Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis (JTSA)

JTSA Announces Its Call For Papers

The Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis (JTSA) is pleased to announce its 2012 call for papers for our upcoming journal publication, entitled Beyond Terror: Security in the Post-Bin Laden World. The JTSA invites paper submission to be considered for publication in this year’s journal regarding a variety of security topics, such as national or international security, intelligence, counterterrorism, and cyber security. Emphasis relating the political, legal, ethical, economic, or strategic concerns of the above topics and their relation to modern security issues, such as the post Bin-Laden dynamic and its implications, will be given serious consideration for submission.

Submission Deadline: January 5, 2013

Visit the Journal’s brand new website for more information.

“Building a Strategic Culture: Indian Intelligence, Policy and Regional Security, 1962-1972” – Connor McNulty

Note: This paper appeared in the electronic edition of the 6th Volume of the Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis in Spring 2011.

Excerpt
In 1962, there was a breakdown in diplomatic relations between India and China. The conflict that followed was regarded as embarrassing for the India political and military leaders, as they were caught completely off guard, and their intelligence infrastructure was non-existent. For the Indian strategists, this was such a humiliation that India sought to never allow itself to be so vulnerable again. Looking forward nine years, the Indian military infrastructure responded to a Pakistani preemptive strike intended to cripple the Indian Air Force, going on to win air superiority. Additionally, during the fighting itself, many parties involved and outside observers contend that the Indian intelligence network, especially the increasingly notorious Research and Analysis Wing, had armed and mobilized Bangladeshi resistance and enabled Indian forces to bypass Pakistani strong points and utterly dislodge the Pakistani position in what is now Bangladesh. The Sino-Indian War humiliated the Indian military complex, and the policy that evolved from this humiliation was one motivated by a desire to achieve never to be caught off-balance again. This quest for strategic invulnerability resulted in a change in Indian discourse about the subcontinent and the use of “offensive intelligence,” where organizations in India, especially the Research and Analysis Wing, took measures to actively forward their agendas beyond the Indian borders. After this, India’s agenda was no longer discussed in terms of Indian security, but rather regional security, and Indian leaders put forward ambitious plans to position India as a major world power and voice of the subcontinent.

Israeli diplomacy and military scholar Yaacov Vertzberger offers extensive commentary on the factors that led to the war between China and India. Nehru’s understanding of international law appears to have been idealistic. Specifically, he placed great weight on India’s position in Tibet being supported by international law, while China perceived the laws as being rooted in colonialism in the ways that they made specific reference to territory, and as such, only appealed to them when it served their position. Nehru, being a Western educated lawyer, placed faith in the rule and adherence of international law, and took Chinese concessions to the terms of the McMahon line to be tacit acceptance of Indian legitimacy, when in fact China merely saw the acceptance of these terms as part of the political game for which it would receive favor and consideration at a later time.
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Application period for Journal on Terrorism & Security Analysis editorial board is open

The application period to join the editorial board of the Journal on Terrorism & Security Analysis is now open. Please read this document for descriptions of the positions available. All Syracuse University graduate and law students are eligible to apply, including 1Ls.

To apply, please send your resume and a short cover letter stating which positions you are applying for to Tom Schafbuch (tjschafb@syr.edu), Editor-in-Chief, by Friday, September 30, 2011 at 5:00 PM. You must also let Tom know where you will be over winter break and whether you will be in a city with a major research library.

Please feel free to email Tom (tjschafb@syr.edu) if you have any questions about the journal or the application process.

Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis – 6th Volume

Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis

Volume 6 – Spring 2011

Journal Volume 6 Cover

Print copies are available upon request.

Table of Contents

Salient but Unappreciated: Issues in National and International Security and Defense Policy for the Next Decade
Christian Geib

Fire Down Below: How the Underwear Bomber Revealed the U.S. Counterterrorism Community as Hemmed in by the Seams of Legislative Ambiguity
Braden Civins

JUS POST BELLUM: Reflections on the Right Way to End A War
Richard M. O’Meara

Shedding New Light on North Korea’s Nuclear Ambitions
Nellwyn Olson

Cross-Spectrum Similarities Between Violent Non-State Actors
Sean Atkins

An Assessment of the UK Anti-Terrorism Strategy and the Human Rights implications Associated with its Implementation
Emmanouela Mylonaki and Tim Burton

Creating More Turmoil: Why UAV Strikes Will Be Counterproductive in Yemen
William Mayborn

Somali Piracy and the Western Response
Brendon Noto

Cyber-terrorism
Jack Jarmon

Web edition only:
Building a Strategic Culture: Indian Intelligence, Policy and Regional Security, 1962 – 1972
Connor McNulty

Individual articles are available for PDF download by clicking on the above links.

Click here to download the full PDF of the print version of the 6th volume.

6th Volume Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief
Thomas Schafbuch
tjschafb@syr.edu

Assistant Editors
Patrick Vanderpool
Kristina (Energia) Naranjo-Rivera

Senior Associate Editor
Michael Lehmann

Associate Editors
Gary Clark
Egon Donnarumma
Amela Kraja
Brian Riedy
Bo Shoemaker
Daniel DePetris
David Sophrin
Kathryn Theobald

Cover Design Artist
Whitney Parker

The Journal on Terrorism on Security Analysis is a publication of the Student Association on Terrorism & Security Analysis at the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs with the support of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism at Syracuse University.

