Sansad TV Perspective: Countering Terrorism

In the series Sansad TV Perspective, we bring you an analysis of the discussion featured on the insightful programme ‘Perspective’ on Sansad TV, on various important topics affecting India and also the world. This analysis will help you immensely for the IAS exam, especially the mains exam, where a well-rounded understanding of topics is a prerequisite for writing answers that fetch good marks.

In this article, we feature the discussion on the topic: ‘Countering Terrorism’.

Anchor: Vishal Dahiya

Participants:

1. Maj Gen Dhruv C. Katoch (Retd.), Director, India Foundation
2. Prof. Harsh V. Pant, Vice President, Studies and Foreign Policy, ORF
3. Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, Foreign Affairs Editor, Hindustan Times

Highlights of the Discussion: 

• Introduction-Highlights of the meet.
• Delhi Declaration
• Significance of this meet
• Challenges posed by emerging technologies and their use by terrorists.
• Way Forward- Efforts to address these challenges.

Context:  India recently  hosted UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee’s two-day special conclave which was attended by representatives of all 15 UNSC members.

Introduction: 

• The UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee called on member-countries to ensure “zero tolerance” towards terrorist activities and vowed to deal with the scourge more vigorously at the end of its two-day meet in India.
  • It was established by United Nations Security Council resolution 1373 which was adopted unanimously on 28th September 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks in the US.
  • This will be the first such meeting of the UNSC-CTC in India since its establishment in 2001. 
  • The Permanent Representative of India to the UN serves as the Chair of the CTC for 2022.
• The meeting was attended by representatives of 15 member countries of the UN Security Council and global counter-terror experts.
• Meeting saw the adoption of the “Delhi Declaration” which lists the Council’s priorities in combating the challenge of terrorism and terror-financing.
  • The declaration aims to cover the main concerns surrounding the abuse of drones, social media platforms, and crowdfunding, and create guidelines that will help to tackle the growing issue
• Highlighting terror threats from the use of emerging technologies Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said terrorism is still one of the gravest threats to humanity. 
• With China blocking the listing of five Pakistan-based terrorists in recent weeks, Jaishankar and his US counterpart also raised the issue of listing planners of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
• Drawing parallels between the 2008 Mumbai attacks and 2005 London suicide bombings, British Foreign Secretary called on the international community to starve terror groups of financing.

Significance of the meet:

• The meeting focuses on three significant areas:
  • The use of the internet and social media, 
  • Terrorism financing and new payment mechanism and 
  • Unmanned aerial systems (UAS), including drones. 
• This provides opportunities to discuss existing and evolving threats, the deployment of new and emerging technology to counter these threats, continuing challenges and good practices.
• These forums facilitate sharing “existing good practices in legislative, policy, and regulatory responses, industry activities, public-private partnerships, and compliance with international human rights law.
• Global cooperation can strengthen engagement and cooperation in countering the use of new and emerging technologies by terrorists and their financiers. 

Challenges posed by emerging technologies and their use by terrorists:

• Innovations in computing and telecommunications—like widespread internet access, end-to-end encryption, and virtual private network (VPN) have made new types of operations possible for a higher number of radicalised individuals.
• Various terrorist organistaions have capitalized on the new technologically driven landscape by remotely inspiring and directing attacks.These operations require little training or tactical planning.
• End-to-end encrypted messengers like WhatsApp and Telegram help their users’ privacy by scrambling data. In terrorist applications, these encrypted messaging services allow for unprecedented operational security, limiting law enforcement’s ability to view or disrupt these communiques.
• Risks and threats posed by the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for terrorist purposes has grown rapidly in recent years. 
• Innovations in financial technologies such as crowd funding platforms present a risk of being misused for terrorist-financing.

Way Forward:

• International cooperation and dedicated action against terrorists and their sponsors is neccesary to combat terrorism.
  • UN  efforts must be coordinated through collaboration with other international forums like the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). 
  • There should be a transparent and effective functioning of the UNSC sanctions regime, to ensure objective and evidence based proposals for listing terrorist groups which  should not be rendered ineffective for political reasons.
• The Committee stressed the need to effectively counter terror groups like ISIL, also known as Daesh, and Al-Qaeda, and other organisations and foil their attempts to incite and recruit others to commit terrorist acts.
• The committee emphasised the need for member-states and CTED (Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate) to continue cooperation with the private sector and civil society for more effective means to counter the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes.
• Terrorism should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilization or ethnic group, and the member-states shall  continue their efforts towards the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.

Read all the previous Sansad TV Perspective articles in the link.

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