Re-Focusing of Counter Terrorism: Mistakes Made by Governments Costing Thousands of Lives September 11, 2001, New York City, April 15, 2013, Boston, November 13, 2015, Paris, France; each of these dates has a profound effect on many citizens around the world. This is because each date is representative of a devastating terrorist attack in which many lives were lost and each city’s nationalism was diminished. Although only major attacks typically come to mind when the word ‘terrorism’ is mentioned, terrorist attacks large-scale and small-scale have been becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society. Terrorist attacks not only take the lives of the innocent, but also citizens’ sense of security in their own countries and cities. Governments across the globe are being faced with the task of implementing counter terrorism tactics that will restore both national security as well as citizen’s sense of nationalism. However, their tactics so far have been proven faulty as terrorist attacks have continued to occur despite governments’ best efforts to deter them. The reason for this is because the aspects of terrorism that governments have focused all their efforts on, like stereotyping terrorists’ physical profiles as well as their claims on religion, are not the true driving factors for an attack. Instead, governments need to be focusing their counter terrorism efforts on deterring attacks by using psychology. They need to analyze the true motivations for a person to ‘radicalize’ in their religion and join terrorist organizations as well as to carry out these violent and devastating attacks. The motivations behind acts of terrorism are psychological and not from religious extremism or nationalism, as the brain is the ultimate deciding factor of all human action.

Terror attacks began in to occur on United States soil around the 1960’s. A terrorist attack is defined as, a surprise attack involving the deliberate use of violence againstcivilians in the hope of attaining political or religious aims.” Although terrorists are said to be motivated by political and religious aims, psychological motivations are ultimately what motivates a person to cause devastation and destruction to others. Many domestic terrorist attacks are not said to be religiously motivated, but instead politically motivated. For example, the Oklahoma City bombing in nineteen-ninety-five was committed by an army veteran Timothy McVeigh, who had served in the Gulf War. McVeigh is said to have been radicalized by shootings between government law enforcement and civilians. Because McVeigh was given an image of an anti-government militant after his attack, people never thought to examine him for psychological disorders such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, which is more common than not in war veterans. Studies have shown that the amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex in a brain with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder are significantly different than those in a human brain without the disorder. The prefrontal cortex in the brain works to help people solve problems and think through complex activities. Because it is likely McVeigh’s prefrontal cortex may have not functioned as a normal person’s, it is likely that as a result he violently protested against the government by committing a terrorist attack. The Oklahoma City bombing is just one domestic terrorist attack; however, history has proven that most domestic terrorists have a psychological disorder which is true motivation behind their violent actions.

People’s psychological motivations to cause harm to themselves and others have always been existent. History has exemplified people’s violent actions towards each other, for example using the guillotine during the French Revolution, or the first use of nuclear bombs at the end of World War II. There are always alternative ways for people to accomplish their ultimate goal of having their voices heard, or punishing others for their actions that were perceived to be wrongful. However, it appears these harsher forms of action are chosen to be used instead. Psychologists, James R. Liddle and Todd K. Shackelford, explain in their article that, “it is ultimately the architecture of our minds that makes such (violent) behavior a possibility.” The psychological motivation to cause harm to others can be attributed to psychological disorders like depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia, as well as feelings of severe isolation. These psychological disorders attribute to the loss of empathy as well as feelings of connection and relation to others. As a result, these violent actions are not necessarily seen as wrong in the eyes of the perpetrator allowing them to commit these horrific acts of terrorism with no remorse. The lack of empathy that has been found in terrorists is staggering, as almost all terrorists proudly share that they have no remorse for their actions following an attack. Paris attacker, Salah Abdeslam, is quoted in a letter that he sent from jail saying, “I am not ashamed of my actions.” Abdeslam is one of many terrorists who has been quoted after an attack stating that no remorse is felt rather they feel pride for their recognition which is given to them by the media.  A former Central Intelligence Agency psychiatrist, Jerrold Post, constructed a psychiatric model for terrorists. The model consists of the Anarchic-Ideologue, and the Nationalist Secessionist, terrorists always fall into one of the two categories. The Anarchic-Ideologue is a group consisting of people who grew up in severely dysfunctional circumstances (malnourishment, abuse, etc.) these people never formed true connections with their parental figures and psychologically feel isolation which then causes them to lash out violently, or join radical groups. The Nationalist Secessionist group consists of people who grew up with extreme loyalty towards their parents and ultimately justify their violent lashing outs with the idea that they are gaining revenge for any wrong that had been done to their parents. While these two groups have specific descriptions, they relate to two different psychological motivations for terrorism. The first, Anarchic-Ideologue, is the group of terrorists who radicalized themselves. Their parents were not pushing them towards any aspect of terrorism, rather the terrorists chose the path in spite of their family. The other group, National Secessionist, consists of terrorists who were born into radicalized families. Rather than realizing that the violence included in the radical beliefs was wrong, terrorists believed what their parents taught them was the truth because of the strength of their relationship. These two groups have completely different psychological reasons for radicalizing and committing attacks, and therefore need to be recognized when developing counter terrorism tactics.  