“Jus Post Bellum: Reflections on the Right Way to End a War” by Richard O’Meara

Note: This paper appeared in the 6th Volume of the Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis in Spring 2011.

Excerpt
There can be no Justice in war if there are not, ultimately, responsible men and women.

If you break it you own it.

Peace is not sought in order to provoke war, but war is waged in order to attain peace. Be a peacemaker, then, even by fighting, so that through your victory you might bring those whom you defeat to the advantages of peace.

War is tough stuff. It is, at the very least, the organized projection of death and mayhem by some group against another, generally for purposes of governance.4 Its justifications are myriad, running the gamut from self-defense, to humanitarian intervention, to national aggrandizement to whim and revenge. And yet, ironically, it is not the most heinous of human activities. As R. J. Rummel has noted in his discussion of democide, the murder of civilians by government agents acting authoritatively:

[I]n total, during the first eighty-eight years of this century [20th century], almost 170 million men, women, and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed, or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed, or killed in any other of the myriad ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners. The dead could conceivably be nearly 360 million people. It is as though our species has been devastated by a modern Black Plague. And indeed it has, but a plague of Power, not germs.

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About the author
Richard M. O’Meara is a retired Brigadier General (USA) and trial attorney who teaches human rights, security issues, and international law in the Division of Global Affairs, Rutgers University. His is also developing a program of study leading to an Associate’s Degree in Homeland Security Studies at Ocean County College, NJ. He has served as a resident fellow at the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership, US Naval Academy and has taught governance and rule of law issues in such diverse locations as Cambodia, Rwanda, Chad, Philippines, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Moldova, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Peru, El Salvador and Iraq. He served as an EMT for the Red Cross in following the 9/11 attack at the World Trade Center.

“Cyber-terrorism” by Jack Jarmon

Note: This paper appeared in the 6th Volume of the Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis in Spring 2011.

Excerpt
The Internet is a critical infrastructure necessary to the functioning of commerce government and personal communication and national security. The system is not secure. – Intelligence and National Security Alliance report, November 2009

In a 2002 report prepared by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jim Lewis, a former official with the Department of State and the Department of Commerce wrote:

The idea that hackers are going to bring the nation to its knees is too far-fetched a scenario to be taken seriously. Nations are more robust than the early analysts of cyberterrorism and cyber warfare gave them credit for. Infrastructure systems [are] more flexible and responsive in restoring service than the early analysts realized, in part because they have to deal with failure on a routine basis.

Six years later, in its 2008 report, Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency, the same CSIS concluded:

Interestingly, the project director for the 2008 report was, again, Jim Lewis. The contrast of analysis is not only striking for its reversal of positions, but also in its tone. The 2008 report called for a profound reorganization of our national defenses that embraces a spirit of partnership between the US Government, its allies, and the private sector. It also urges a break with the past on issues of de-regulation, security classification, and the call for leadership in order to drive forward a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. The authors also concede that the information age has forced us to re-think how federal government operates across boundaries within and outside itself.

How such previous attitudes could have been overturned so radically in a relatively brief span of time reveals more about the dynamic of the information- communication technology (ICT) revolution rather than it does about errors in a particular expert’s analysis. Not only the pace of technology but also the rate of growth and expansion of critical infrastructures, such as government, finance, energy, etc., have intensified our society’s use and dependency upon ICT.
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About the author
Jack Jarmon is the Associate Director of the Command Control and Interoperability Center for Advance Data Analysis at Rutgers University, an adjunct Professor at Seton Hall University and the Chief Research Officer at the New Era Associates. From 2008-2009 he was a lecturer at University of Pennsylvania. He was a technical advisor to USAID in the South Russian Privatization Center. Jarmon got his BA from Rutgers University, an MA from Fordham University and a PhD from Rutgers University. His published piece is one chapter from an upcoming textbook on security studies and international relations.

“Cross-Spectrum Similarities Between Violent Non-State Actors” by Sean Atkins

Note: This paper appeared in the 6th Volume of the Journal on Terrorism and Security Analysis in Spring 2011.

Excerpt
Understanding armed non-state organizations is one of the most pressing concerns in today’s security environment. Whether on the local, state, or international level, violent non-state actors as a whole represent one of the most troubling issues for national security practitioners, and the danger they pose is compounded by their nebulous and elusive natures. As John Robb, a theorist on the evolution of warfare and former special operations pilot, described in his testimony before the US Congress last year:

The threat the US faces today is as dire as the darkest days of the Cold War. In fact, this threat may be even more dangerous because it is so insidious. The threat we face is a combination of global systemic threats … and the rapid emergence of violent non-state groups …

It is also a problem that continues to grow in scope. Terror, insurgent, militia, and criminal groups, equipped with readily available communication and travel technology, have shifted from regional to major strategic challenges. They have increased their “organizational effectiveness, their lethality, and their ability to operate on a truly worldwide scale.”

Further complicating the matter, contemporary researchers have recognized a growing nexus between various types of groups (whether analyzing insurgent groups in Iraq, terrorist groups like Al Qaeda or street in gangs in South America) and increasing similarities in how they operate. These similarities and their increased threat potential urges us to examine the follow-on questions: do deeper similarities exist between these groups and, if so, can the way we deal with one set of groups provide any lessons in dealing with another? Continue reading (PDF)

About the author
Sean Atkins is an active duty officer in the United States Air Force. He has deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, where some of the ideas presented in this article first took shape. He holds a BA with honors from the University of Southern California and an MA with distinction from King’s College London.