Sri Lankan Muslim Religious Identity Formation, Conservatism, and Violent Extremism

A new wave of attacks by Sinhala-Buddhist extremist elements against the Muslim community in Sri Lanka started following the brutal end of the ethnic civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sinhala-Buddhist-dominated Sri Lanka security forces in 2009. Easter Sunday terrorist attacks in 2019 by some Muslims polarized Sri Lanka and contributed to the compromise of the country’s security. Sri Lankan Muslims often claim they are a peaceful community and thus have no serious interests in violent mobilization. But the evidence would basically contradict Muslims’ claim of a peace-loving community. The Easter Sunday terrorist attacks did not take place in any vacuum. This paper will situate some key developments in the violent mobilization of Sri Lanka during the war against the LTTE. The primary goal of such an attempt is to read the growing religious conservative and violent trends among Muslims between 1977 and 2009. In understanding the growing religious conservative trends, an understanding is attempted to situate a later propensity for violence within the community that would manifest itself with the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. Interviews were conducted with members of the Islamic Dawah organizations and Muslim youth who were formerly associated with violent groups in the Eastern Province to understand the ground reality. The period of 1977–2009 is important as the rise of religious conservatist influences in Sri Lanka mirrors the global transnational influences of Iran and Middle East Petro Dollars, especially Saudi Arabia. The article draws mainly on secondary sources. But to gain a better understanding of the ground reality, we spoke to a few Eastern Muslims between July 2016 and September 2021 at regular intervals.

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.

The transition of insurgent-guerrilla movements to radical terrorist methods of struggle: retrospective features

The realities of modern reality indicate that there are a significant number of unjustified attempts to resolve controversial issues based on the use of force. The article shows the evolutionary processes of the transition of insurgent-guerrilla movements to radical terrorist methods of struggle in the period of 1991-2001 and reveals the reasons for this process. The article analyzes the definition of "international terrorism" in the modern sense, analyzes the characteristic features of international terrorism of the 1990s, the reasons for its spread, new forms of terrorist activity. The following methods were used in the study of the chosen topic: historical-genetic, comparative-historical; problem-chronological, the method of historical modeling. Authors conclude, there is no doubt that all the insurgent-guerilla movements, without exception, pursued their own goals. The most effective way to achieve them at the turn of the century turned out to be precisely terrorist attacks, which, with all the strength of state structures, were not possible to fend off. Thus, terrorism has become a strong weapon in the hands of weak players in the international arena.

Né vittime, né carnefici. Cittadine. Un’analisi pedagogica dei ruoli delle madri nei percorsi di prevenzione alla radicalizzazione violenta e al terrorismo

Phenomenologies of Islamic terrorism, changing processes of radicalization to violence, and the suicide terrorist attacks perpetrated in many European countries, together constitute a complex educational topic. A topic that defies simplistic readings whereby the drawing of sharp boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’, or civilization and barbarism, organizes and reproduces morally reassuring analyses that relieve us of the duty to more thoroughly explore causes and areas of co-responsibility. A combination of pedagogical and gender based analysis can significantly contribute to advancing our knowledge of these phenomena and the related representations, deconstruct the processes underlying them, and inform the design of preventive interventions. More specifically, this article assesses the limitations and risks surrounding women’s role in prevention, also indicating ways in which the positive potential of this role may be explored; it is crucial to avoid re-essentializing the maternal and feminine, while supporting full recognition of women’s status as active and critical citizens

Twenty-First-Century Torture

Immediately following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, members of the George W. Bush administration signaled that current rules regarding intelligence, detention, and interrogation were too confining. With approval from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), the president declared that the Geneva Conventions’ detention and interrogation guidelines would not apply to Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees. The problem with Geneva, administration lawyers argued, was that it would tie interrogators’ hands. The CIA and the military wanted an explicit legal blessing for their interrogation programs. They got it in the form of a series of memos by the OLC and military lawyers, who defined torture in exceedingly narrow terms. The result was “enhanced interrogation,” which the administration claimed did not amount to torture but was still a sufficiently “tough” program to break hardened terrorists.

Reflection on COVID-19 Pandemic and Crisis Management Models in Tourism

The contemporary history of tourism has been shaken by different types of crises as natural disasters, economic crises, terrorist attacks and pandemics, resulting in economic, political and social implications that impact the tourist destination, the volume and direction of tourist flows (Ritchie, 2008; Speakman and Sharpley, 2012). In early 2020, COVID-19 took the world by surprise, causing a worldwide pandemic in just a few months. The dimension of this outbreak coupled to the mobility that characterizes tourism in the 21st century, now raises a need for reflection on the arrising and control of future pandemics. Several models of crisis management in tourism are presented in the scientific literature, however, all of generalist nature. It is urgent to examine and refine the existing crisis management models, since the models already developed have little specificity in the theme of pandemic crisis management in tourism.

Self-Enforcing Collective Counterterror Retaliation

Motivated by recent examples of collective effort on the war on terror, we examine the incentives that retaliation may produce for the endogenous formation of an international counterterror coalition. We show that there are quite reasonable circumstances under which any nation that is a target of a terrorist attack finds it desirable to be a member of the international counterterror coalition, holding the choices of all other nations as given. The incentives to join the coalition are the group-specific benefits from retaliation enjoyed by each coalition member, the relatively lower spillover benefit from retaliation enjoyed by each stand-alone nation, and the inability of pre-emptive measures to avert terrorist attacks. The disincentive to join is the anticipated backlash from retaliation, which targets coalition members only.