New Counter-Terrorism

The present essay discusses New Counter-Terrorism and its basic principles. As a whole, to confront terrorism or choosing a counterterrorism strategy, three distinct approaches can be identified. These three approaches are: criminal, military and intelligence approaches. Both first two approaches are reactive in essence. They can be called to consideration after a terrorist action. While confronting neo-terrorism, including Takfiri terrorism, prevention is prior to reaction. It is because the terrorist activities of these groups are often irreparable. These groups can hardly be demolished due to their jelly structure. So, informational approach is recommended to face and deal with this new form of terrorism. According to this approach, different informational tactics and strategies can be adapted to firstly prevent the formation of the Takfiri groups and secondly to stop them coming to the decision of planning and performing an attack. Although adapting this approach does not lead to rejecting other approaches in new anti-terrorist strategy, it must be considered prior to the other two approaches and both criminal and military approaches must be the continuation of the informational one and not vice versa. So this is called Informational Counter Terrorism or ICT. It must be mentioned that neo counter-terrorism should be active not a passive one. Active counter-terrorism includes steps like: investigation, intelligence gathering techniques, inquiry, infiltration and surveillance.