Terrorist attacks are committed both foreign and domestically. Domestic attacks are often overlooked as the attackers do not fit the typical stereotype that has been given to foreign attackers. In the United States, the stereotype for a terrorist is a middle aged, radical Islamic man who comes from the middle eastern part of the world. Although some attackers do fit this stereotype, it is inaccurately generalized to apply to terrorists as a whole, by both citizens and government officials. This common stereotype has been wrongfully used by the United States government in their efforts to devise counter terrorism tactics. Studies have shown that in airports, people who look as though they are of middle eastern dissent or who are wearing traditional Muslim clothing are searched much more closely and more often than Caucasians. This tactic is faulty because it leaves out a large portion of terrorists who do not fit into the exact stereotype that has been created. As of recently, President Donald Trump is in the process of passing legislation to ban immigration from several Middle Eastern and African countries many of which are bases for the world’s most powerful terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda and ISIS. The problem with this ban is that technology has allowed these organizations to access and recruit members online, without entering the country. The United States also uses the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to spy on people they believe to potentially be terrorists, which is usually determined by their country of origin as well as religion. Here, innocent people’s privacy is infringed upon by the government, and more often than not there is not potential threat. What the United States government, as well as many other governments across the world is missing is the fact that a person’s physicality does not determine their actions, their brain does. 

There are many tactics that can be used to deter terrorism from a psychological aspect. The first is to gain an even better understanding of terrorists and why they feel that it is necessary to commit such destructive and violent acts towards others. The better that terrorists are understood, the easier it will be to counter their acts of terrorism as a whole. Although acts of terrorism differ by where they were committed, why they are claimed to be committed by terrorists themselves, and how they are committed, the attacks are all the same in the fact that psychological motivation is what drives the attackers. In order to gain even better understanding about these motivations and psychological disorders, psychiatric testing needs to be performed on terrorists that are being held in jail after committing their attacks. In addition, mental health resources need to be more easily accessible and the negative connation given to mental disorders needs to be changed so that people are more likely to reach out for help without feeling ashamed. This way people who have a high possibility of radicalizing because of their mental disorder are given the help that they need before they become a threat to themselves and others. Another way to stop people from radicalizing in our own country is to have school systems monitor children more closely, as they typically develop feelings of isolation at an early age. Since terrorist organizations have started to recruit kids and young adults over the internet, schools need to do a better job educating children early on about safe internet use. Terrorist organizations have caught on to the fact that pre-teens are extremely vulnerable as well as easily accessible on the internet which leads to a new and developing threat. If kids fully understand the how toxic these organizations are before they reach an age of vulnerability, they will be less likely to succumb to invitations to radicalize. In conclusion, countries around the world must work together, sharing research information and studies as well as new devised tactics to keep terrorism from spreading. Unfortunately, today many nations’ governments withhold information from one another simply to “get ahead” in a nonexistent competition. Terrorist attacks effect citizens all over the world no matter where they occur, so to help another country increase their national security by sharing tactics is also helping one’s own country. Lastly, the media needs to get on board with the tactic of refusing to recognize terrorists for their attacks, as that is what most terrorists strive for. News agencies feast on terrorist attacks as they provide for many fresh stories. However, the media is giving the attackers and their organizations the recognition that they sought when committing the attack in the first place. Instead of following terrorists as they are prosecuted in courts, news agencies need to refocus their stories to highlight the idea that the citizens where the attack was committed were not torn down as the attackers intended for them to be. Displaying the nationalism that is most often spread after an attack makes terrorists feel as though their attack was unsuccessful. The more people feel that they are unsuccessful at what they are doing, the more likely they are to stop that particular action as persistence can only be held for so long.  In addition, governments need to ignore any contact from the terrorist organization as that is what gives them power

The most important counter terrorism tactic that needs to be implemented is the promotion of national pride and acceptance. The stereotyping of what is believed to be ‘a terrorist’ needs to be put to an end and not encouraged by the government. If people weren’t so zeroed in on only searching and spying on Muslims, then terrorists may be able to be stopped before they cause any harm. Eventually all current members of terrorist organizations will die, however, what keeps these groups functioning and growing is the recruitment of new members as well as the passing on of radicalism to family members. Asylum needs to be granted by all countries to current members of terrorist organizations that do not truly believe in their actions but are too scared to leave, as members who try to escape terrorist organizations are typically beaten or killed. Like stated in Post’s psychiatric model, the root of terrorism comes from children and how they grow up as well as how they learn to perceive the world. Influencing children into realizing that radicalism is unjust will break down today’s existing organizations from the inside out. Although it is naïve to believe that terrorism will one day become completely diminished, it is vital that action is taken to keep it from growing at the rapid speed that it currently is. 

As explained, there are many actions that need to be taken by both governments and citizens across the world to stop terrorism at its source. Efforts need to be refocused from stereotyping and violence to using psychology to stop people from radicalizing against others in the first place. Mental health awareness needs to be spread across the world in order to change its negative connotation and promote people with undiagnosed disorders to receive treatment before they turn violent. Countries must also offer asylum to current members of terrorist organizations that may want out of their organizations but face the danger of being killed or tortured by other members of the organization for essentially “wanting out.” If countries pool their efforts into doing more psychiatric research on terrorists than their counter terrorism tactics will become much more effective. 
