This blog is a forum for Discussion among faculty and students from Loyola University of Chicago School of Social Work and Vytautas Magnus University, Schools of Social Work and Public Administration.
Who are the terrorists in your own country? Think about what Post says, and what Zimbardo says, about how to prevent violent extremism and acts of evil, and briefly describe a social work intervention to mitigate the terrorism.
The current state of the Lithuanian state in the international security system is favorable because many states of the world generally recognize and respect the independence of the Republic of Lithuania, stable economy, friendly relations with neighbors, successful integration of minorities into Lithuanian society and integration into global and Western institutions He became a member of NATO on 29 March 2004 and a member of the EU on 1 May 2004). In the current period, most of the traditional and new challenges to Lithuania's national security are international in nature. One of them is terrorism. It is universally acknowledged and, moreover, evidenced by global events that terrorism is considered a global phenomenon. Consequently, terrorism and globalization as phenomena are closely linked, since the main consequence of globalization in the field of security is the internationalization of the factors determining states' national security and stability. It has to be said that globalization poses non-military challenges, threats and threats to national security, to which individual states are incapable of responding effectively. International phenomena such as terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking and illegal migration are crossing national borders and are becoming challenges, threats and threats to international security. It is the likelihood that such threats and threats will spread. As Lithuania becomes more integrated into the world community, it is necessary to take measures to prevent the country becoming a place of terrorist acts or a terrorist transit corridor. All measures used in the field of national security of the State of Lithuania are called counter-terrorism measures. The following stages of counterterrorism (or terrorist control) can be distinguished: (a) prevention of terrorism, (b) eradication of a terrorist act, (c) investigation of a terrorist act. It is stated that various state institutions participate in the implementation of these terrorism control measures, which take the necessary measures to prevent the occurrence of terrorism in Lithuania. It is no mistake to state that the state of Lithuania focuses on the prevention of terrorism in the fight against terrorism. In this sense, prevention of terrorism means the implementation of measures by public authorities to prevent terrorism, the prevention of the spread of terrorism and its favorable circumstances, the assessment of terrorist threats, education of the public and promotion of co-operation with law enforcement authorities. Measures for the prevention of terrorism may include the activities of operational and intelligence services aimed at protecting the security of the person, the public and the State against external terrorist threats, by applying operational, special and other methods. After reading the articles, I notice that when a terrorist attack occurs in the world, the terrorists tend to be Muslims. Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but in my mind, the idea is, "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." Such a statement could be used to describe the views of a large group of Westerners about Muslims and about terrorism. Concerning Lithuania, I am glad that such a small country of ours is united with other states and seeks to prevent terrorist attacks.
1. Michael W Doyle, Nicholas Sambanis. The American Political Science Review. Menasha: Dec 2000. Vol. 94, Iss. 4; pg. 779, 23 pgs 2. Diržytė A., Patapas A. Terorizmo sociopsichologiniai ypatumai // Jurisprudencija: mokslo darbai, 2003. T. 38 (30). 3. Vysockienė L. Prieglobstis ir terorizmas: pabėgėlių teisių apsaugos problemos kovojant su terorizmu // Jurisprudencija: mokslo darbai, 2003. T. 44 (36). 4. Gutauskas A., Kalesnykas R., Terorizmas ir jo prevencijos Lietuvoje problema, 2004.
I agree with Dileta that in Lithuania, the Department of State Security protects against terrorism, which ensures state security in case of terrorist incidents, which prevents the development of terrorist activities in Lithuania. There are also 2 security departments in Lithuania that respond to possible communications in Lithuania.
By linking Lithuania's destiny Europe, we are also responsible for the future of Europe, which may be influenced by modern terrorism and the nature of the fight against it. this issue is also relevant because of the direct and fundamental link between terrorism and the fight against terrorism, which has been and continues to be the fundamental value orientation of Western civilization. Although Lithuania has not experienced any real terrorist threats, this does not mean that they could be more attractive to those who carry out these attacks. Especially as all terrorist attacks are getting more and more difficult to cure, the countries of the European Union have been executed. Terrorism is still considered a major threat to states and society. The activities of security-related authorities should therefore be strengthened and the public should be made more aware not only of terrorist attacks but also of ways and means of protection in the event of danger. Social instruments in the fight against terrorism are linked to the development of civil society, access to information, reduction of unemployment and poverty. Social measures are aimed at reducing the number of people joining terrorist organizations due to social disadvantages. Executing social programs requires significant financial resources and non-corrupt promoters. In addition, the positive results of social programs are not immediately visible, highly dependent on the economic situation in the country. The use of social instruments is a necessary but extremely complex process. With regard to the international fight against terrorism, it should be noted that the Member States of the European Union, including Lithuania, are committed to combating terrorism together and to ensuring the best possible protection for their citizens. Literature : http://www.santaka.info/?sidx=40983 Bardauskaitė, D. (2011). Kovos su terorizmu priemonės: al Qaedos atvejis. Politikos mokslų almanachas, (10), 143-162. Vaišvila, A. (2005). Terorizmas ir kova su terorizmu–dvi grėsmės žmogaus teisėms (metodologinis aspektas). Jurisprudencija, 68(60), 11-19.
Great post Stella! It is true that a country such as Lithuania should also hold accountability in being a part of Europe’s future with influences regarding terrorism and appropriate responses to it. The continued barriers and directions taken with the exposures of terrorist threats and attacks are definitely challenging, moreover demanding to have the European Union and/or beyond to respond with security. As communities and societies are becoming aware and important to be more aware of terrorism, there has be a balanced measure of protection towards them. Further actions of education with successful utilization of resources in social-economic barriers, will prevent recruitment and as you again mentioned social disadvantages or isolation of individuals. Overall, your explanation of having the distinguishability and reflection of social programs to be promoted in successful implementation of enact necessary interests and challenges to improve quality of care to life.
