Risk Management of Terrorism in the UK The issue of designing a risk management strategy for terrorism in the UK is dependent upon understanding and identifying the commensurate risks attendant with the various extremists groups that are perceived as threats to the UK's safety and infrastructural stability. Challenges include adopting an intelligence and surveillance system, educating the public regarding attendant trouble spots (such as retaliatory violence and discrimination as well as purpose of surveillance) and adopting a position in the global network that facilitates the overall mitigation of threats. The benefits are evident in control and prevention results and good practice recommendations are provided in the conclusion. This study gives a contextual assessment of the risks facing the UK, analyzes the components of risk management that can be utilized to alleviate these risks, defines the term "terror," examines the historical challenges that coincide with these components, and discusses the benefits of implementing these components. It concludes with a summation of the assessment as well as recommendations for future initiation.

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Contextual Assessment 4

Components of Risk Management 5

Understanding Terror 5

Challenges 7

Benefits of Good Practice 8

Conclusion 10

Recommendations 11

References 13

Risk Management of Terrorism in the UK

Introduction

The UK is under threat from both domestic and foreign terrorism (Wilkinson, 2007). A proper risk assessment would show that the concept of terrorism is itself a dynamic term which finds unique expression with various factions spread throughout the world and in the UK. From animal rights extremists to the IRA to al-Qaeda and ISIS, threats are manifest in myriad sectors. Not only do these threats need to be understood on a cultural level in order to better educate the public and the government as to how to identify them and how to prevent them from leading to violence, but they also need to be understood on a technical level. In an age of total war, when warfare is taken to civilian populations and conducted against populaces instead of against armies in the battlefield, the need to properly assess risk levels and determinants is essential. The aim and purpose of this study is to provide a conceptual framework for managing the risk and threat of terrorism in the UK from both domestic and foreign enemies.

The framework for responding to terrorism at the national level in the UK is based not on reaction but on prevention. If reaction is synthesis of strategic planning and preparation, the mitigation of risk is not the objective but simply a coordination of disaster relief methods. Risk management is about preventing and/or limiting risk. To this end, some of the key explanatory aspects of the strategic management of terrorism at the national level aim at understanding the risk. The UK has years of experience in dealing with both domestic and foreign terrorist threats. Going back to The Troubles in Northern Ireland in the latter half of the 20th century, the lessons learned may be applied to the critical assessment needed today. The collection, analysis, and sharing of intelligence in order to combat the enemy was part of the understanding strategy.

Other key explanatory aspects include the deterrence and disruption of enemy operations, protection against terrorist networks (capabilities, actors, conduct), the prevention of the spread of terrorism and extremism (curbing radicalization processes), and interaction with communities so as to better monitor and establish the protocols listed above. These key aspects serve as the framework for the risk management of terrorism in the UK. A closer examination of these protocols will be discussed in the following sections of the main body: First, the Contextual Assessment will give an overview of the various risks that the UK faces. Second, the Components of Risk Management

Contextual Assessment

The context in which this profile of risk management is situated is global in nature, not just domestic or national, though the effect felt in the UK is national and a threat to national interests abroad. In terms of contextualizing the threat, however, it has to be understood in all of its segments. The threat of violent Wahabbist terrorism (descended from the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, transferred to Saudi Arabia, then to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and now taking control of Syria's oil supply within the ISIS framework) is a complex system that is supported and funded by foreign governments and agencies. Both Turkey and Saudi Arabia are believed to be players in this funding and in the propagation of literature, it is estimated that Western agencies are supportive.

Other threats...

There is also the threat of violent radicalism in other spheres, such as among animal rights activists, environmental activists, and other socio-anarchic groups which advocate the fall of government. Each of these groups represents a significant risk to the UK's social, political, and economic infrastructure in the 21st century (Forst, Greene, Lynch, 2011).
Components of Risk Management

Risk identification is the strategy of identifying the factors that present risk and/or threats to UK security and stability among these diverse groups and ranking them in terms of severe or mild. This ties into risk analysis and risk evaluation, both of which look to establish the nature of the threat and its likely manifestation. Risk treatment is the strategy of contending with these threats and mitigating or limiting them, while risk reporting, monitoring and review each deal with intelligence gathering, collecting and analyzing.

At the same time there is the need to apprehend the ways in which guarding against terroristic threats is like guarding against disaster and what this means for UK society as a whole, which feels the impacts of any application or lack thereof of risk management strategy. The social repercussions of any implementation are not to be dismissed as irrelevant; on the contrary, there can develop over time a very vocal and critical response to any method adopted by the government, as was seen throughout The Troubles. Therefore, is important to include in the understanding of terrorism the expectations of the public, since the risk management is ultimately designed to safeguard it.

Understanding Terror

Since 9/11 the ways in which the term "terror" raises flags have shown to be more diverse and amplified than in the decades that preceded (HM Government, 2011). The ceaseless coverage by mainstream media of all things terror-related (and the numerous networks devoted to supplying viewers with non-stop updates on "terror" threats emanating from both within the state and without) may well be categorized as hysterical if it were not for the fact that a great majority of the public appears to be desensitized to modern hysteria. What is the reality of "terrorism"? Dombrowsky's "view that disaster is not and never was a reality and that it is a word that describes something we perceive within the space and time we observe" may equally apply to a view of "terrorism" if we consider the fact that "terrorism" received a gigantic connotative meaning in the wake of 9/11 (Jigyasu, 2005, p. 111).

Indeed, guarding against terrorism in the 21st century has become in many ways like guarding against "disaster." Yet, the sociological aspects of confronting "terrorism" may be deeper than developing a mere risk management strategy. Indeed, Dombrowsky contends that "terrorism" is a term that needs to be viewed from a sociological perspective, especially in a post-9/11 world, where media communications lend "terror" and "disaster" a changing, subjective, and almost mythological significance -- a significance that can be exploited or used damagingly by State regulated institutions and even charitable organizations such as the Red Cross. This is exactly what occurred during The Troubles, when Protestant Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) participated in the same terroristic assassinations as the IRA it was combating, resulting in a negative reaction from the public and censor from the UK administration. Thus, hysteria and overreactions are to be mitigated along with the external threats represented by the terrorist cells. Dombrowsky makes a similar point, as he argues that sociological studies are being marginalized for the preferable viewpoint of pragmatic conceptualizing. If pragmatic conceptualizing opens the doors to policies of retribution on the part of UK agencies, then the risk management framework is decidedly broken. Thus, hysterical reactions need to be monitored and mitigated as well.

Challenges

Challenges often appear in the shape of history repeating itself again. Therefore, numerous lessons can be learned from the UK's war against the IRA in Northern Ireland and the techniques utilized to contain that terrorist group. Kirk-Smith and Dingley (2009), for example, assert that intelligence was and is the main challenge in controlling any war (p. 551). Thus, as can be related to the war against ISIS and the monitoring of other extremist groups within the UK, intelligence and surveillance are keys to success: they require monitoring and simply being aware of what the terrorist organization is and how it operates as well as what it intends to do. Being a step ahead of the organization is the way to overcome this challenge. During The Troubles, the RUC's Special Branch served a significant…