If it seems like every week, there's another terrorist attack – well, you're not wrong. According to one crowdsourcing map, there have been over 500 attacks around the world since the start of 2017, with over 3,500 fatalities. For a period in 2016, ISIS-initiated attacks were occurring, on average, every 84 hours.
Despite improvements in methods and coordination among law enforcement agencies over the past 25 years, they're still hamstrung in a number of ways. With large public gatherings of people becoming more attractive targets for terrorists, what are the best strategies moving forward?
[...] But despite huge budgets and the presence of thousands of added security personnel, it's virtually impossible to prevent a determined terrorist, or guarantee absolute safety. While security efforts for events like the Olympic Games have escalated, terrorists today no longer wait for major events that draw global interest.
[...] The odds are in favor of terrorists. All they have to do is succeed once, no matter how many times they try. For public safety professionals to be fully successful, they have to prevent 100 percent of the terror attempts. It's a number to aspire to, but even the most experienced countries fighting terror – such as Israel and the U.K. – can't measure up to this standard.
[...] These days, it's necessary to consider any place where crowds congregate as vulnerable "soft targets" for the attackers. To better prepare for securing soft targets (and this isn't to say threats against "hard targets," like planes, buildings and infrastructure, have diminished) law enforcement agencies must improve coordination among one another, whether it's via intelligence, information sharing and training. And then there's the need for deconfliction, which refers to avoiding self-defeating behavior – from interagency rivalries and poor communication to insufficient coordination – by people who are on the same side.
[...] Given that there is no way to guarantee complete safety, and that the threat assessment expects more attacks, there are two more elements that ought to receive more attention: community resilience and community policing.
https://theconversation.com/how-can-we-better-protect-crowds-from-terrorism-78443
[Related]:
1996 Atlanta Olympic Games: https://www.britannica.com/event/Atlanta-Olympic-Games-bombing-of-1996
Secure Airport Design: https://skift.com/2016/07/04/how-smart-airport-design-can-make-spaces-more-secure/
Do you agree with this assessment of the security situation ? What do you think could be done to mitigate the effects of such asymmetric warfare ?
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday June 04 2017, @10:34PM (5 children)
Will it really save us? If we just stop buying (or stealing) all their oil. Their economies will collapse and probably drag them all into bloody civil wars. Sure it might be better for us if they kill each other instead of trying to kill us but that might only be temporary.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 04 2017, @11:10PM
Don't worry! We can still join in with random drone assassinations, proxy wars with Iran or Russia. You'll be amazed how expensive it will be!!
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday June 04 2017, @11:21PM
So? Those wars will be "over there", not in western countries. If we don't care about the resources from "over there", why care at all?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @07:25AM
They will have their bloody civil war in their home countries using machine guns, cars, bombs and knifes. Then it will continue with sticks and stones. And then they can try to invade civilized countries with.. sticks and stones. ;)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday June 05 2017, @11:47AM (1 child)
Maybe the Saudis, but the sub-Saharian countries:
1. have plenty of renewables
2. are close enough to Europe to export excess of energy there.
Putin will be pissed off if Europe switches energy providers from Siberian gas to Moroccan/Algerian electricity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday June 05 2017, @01:38PM
Indeed that was in reference to the middle east and the Saudis in particular. If the oil money goes away their entire society will probably crumble. No more bribes to keep everyone pacified.
The problem with Africa is that the continent is in shambles, more or less as there are large differences between countries, but it's not really a reliable source since shit can go down at any moment. Until they pacify their continent or countries they just are not reliable enough to do business with, problem with that is that human rights and such usually get a very low priority as some new glorious leader (ie dictator) takes the reigns. That said a lot of the northern countries are doing okay. Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia seems to be doing fine, Algeria is already supplying southern Europe with natural gas. Libya turned into a shithole after the arabspring and the fall of Gaddafi - Egypt seems to be doing so and so.
Putin will be pissy about anything and everything so that isn't really all that relevant.