The Department of State Security of the Republic of Lithuania and the Second Department of Operational Services under the Ministry of National Defense evaluated events, processes and trends that have the greatest impact on the national security of the Republic of Lithuania. In the 2019 National Security Threat Assessment Report, they identified the threat to national security for the next six months as unlikely, and for the next two years as undeniable. The State of Lithuania has assumed and fulfills all international obligations in the field of prevention and control of terrorism. Events on 1991 of January 13, the attack in Medininkai border crossing point on 1991 of July 31 we can attribute to terrorist attacks. However, there has been no record of terrorist attacks in Lithuania in the last decade. The main threat to Lithuania's security at the moment was Russia and its aggressive activities in the Euro-Atlantic neighborhood of Lithuania: attempts to influence the internal processes of Western democracies, the use of chemical weapons against a former Russian intelligence officer, aggressive cyber operations both from Russia and Europe. Also in Lithuania, as in other NATO and EU countries, China's intelligence and security services are becoming more aggressive as China's economic and political ambitions grow. In order to obtain information of interest, Chinese intelligence is trying to recruit Lithuanian citizens. Overcoming terrorism is one of NATO's strategic tasks. Security services and scientists are actively involved in this mission and in the development of anti-terrorist policies. Scientists analyze the phenomenon of terrorism from political, economic, legal, historical, sociopsychological points of view. The purpose is to determine why some individuals become terrorists, what their psyche is and how they can be effective in combating terrorism I agree with the opinion expressed by Jerold M. Post that we do not fully know the psychology of terrorist. To discourage terrorists from engaging in terrorist attacks, we need to understand what compels them to do so? Most of terrorists are not psychopaths, they are normal mental states with clear group, organizational and social psychology and collective identity. According to the author, terrorism differs in its structure and dynamics and therefore the policy of terrorism should be adapted. Post emphasizes that terrorists cannot be forced not to commit terrorist attacks. Anti-terrorism policies should be directed at the head of state and government. The post emphasizes that in order to prevent the escalation of terrorism, much attention must be paid to marginalized and vulnerable youth. Social work with families and children can be helpful in this area. To educate youth, this would reduce the number of potential terrorists joining terrorist groups. Another way is to create tension and pressure within the group. It is also important to be able to withdraw from a terrorist group through amnesty programs and so on. Minimize support for the group and its leader in every possible way. Educate the public that terrorist killers, which are damaging the economy and society as a whole, not cultural heroes, are announcing an amnesty program that allows terrorists to return to an earlier life. Analyzing the political decisions of states that have an emotionally traumatic, negative impact on the lives of certain social or ethnic groups can predict the security of the states themselves, making peace policy, a genuine respect for human rights by the state and every member of society. Fighting terrorism is not a quick process, but an effective way to reduce it. Literature: 1. Post.J. M, The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism. 2. Diržytė A., Patapas A. Terorizmo sociopsichologiniai ypatumai // Jurisprudencija: mokslo darbai, 2003. T. 38 (30). 3. https://www.vsd.lt/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2020-Gresmes-LT-.pdf 4. Gutauskas A., Kalesnykas R., Terorizmas ir jo prevencijos Lietuvoje problema, 2004.
First I'll mention that while answering this question I've mentioned some terrorist groups as they are accepted by the government of Turkey and based on the literature. Therefore, not all the Kurdish or Marksist people are necessarily have to be terrorist. Respect to all my colleagues from any ethnic groups and ideologies.
Current terrorism in Turkey has its roots in the 1960s. For instance, between 1978 and 1982, 43.000 terrorist incidents were recorded. And these attacks were done by three main groups: Kurdish separatism, Radical Islamism and Marxism(Rodoplu, 2003). I’ll explain 1) Kurdish separatism and 2) Marxism in detail.
The PKK(Partiya Karrekeren Kurdistan) that is Kurdish separatist group, is the most known, and accepted by the government of Turkey and majority of Turkısh people (usually from west part/ non-kurdish people), as a terrorist group in Turkey. Based on Jerrold’s article, PKK is a nationalist- separatist terrorist group(Post, 2005), which seeks to establish their own nation, Kurdistan in the region of southeast Turkey, north Syria, and west Iraq. In line with Jerrold article, as he says this type of terrorist groups are the most active ones in the world(Post, 2005), the PKK is the most active and empowered one in Turkey. Just as he describes, these Kurdish people are loyal to their ancestry and families and disloyal to the regime and they are kind of getting revenge(Post, 2005). And this groups’ attacks take form of rocket, landmine, bombing, suicide bombing, metal additive and so on. Until 2001 more than 10 suicide bombing cases were reported(Rodoplu,2003). In addition, this group expended their strategy by targeting some other West Europe countries.
The second group is Leftist Terrorsit group which seeks to have a state of Turkey accordingly Marx principle (Rodoplu, 2003). This group is a social- revolutionary terrorism(Post, 2005). In 1970s Leftist students were becoming popular and as they got huge amount of members they got power and caused a civil war in Turkey. Then they were sentenced to death by hanging. Deniz Gezmiş, known as Turkey’s Ché Guevara, the most popular one, was leading many young people in Turkey, encouraging, empowering and arming them. It was wrong because if sufferers, victims of the system, use the same methods as they were treated by the powered ones, then only dominance changes hand and terrorism never ends. And it means the system is creating its own terrorists. Possible to see the same story in ‘animal farm’ book, New Brave World and 1984 books or Tv shows like Snowpiercer, Altered Carbon and Westworld..
Zimbardo says about turning to a bad person should be thought here due to the importance of ‘social effect’ while thinking of terrorism. Each of us actually has a lucifer in us and we have potentiality to do evil things under some circumstances (maybe not attacking people with guns but still harm them). He supports the idea that in some level it is possible to avoid to be influenced for doing bad things. We should understand how social influence operates, by analysing experiments like Stanford Prison, and become careful consumers instead easily obedience individuals. Try to be conscious all the time toward any kind of stimulus and ideas..
Lastly, for the intervention, I agree with Post that by reducing the potential terrorists from joining the group should be one of the most important duties of social workers in Turkey. Enhancing educational facilities, visiting families, encouraging those young people to get educated, get into parliament with their legal rights then raise voice for what their nation wants.
References Post, J. M. (2005). The new face of terrorism: Socio-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Behav. Sci. & L., 23, 451. Rodoplu, U., Arnold, J., & Ersoy, G. (2003). Terrorism in Turkey. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 18(02), 152–160. doi:10.1017/s1049023x00000923 Zimbardo, P. G. (2011). Lucifer effect. The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology.
