A CIVIL DEFENSE AGAINST TERROR

• Published in: Terrorism and Disaster: New Threats, New Ideas Vol. 11; pp. 7 - 17
• Main Author: Rodriguez, Orlando
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01.01.2003
• ISBN: 9780762310432; 076231043X
• ISSN: 0196-1152
• DOI: 10.1016/S0196-1152(03)11002-2

Terrorism’s political strategy is to force the State to accept social or political change by inciting fear among civilian sectors of a population, while attempting to gain sympathy from other civilian sectors whose interests terrorists claim to represent. Usually, the civilian recipients of terror see themselves as defenseless without the State’s intervention, and they view counter-terrorist policy as being in the province of the State. Policy analysts tacitly or explicitly share this view. In reality, civilian involvement could improve the effectiveness of counter-terrorist policy. To illustrate this, I discuss three issues around which citizen groups have organized and are making an impact on public opinion and policy in the aftermath of September 11th, 2001: public safety, particularly the Indian Point, New York, nuclear plant; learning from mistakes by government intelligence agencies in order to prevent future attacks; and rejection of war and violence as responses to terror.