Gwynne Dyer writes about the lessons learned from anti-terrorism and anti-insurgent campaigns from the 1960s-1980s; lessons that may well still be relevant today. His most poignant point being:
The key insight was this: terrorist movements always want you to over-react, SO DON’T DO IT. The terrorists usually lack the popular support to overpower their opponent by force, so they employ a kind of political ju-jitsu: they try to use the adversary’s own strength against him. Most domestic terrorism, and almost all international terrorism, is aimed at provoking a big, stupid, self-defeating response from the target government.
And so we wait and see how the world evolves to deal with this most recent terrorist threat. Whether they heed Gwynne‘s advice or not.
Gwynne Dyer looks at counter terrorism strategies that have worked in the past