For many countries in the world, the fight against terrorism is one of our top priorities today. Terrorism, despite its enormous focus, remains one of the most difficult to define. Lithuania has little to no history of terrorism, while that is a good sign it doesn’t mean precautions shouldn’t be made to stop potential terrorism from happening. After analyzing material provided by Post (2005) I came to conclusion that terrorism in Lithuania could occur from religious groups or prisoners. At first glance prisoners might seem like good candidates to turn to terrorism but it doesn’t seem to be the case. While prisoners might be in a weaker mental state, they do not tend to look for political or religious purposes/gains which is one of the main reasons why terrorism is happening, but rather join a group of people inside jail for safety or protection what usually turns into internal conflict against jail wards or other groups in jail. Religion seems to be more dangerous. Religion tends to turn to radical views more often, because of every individual understanding the holy reading in a different, religion is also accessible by all type of people. Which include low income families, problematic individuals, ill people. Those individuals more susceptible and vulnerable to charismatic leaders who are in search of power, they have outrageous ideas and promise help. Such ideas inspire hope in people and they join religious cults willingly, in which they are easily manipulated into ideologies of leader which in turn forms collective identity. Collective identity is foundation of terrorism groups, as noticed by Post (2005)” It is group, organizational and social psychology, with a particular emphasis on collective identity, rather than individual psychopathology, that is the foundation of terrorist psychology.” Can easily in turn to terrorism if the leader whishes to do so to gain power, which also was noticed by Philip George Zimbardo in his Stanford jail 1971 experment where students were placed in positions of prisioners and jail wardens. Wardens quickly felt the power and started abusing prisoners. It has shown that people are cruel and their negative qualities become apparent as soon as the conditions are right. It can be concluded that power and environmental conditions have a major influence on the emergence of terrorism. I believe social workers could help prevent terrorism or mitigate terrorism by building trust with vulnerable individuals so they can open up if they belong to sects or any other type of organization. Spreading information through medias how religion might also be dangerous if you’re easily affected by different opinions and ideologies. Working in schools with Religion teachers to understand the dangers and benefits of religion. References: Post, J. M. (2005). The new face of terrorism: Socio-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Behav. Sci. & L., 23, 451. Zimbardo, P. G. (2011). Lucifer effect. The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology.
After reading the articles on terrorism, it can be argued that conflicts are undoubtedly the result of disagreement. Disagreement arises when disputes arise, reluctance to settle, and disputing parties do not seek a compromise solution. Terrorist attacks have long been a threat worldwide. Practically every day terrorist attacks take place somewhere. With the increasing globalization, this threat is increasing as terrorists can use their modern communication tools to spread their ideology, recruit new members, plan and coordinate terrorist attacks without even face to face. So nowadays, the threat of terrorist attacks is on everyone, regardless of national borders, nationality or religion. The concept of terrorism was approved in Lithuania in 2004. 15 June Updated programs of the Republic of Lithuania against terrorism approved by decision of the State Defense Council. The National Security Strategy of the Republic of Lithuania identifies international terrorism as one of the factors shaping the Lithuanian security policy agenda. Terrorism poses a serious threat to the security of the international community and thus to Lithuania. However, for Lithuania this threat is more external - the current domestic situation and historical experience do not allow for the establishment of internal terrorist groups. The main threat comes from international terrorism.
Lithuania is active in international counter-terrorism formats. During the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council in 2013 In the second half of the year, Lithuanian representatives chaired working groups on internal and external aspects of the Council of the European Union. As it can be seen, due to the increasing challenge of globalization in European and world countries, Lithuania needs to become more aware not only of the phenomenon of terrorism, but also to adjust the measures used to prevent the occurrence and spread of this phenomenon. The legal framework for the prevention of and fight against terrorism consists of the conventions ratified by Lithuania, international treaties on cooperation in combating terrorism, laws establishing various counter-terrorism measures, as well as substatutory legal acts establishing the competence of the Government and its authorized institutions area. It is also important to implement community-oriented policing models that enable the police to better understand and know the problems of communities and the ability to work with vulnerable people. A National Program for the Prevention of Violent Extremism should also be established, which should consolidate national priorities for the prevention of violent extremism and involve the widest possible range of institutions and partners - NGOs, youth, civil society organizations, religious, cultural and educational leaders, media and the private sector. The Program should be consistent with the objectives of Sustainable Growth such as poverty eradication, quality education and access to lifelong learning, gender equality, sustainable, inclusive and long-term economic growth, productive employment, access to employment for all, reduction of inequalities within and across countries. Long-term conflicts are one of the strongest drivers of violent extremism, and every effort must be made to resolve them. There is a need to invest in education, especially in early childhood, ensuring that all children have equal access to inclusive, high-quality education. It is proposed to implement soft skills, critical thinking and digital literacy programs and to include civic education in school curricula. It is recommended to create socio-economic opportunities in rural and urban areas by providing skills training and employment opportunities, and providing young people with additional career opportunities through an entrepreneurial culture and related education.
Terrorism is violence, although not all violence is terrorism. The types of violence are equally different. Coercion can be legal or illegal. Terrorism is politically motivated, premeditated and continuous, and it is unlawful for radical non-state actors to change the current sociopolitical situation by intimidating society or individual groups. Today, terrorism is both global and international. Global because the geography of terrorist attacks has expanded so much that there are fewer countries in the world who have not experienced terrorism than those who have experienced it in one way or another. It is noteworthy that the spread of transnational terrorism is directly related to globalization, and terrorism itself poses a serious threat to the communities of the world and thus to the security of Lithuania, but this threat is more external to the Republic of Lithuania. It is noted that globalization does not only bring about positive changes in society. It also poses a threat to international terrorism and international crime. The listed real threats related to terrorism in Lithuania are primarily those related to the illegal use of deadly hazardous substances (radioactive, biological and chemical) and immigration (both legal and illegal). The threat of terrorism to Lithuania is also seen in a completely different area - social. This is case with the challenges of migration. In the Lithuanian context, this refers to immigrants and other foreign nationals who have entered the territory of the Republic of Lithuania both legally and illegally. Several common measures to prevent terrorism in Lithuania include the development of a common legal framework for the fight against terrorism, the protection of potential terrorist targets, the identification and termination of potential terrorist groups and their sources of financing and financing, strengthening intelligence and counterintelligence. In view of the global threat of international terrorism, it would appear that the Lithuanian authorities should have already taken steps to form new or separate specific responsible structures and units in Lithuanian special services and law enforcement and law enforcement agencies, with specialists trained and trained abroad, able to identify professionally and promptly the ideological orientations of individuals and their groups, their relationships and activities, and their ability to act both preventively and as a response to terrorist attacks. However, while legislation and other documents and structures are relatively easy to develop, it is much more difficult to find specialists for those structures. Specialists here are understood in two ways - professionals with relevant education and practical experience. There is a shortage of such in Lithuania. At the level of practical skills, the staff of the relevant state institutions of the Republic of Lithuania should have a consistent period of traineeships with the counter-terrorism institutions of the countries facing terrorism. References: • Račius, E. (2005). Terorizmo globalumas: žvilgsnis iš Lietuvos. Lietuvos metinė strateginė apžvalga, 3, 11-38. • Gutauskas, A., Kalesnykas, R., & Petrošius, D. (2004). Terorizmas ir jo prevencijos Lietuvoje problema. Jurisprudencija, 63(55), 24-45. • Post.J. M, The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism
I agree with your answer and I would like to add that we need to be even more aware, because you never know when a terrorist attack will occur. Although Lithuania is small country, but the world is changing, people are migrating from one country to another and most of the time it's too late to do something, the damage done, and we just hear the saying that we weren't ready. We should pay more attention to this question
While i do not believe, lithuania will have any issues with terrorism soon since we do not too much impact on the world or any important strategical targets we do have well known special forces known as Aitvaras who could deal with terrorism quite well.But i do agree there should be more work done on immigration policies. Currently its too easy, for eastern part of europe to travel, to lithuania especially for russians. While it might seem like easier movement is good, in reality it doesn't help us. Since rusians already put too much political pressure on Lithuania, letting them into our country unchecked could lead into terrorism attacks, similar to what happened on January 13th.
The situation of terrorism prevention and counter – terrorism in Lithuania and it’s evaluation in Lithuania society, as well as integration into global and Western institutions (eg. NATO membership on 29 March 2004 and EU membership on 1 May 2004). In order to describe the situation of prevention and control of terrorism and its evaluation in Lithuania, it is important to analyze the possible preconditions for the emergence of terrorism, the current level and prevalence of terrorism, and how and by what means secret activities in liquidation and investigation are performed. As aforementioned, Lithuania features a low GTI of the threat from terrorism. For this reason, both the arriving and the local tourists are fairly safe in Lithuania. Nevertheless, with the increasing number of outbound tourists, the Lithuanians run the risk of becoming the victims of terrorist attacks beyond the borders of their country. We have already recorded cases when Lithuanians hap pened to find themselves at the points of terrorist attacks (e.g., during the terrorist attack of 8 January 2016 which took place in Hurgada’s Bella Vista resort in Egypt, 10 Lithuanians were present in the attacked hotel), we also have recorded a victim of terrorism (in 2013, a climber from Lithuania was killed in Pakistan). For this reason, the research aimed to learn the attitude of Lithuanians to security, i.e. to evaluate the perception of the threat from terrorism). It turned out that the Lithuanian tourists are most affected by the following factors when choosing their travel destinations: price, the risk of terrorism, accessibility, friends’ responses, campaigns/special offers/discounts and security in terms of criminality. The factors that have the least effect are as follows: travel operators, advertisements, media, press releases by state institutions, public opinion and the level of development of the tourist destination. After reading the theories of Post and Zimbardo, the idea emerged that there was a need for as many streets as social workers to talk about young people who are more easily recruited to join terrorism. Their main task would be to go out to the community and try to connect with people, get to know them, answer questions, communicate and show that life is not just violence, that there can be positive things in the world, make them feel needed, valuable and important. Parents could also be involved in counseling them so they can have more help and knowledge to help their child. References: 1. Gutauskas, A., Kalesnykas, R., & Petrošius, D. (2004). Terorizmas ir jo prevencijos Lietuvoje problema. Jurisprudencija, 63(55), 32-33. 2. Mikėnas, E., Survila A., Žuromskaitė B. (2017). The Impact of Terrorism on the Tourism Sector of Lithuania. Montenegrin Journal of Economics. 3 (2017), 101. 3. Zimbardo, P. G. (2011). Lucifer effect. The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology.
Terrorists are looking for big targets, for headlines, because then they look bigger than they really are, so they focus their attention on the United States, the United Kingdom and France. According to British terrorism expert Tasnime Akunjee, Lithuania is a small and less attractive target for people who want to influence global politics, so there are no indicators that terrorist attacks in Lithuania are likely. These days terrorism is no longer based solely on violence or fear of violence - it includes phenomena such as communication disruption, hacking into databases and so on. The last time a terrorist attack took place in Lithuania was in 1998 - the explosion took place at the ,,Iki” shop in Kaunas, and that was the only incident that could be linked to a terrorist attack - one committed by an unknown criminal. In 2002 Government of Lithuania, allocated 7 mln. litas for the work of security institutions and the threat of terrorism. Since then, there have been no terrorist attacks in Lithuania and there are no indicators that such attacks are likely to occur in the country. In fact, it makes sense, because of the history of Lithuania - the country had no colonies, did not cultivate a negative attitude towards of any Islamic country, Lithuania has a Tatar population that has been living here successfully and quite peacefully for over 700 years. According to Post (2005) traditional groups include Islamic, Jewish, Christian and Sikh radical fundamentalist extremists. In contrast to social revolutionary and nationalist–separatist terrorists, for religious fundamentalist extremist groups, the decision-making role of the pre-eminent leader is of central importance. For these true believers, the radical cleric is seen as the authentic interpreter of God’s word, not only eliminating any ambivalence about killing, but endowing the destruction of the defined enemy with sacred significance. A vigorous public education program, framing the terrorists as murderers who were damaging the economy and hurting the entire society, rather than cultural heroes, in concert with an effective amnesty program, the pentiti program, was instrumental in breaking the back of the social-revolutionary movement, with a major reduction in public support for the group. All of these goals are components of a strategic communication process that must be a central component of our anti-terrorist policy. This is not a policy that will swiftly end terrorism, but a process that must be put in place (Post, 2005). In my opinion, all countries should have an anti-terrorist policy, just in case. In addition, all countries should educate their citizens about terrorism and its consequences. Philip Zimbardo has studied human behavior in social situations for decades, and his efforts have given us some of the most memorable glimpses into the surprising possibilities of social behavior. There is one important distinction is that between physical risk and social risk types of heroism. Heroism in service of a noble idea is usually not as dramatic as physical risk heroism. However, physical risk is often the result of a snap decision, a moment of action. Further, physical risk heroism usually involves a probability not the certainty of serious injury or death (Zimbardo, 2007). Zimbardo said that heroism exists, and ultimately decided that heroism is banal, just like evil. The fight against terrorism or the prevention and control of terrorism is impossible without reconnaissance and operational activities. Reconnaissance in the fight against terrorism differs from classic military, political or criminal reconnaissance. Post, J. M. (2005). The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 23, 451-465. Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil.
Lithuania has taken great care of its security. The international community drew attention to the topic of terrorism even before World War II and already in 1934 put the issue on its agenda. Member States of the United Nations, 2006 In September 2005, it launched a new phase in the fight against terrorism by adopting a Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. It was the first time that United Nations member states had agreed on a common strategic and operational framework in the fight against terrorism. This strategy is at the heart of a concrete action plan: it is a constraint on the conditions favorable to the development of terrorism; prevention of and fight against terrorism; implementation of measures to strengthen states' ability to fight terrorism; Strengthening the role of the United Nations in the fight against terrorism; respect for and protection of human rights in the fight against terrorism. In December 2005, the European Union launched its Counter-Terrorism Strategy, which focuses on four aspects of the fight against terrorism: prevention, protection, prosecution and response. So, to prevent terrorism, all these strategies have been developed and adopted. According to Ivanauskienė and Makštutytė, Following terrorist attack social workers engage in short-term and long-term interventions with victims. The most effective interventions are on the macro level, which means group work and community interventions. Group work is indispensable after traumatic events and can serve as a counterforce to bleak outcomes that result in isolation after disaster occurs. It is suggested to use cognitive behavioral strategies in group work to empower young people to cope with intrusive insights (Malekof, 2008). After reading Post (2005), I agree that terrorism stems from political controversy. I was struck by the author's story of an eight-year-old boy whose dad died and how he studied the art of explosives and how he became a participant in mass victim terrorism. That is why I agree that most of the difficult experiences that have gone through themselves are taking that atrocity. References: 1. https://urm.lt/default/lt/uzsienio-politika/uzsienio-politikos-prioritetai/lietuvos-saugumo-politika/kova-su-terorizmu 2. Post, J. (2005). The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism. 3. Ivanauskienė, V., Makštutytė, R. (2012). Terrorism : implications for international social work. Tiltai.Klaipėda : Klaipėdos universiteto leidykla, 2012, nr. 2(59)
Globalization processes lead not only to positive changes, but also and negative trends. As a result, all of humanity is immersed in the challenges of globalization: international terrorism, illegal migration, drug addiction. In Lithuania 2013 July 2 Amendments1 broaden the definition of terrorist offense, The Criminal Code is complemented by new terrorist activities - recruitment for terrorism, threat of terrorist offense, financing and sponsorship of terrorist activities, training of terrorists, statutory "terrorist offenses", "terrorist-related offenses", disclosure of "terrorist purposes" (Lithuania Republic The Criminal Code, 2013). But what is terrorism, the act of terror, whatever its limits, is not a single opinion, there is no universal definition, even though it is supposed to exist. The world states have not yet agreed on a universal convention that would define terrorism, terrorism, act of terrorism and provide sanctions against it. This is largely due to political reasons - the lack of disagreement between individual countries over freedom fighters, national liberation movements, and the exercise of the peoples' right to self-determination (Pakštaitis, 2016, p. 61). Pakštaitis (2016), defines such goals to terrorist targets to force the state or organization, or to destabilize, to destroy the state as an alternative. In contrast to the social-revolutionary terrorist groups, nationalist–separatist terrorism continues as one of the two predominant terrorist types active today. Also known as ethno-nationalist terrorism, these groups are fighting to establish a new political order or state based on ethnic dominance or homogeneity (Post,2005). In my opinion from Post article I can learn about the goals of terrorism - is the desire for revenge against damages for the family, community support strengthened for the attacks, authority of religious. Like reading Zimbardo article it was more about being survivor like in Rwanda report that woman are not save even in your community, neighborhood eve in home than sleeping with your husband it can be your last night. Reading both articles understand one thing that the biggest prisons of thought are in our head, minds are the biggest weapon. Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds (Roosevelt).This situation in Standford Prison shows that minds are influence of decision, good soldiers can to do such a bad things, so good people are changing by influence of a bad place. Social work intervention to mitigate the terrorism on of the step which Post (2005) sees components of strategic communication process that must be a central component of our anti-terrorist policy. This is not a policy that will swiftly end terrorism, but a process that must be put in place.
The threat of terrorism as a global crisis has long been analyzed. As regards the international fight against terrorism, it should be noted that the Member States of the European Union, including Lithuania, are committed to combating terrorism and to ensuring the best possible protection of their citizens. The threat of terrorism in Lithuania's official documents is also seen in a completely different area - the social one. This is in particular the case with the challenges of migration. In the Lithuanian context, this refers to immigrants and other foreign nationals who have entered the territory of the Republic of Lithuania both legally and illegally. The position of foreign nationals in the territory of Lithuania is governed by the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Legal Status of Aliens, adopted in 2004. April 29th In examining the potential terrorist threat to Finland, Archer says that "a terrorist attack requires opportunities and motives." So what is the probability of a terrorist attack in Lithuania? Opportunities are human, financial and material resources. As already mentioned, the probability of a planned and executed terrorist attack by immigrants or other foreign nationals in Lithuania is low, primarily due to the small number of people willing and able to engage in such activities. To date, there are no radical politically motivated organizations or informal groups in Lithuania. This does not, of course, mean that there are no individuals inclined to violence who can justify their actions on political grounds. As regards the threat of terrorism, it is today associated with one of the most at-risk Muslims in the world. Muslim extremists are responsible for many of the terrorist attacks and their victims in the last decade, and are often the subject of media coverage and interest from experts, both theoreticians and practitioners. However, the Muslim community in Lithuania remains dwarf, as compared to those living in Finland or Poland. And while it is marginalized and negatively described in the local media and in society, the social tensions between the indigenous (non-Muslim) majority and the arrivals and Muslim minorities prevalent in many EU Member States are not even manifested in Lithuania. References: 1.Račius, E. (2004). Terorizmo globalumas: žvilgsnis iš Lietuvos // Vilniaus universiteto Tarptautinių santykių ir politikos mokslų institutas Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija 2.Černiauskienė, N. (2005). TERORIZMO GRĖSMĖ GLOBALINIŲ KRIZIŲ VALDYMO KONTEKSTE, 68(60); 58–65.
The National Security Strategic International Terrorism of the Republic of Lithuania is identified as one of the factors shaping the security policy agenda of Lithuania. Terrorism poses a serious threat to the security of the international community and thus of Lithuania. But for Lithuania, this threat is more than external - the current domestic situation and historical experience are incompatible with the conditions for the establishment of terrorist groups. The main threat comes from international terrorism. Lithuania's most popular international forms of counter-terrorism. During the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council in 2013 For the second time, Lithuanian representatives chaired working groups on internal and external aspects of the Council of the European Union. At the beginning of 2014, Lithuania began serving on the United Nations Security Council, which lasted two years. Lithuania also chaired the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committees and such working groups. Jerrold M. Post argued that “When ‘‘hatred is bred in the bone,’’ and passed from generation to generation, it does not yield easily to peace talks“. When a person is in a terrorist group for a long time, his fundamental values and cultural awareness change. A social worker could work with children, their families, groups of people that to bring new values and perceptions to the world. “Countering the terrorists’ highly effective media-oriented strategy through more effective dissemination of information and public education must be key elements of a pro-active program.“ (Jerrold M. Post, 2005). Furthermore, to prevent terrorism according to the European parliament weapon and air passenger data control is must, also, cooperation and border security between countries. References: 1. Post.J. M, The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism 2. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/lt/headlines/security/20180316STO99922/kova-su-terorizmu-es-priemoniu-apzvalga-infografikas 3. https://urm.lt/default/lt/uzsienio-politika/uzsienio-politikos-prioritetai/lietuvos-saugumo-politika/kova-su-terorizmu
Thank you Migle for your response. I have learned something new about the threat of international terrorism in Lithuania. I want to read more about the Lithuanian presidency over the EU and the work they did around international and external threats of terror. In my post I talked about restorative justice approach but now am second thinking that approach based off the quote you mentioned by Post about hatred beig bred in the bone and how those bred in that manner are not likely to be open to peace talks. I also appreciate you speaking about ones own awareness. How aware we are of ourselves and the influences we have over others who are less powerful is a topic needing to be discussed.
In Canada, there has been a long and devastating history of events that occurred by the government to Indigenous people. Not only did the government systematically kill Indigenous people, they spread this belief of hatred and fear towards Indigenous people to all of society. Similar to the horrifying wars in China, Rwanda, and Germany, there was a stereotype which dehumanized Indigenous people and made them out to be the enemy which became widely accepted and conformity to it occurred (“National Inquiry”, 2019; Proulx, 2014; Zimbardo, 2007). This belief was set out by the government. This belief allowed the violent extremisms and acts of evils the Colonial government committed to be accepted. Indigenous people were made out to be “savages,” and the only solution was “to kill the Indian in the child” (“National Inquiry”, 2019).
Unfortunately, to this day the beliefs and stereotypes that influenced the genocide of Indigenous people in Canada, maintains today, and is one of the reasons why Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered but the government continues to leave it unaddressed (“National Inquiry”, 2019) or why police officers get away with performing “starlight tours”. A starlight tours is a term used to describe when a police officer would find an Indigenous man late at night in the midst of winter and drive them miles out of the city and leave them there to find their way home, often resulting in the individual to freeze to death.
Social work intervention in Canada, although often done in good faith has perpetually acted upon the fear and conformity that has be caused and based upon the beliefs made about Indigenous people. Therefore I think a social work intervention to mitigate the terrorism, the violent extremism, and acts of evils caused by the belief that Indigenous people are the enemy, must be one which is actively committed to becoming allies and advocating for the recognition that Indigenous are first and foremost human beings, and should be treated with respect. Social workers, according to Zimbardo (2007), must also be able to and continually work to recognize and resist false information being spread about Indigenous people and their current and past relations with the government. In addition, I think social work intervention must also include a social worker taking responsibility for their actions, actions that may have been done in good faith but failed. This for example, could be social workers recognizing when their intervention results in an Indigenous child being put into foster care, whether it was done with good faith or by biased beliefs that caused fear and conformity against Indigenous people.
References: 1.National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (2019). Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (Volume 1a). Retrieved from http://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/ 2.Proulx, C. (2014). Colonizing Surveillance: Canada Constructs an Indigenous Terror Threat. Canadian Anthropology Society, 56(1), pp. 83 -100. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/24469643 3.Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil. New York, NY: Random House
My country is small and safe. While alarming sings are being watched in the information space, they are cyberattacks against government agencies, banks, business organizations. ,,Trolls“ also try to incite national and sometimes racial hatred on the internet. Jerrold M. Post writes about but in fact terrorism is usually dated back to the early 1970s, represented by the radical Palestinian terrorist group. In the early years of the modern era of terrorism, two terrorist types dominanted the landscape. They were the social-revolutionary terrorists and the nationalist-separatist terrorists. Oh DR. Phil examined what makes a good person do bad things, the ‚‘‘Lucifer effect“. Now, they will continue to explore blind obedience to authority and how social influences can have negative impact on your life. Both authors talk about how ordinary people sometimes turn evil and commit unspeakable acts. Principle 4 Identifying and Developing Strengths-Social workers should focus on the strengths of all individuals, groups and communities and thus promote the..... In order to prepare for the provision of measures is envisaged during the prie-crisis preparation phase. This phase involes strategic planning, training groups of professionals and paraprofessionals on how to deal with an emergency, identifying who needs to do what, where and what to do, and providing assistance. In the second phase, individuals or groups are subjected to acute crisis intervention. Three main goals of the intervention are envisaged: reducing stress, relieving symptoms, and restoring adaptation mechanisms to referral for further assistance. During the post-crisis period, we work with individuals and small groups, and post-work. Properly conducted post-accident group mitigation of the psychosocial effects of trauma and reduced the likelihood of developing post-traumatic stress syndrome. I can point to several initiatives and events that are helping set our profession on a course that will tap into its full potential to respond to human need and build more resilient communities. Post.J. M, The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism. Zimbardo, P. G. (2011). Lucifer effect. The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology.
In Lithuania, the threat of terrorism is not negligible, and it is no mistake to state that the state of Lithuania focuses on the prevention of terrorism in its fight against terrorism. In this sense, prevention of terrorism means the implementation of measures by public authorities to prevent terrorism, the prevention of the spread of terrorism and its favorable circumstances, the assessment of terrorist threats, education of the public and the promotion of co-operation with law enforcement authorities. But in the world, terrorism is a very serious problem that needs more attention. At the global level, the fight against terrorism requires more than just prevention. Philip Zimbard, a professor at Stanford University and Scott Plous, an academic social psychologist currently working as a professor of psychology at Wesleyan University, in an article published in 2005 entitled How Social Science Can Reduce Terrorism, analyzes the events of September 11, 2001, and trying to describe the psychological portrait of the perpetrator of terrorist acts. After this research researchers came to some fundamental conclusions. Terrorists differ greatly from other people in self-esteem, religiosity, socioeconomic status, education, or personality traits such as introversion. Nasr Hassan, who spent years studying Palestinian terrorists, put it this way during a lecture she gave in 2002: “What is frightening is not the abnormality of those who carry out the suicide attacks, but their sheer normality.” Thus far, behavioral research has found only one psychological attribute that reliably differentiates terrorists from nonterrorists: a propensity toward anger. In the words of a National Research Council report titled “Terrorism: Perspectives From the Behavioral and Social Sciences”: “There is no single or typical mentality—much less a specific pathology—of terrorists. However, terrorists find significant gratification in the expression of generalized rage.” Beyond various sociopolitical, economic, and religious objectives, one of the most common motivations for joining a terrorist organization is the desire for revenge or retribution for a perceived injustice. Many terrorists report that acts of violence committed by police officers, soldiers, or others are what led them to join a terrorist group. Studies by Ariel Merari and others have found, for example, that Palestinian suicide bombers often have at least one relative or close friend who was killed or injured by the other side. In addition to harboring intense anger over a perceived injustice, terrorists differ from the general public in their demographic composition. Although exceptions exist, terrorists are usually males between 15 and 30 years of age—the same population most likely to commit a violent crime in general, and the demographic group least likely to be deterred by the threat of physical force. Professor Philip Zimbardo conducted a study in 1971 on August 14 - 20 - the Stanford prison experiment. A prison simulation study which had to be discontinued after only six days due to several distressing outcomes and mental breaks of the participants. The research has given us an idea of why good people do bad things and call it the Lucifer effect. The main conclusion of the study was that the environment encourages human behavior. This is where the social worker must come and provide services to the individual and his or her environment to prevent his or her cruel behavior. It is very important to provide timely assistance to a person who is experiencing severe shocks, bereavement or bullying.
References: 1. Aurelijus Gutauskas, Raimundas Kalesnykas, Darius Petrošius (2004). TERORIZMAS IR JO PREVENCIJOS LIETUVOJE PROBLEMA. Jurisprudencija, 2004, t. 63(55); 24–45 2. Philip Zimbard, Scott Plous (2005). How Social Science Can Reduce Terrorism. A Publication of the Society for General Psychology. Division One of the American Psychological Association Volume 40, No. 1 - Spring 2005 3. 1999-2020, Philip G. Zimbardo. Social Psychology Network. Stanford prison experiment.https://www.prisonexp.org/the-story
There are no terrorists in Lithuania who may adversely affect Lithuanian politics or security. In my opinion, terrorists in Lithuania may be criminals who have served their sentences in prison, members of a particular religious group or sect. I have analized the material provided by Post (2005) and Zimbardo (2008), preventing and resolving violent extremism and acts of evil is not short and internal organizational limitations can help mitigate terrorism. According to Post (2005) and Zimbardo (2008), social work intervention can mitigate terrorism by preventing individuals from joining terrorist groupings, promoting stronger diplomatic meddling , to reform the education system, paying more attention to terrorist groups and their work. Disseminating information through the media, openly acknowledging the "dark side of religion", in terms of about howreligion-based value systems can be distorted to justify and reward the most terrible of human deeds. To create group discord to increase group competition and tension through effective means, to provide information on potential "traitors" , thereby facilitating the individual's withdrawal from the group. To rganize amnesty programs that offer, where for less punishment in or amnesty, to cooperate with the government. This can facilitate not only withdrawal but also strife within the group. To reduce group support and discredit group leaders.
I appreciated that you mentioned reforming education systems as a method of preventing/addressing terrorism. It has me thinking about the opportunities we have to teach kids who may be growing up with families who are connected to terrorist groups about other ideas and values to hopefully combat harmful ideas. Just putting people in front of different ideas and options could start small changes in people's thinking. This goes along with Post's ideas of promoting discord within a group or less support for the group/its leader. I also agree that it is important to provide amnesty programs for people who may be wanting to leave a terrorist group to do so safely.
Terrorism – one of least predictable violent event wich humanity was forced to face in the last few decades. Worldvide comunities come in contact with terrorism acts and become witnesses of it on day to day basis, these acts are organized mostly by organizations with different politic, religious, etnic agendas. I think terrorism is one of the most dangerous crimes, its level and a paricular form of manifestation, in one hand it shows the community view on this matter and on other hand it shows efectiveness of separate countries and international comunities effort towards solving quetions related to terrorism. There is no known Islamic terrorist atack yet in Lithuania. It can be said that terrorist atacks was long time ago, for rgzample like genocide and massive killings. It was just a begining of Lithuanians genocide. Meanwhile Soviet Union was preparing to withdraw the guarantor of the nation‘s life – independency. Philip Zimbardo whriting in the area of social- psychological, group behavior and the social- psychological pressures that facilitate immoral or illegal conduct, as well as my investigation and analusis of the forces that contributed to egregious behavior of Military Police, guards and civilian interrogators. One does not counter psychological warfare with smart bombs and missiles, although they can certainly play a useful role in a military campaign against harboring states. One counters psychological warfare with psychological warfare. In the long run, the most effective ways of countering terrorism are the following. • Inhibit Potential Terrorists from Joining the Group. • Produce Dissension Within the Group. • Facilitate Exit from the Group. Reduce Support for the Group and Its Leader In most of the countires its not only security services are working on taking action againt terrorism, but the scientists are involved aswell. They analize the data they get from social media, politicians, religious representitives.Lately there was more and more atention towards sociopshychology wich is related to terrorism. It is said that if you want to understand terrorism – you need to analize the motivation, thiking of a person and the personality.
Terrorism – one of least predictable violent event wich humanity was forced to face in the last few decades. Worldvide comunities come in contact with terrorism acts and become witnesses of it on day to day basis, these acts are organized mostly by organizations with different politic, religious, etnic agendas. I think terrorism is one of the most dangerous crimes, its level and a paricular form of manifestation, in one hand it shows the community view on this matter and on other hand it shows efectiveness of separate countries and international comunities effort towards solving quetions related to terrorism. There is no known Islamic terrorist atack yet in Lithuania. It can be said that terrorist atacks was long time ago, for rgzample like genocide and massive killings. It was just a begining of Lithuanians genocide. Meanwhile Soviet Union was preparing to withdraw the guarantor of the nation‘s life – independency. Philip Zimbardo whriting in the area of social- psychological, group behavior and the social- psychological pressures that facilitate immoral or illegal conduct, as well as my investigation and analusis of the forces that contributed to egregious behavior of Military Police, guards and civilian interrogators. One does not counter psychological warfare with smart bombs and missiles, although they can certainly play a useful role in a military campaign against harboring states. One counters psychological warfare with psychological warfare. In the long run, the most effective ways of countering terrorism are the following. • Inhibit Potential Terrorists from Joining the Group. • Produce Dissension Within the Group. • Facilitate Exit from the Group. Reduce Support for the Group and Its Leader In most of the countires its not only security services are working on taking action againt terrorism, but the scientists are involved aswell. They analize the data they get from social media, politicians, religious representitives.Lately there was more and more atention towards sociopshychology wich is related to terrorism. It is said that if you want to understand terrorism – you need to analize the motivation, thiking of a person and the personality.
The dreaded Boko Haram is based in the northeastern Nigeria (Maiduguri in Borno state) was formed in 2002 by Mohammed Yusuf but became an insurgent group in 2009 under Abubakar Shekau drawing their ideologies from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Initially their aim was to sanitize Islam in Nigeria and to impose sharia (Islamic) law in probably all states in Nigeria. Boko haram means non-Western and they frown on anything western. They claim "Western" or "non-Islamic" education is a sin and opposes the Westernization of Nigerian society. CASUALTIES: Notorious amongst its massacres were the Suicide bombings of the UN building, Christmas day bombings of two churches in Abuja, abduction of 276 schoolgirls, kidnapping and extortion. 10 years of insurgency after the death of its founder in 2009 left at least 27,000 lives dead, 2.3 million people displaced from their homes by 2019, burnt churches etc HOW DO WE MITIGATE AGAINST SUCH IMPIOUS ACTS AGAINST HUMANITY? One salient principle of social workers which is social justice and rights implies that social workers have an important role to play in this field coupled with social workers expertise in intervention with victimized and displaced people. The focus of social workers is to eliminate or prevent harm to our clients. However, as social workers, we should know that we cannot predict human conduct. Though we are obliged, “under the CT&S Act 2015, to provide information about our clients to the appropriate channels, we should bear in mind that we are not an enforcement official”. The police have the responsibility to arrest such who threaten violent extremism. So, what can social workers offer to the fight against violent extremism? Advocating and involving the Community by setting up practice that embraces community-led approaches. As service users confide in us about their experiences, we should use this opportunity to sensitize them about the ugliness of war, politics, ethnicity, etc Working with Multi-agency like schools, police and health services. Section 38 of the CT&S Act requires social workers to co-operate with the different agencies to provide information to ascertain if an individual is at risk to being recruited into terrorism. As postulated by J M. Post on how to prevent violent extremism and acts of evil, that the “policies designed to deter terrorists from their acts of terrorism should be based on an understanding of ‘‘what makes terrorists tick.’’ These fanatics have been brainwashed and wholly fused in their group and the task to change the minds and ideologies of terrorists is tough as the fear of losing their identity leaves a lot to be desired by them. They are extremists whose only sense of significance comes from being terrorists and their stopping is to lose their essence of living” What then did Post suggest: (1) Deter new prospects from Joining by sensitization through the reformed education system, with the establishment of secular schools with moderate curriculums could assist in this effort. (2) Produce Dissension Within the Group: (3) Facilitate Exit from the Group, (4) Reduce Support for the Group and Its Leader. Another Prominent psychologist, P. Zimbardo stipulates that “Sensitivity to situational determinants of behavior, also guides risk alerts for avoiding or changing prospective situations of vulnerability. This perspective focuses on the situation and environmental factors can impact on Man’s behavior to commit evil or not.It is only by understanding the situational determinants of terrorism that programs can be developed to win the hearts and minds of potential terrorists away from destruction and toward creation. Zimbardo in his post also educated us on the need to shift heroism from notoriety to the simple few who resist temptations to do evil and are rather promoting civic virtue and human goodness.
Terrorism is an increasingly pressing issue in international relations. Although there have been positive developments in the fight against terrorism in the last decade of the 20th century, it has not disappeared. Some terrorist attacks are not, to a large extent, inconsistent with military action by states. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 1998 defined terrorism as the planned, politically motivated violence of sub-national secret groups targeting the peaceful population in order to influence political addressees. The concept of terrorism was established in Lithuania in 2004, 15 June. Updated programs of the Republic of Lithuania against terrorism approved by the decision of the State Defense Council. The said program has been updated taking into account the prevalence of terrorism in the world, the experience of the international community in the fight against terrorism and the problems of preventing terrorism in Lithuania. The legal framework for the prevention of and fight against terrorism consists of the conventions ratified by Lithuania, international treaties on cooperation in combating terrorism, laws establishing various counter-terrorism measures, as well as substatutory legal acts establishing the competence of the Government and its authorized institutions area. As is known, the Lithuanian State has ratified the United Nations and Council of Europe Conventions directly related to the prevention of and fight against terrorism by national legislation. In Lithuania, a great deal of attention is devoted to the prevention of theorism. In this meaning, terrorism prevention is implementation of means used by the state institutions and preventing the terrorism, prevention of terrorism outspread and the circumstances enabling such an outspread, evaluation of terrorism threats, teaching of public and promoting the cooperation with the police institutions and coordination of these means implementation. Only scantlings by terrorism already exist in Lithuania. Separate violence acts, that occurred up to now, were performed out of criminal and economic stimulus, taking vengeance on criminals by other criminals or out of other reasons. Thus, the major threat for Lithuania is international terrorism and dangers thereof. Institutions participating in the terrorism prevention and combating the terrorism may be called as police institutions. According to the law of national security base of the Republic of Lithuania of 19 December 1996 and the program against the terrorism of the Republic of Lithuania of 22 January 2002, the National Security Department is the main (also the only) state institution, coordinating combating the terrorism in Lithuania. References: Gutauskas, A., Kalesnykas, R., & Petrošius, D. (2004). Terorizmas ir jo prevencijos Lietuvoje problema. Jurisprudencija, 63(55), 24-45. Vasiliauskienė, V. (2008). Teroristų veiksmai kaip ginkluotas užpuolimas. Teisė, 66, 99-111.
The Boko Haram terrorist group is the only group that is classified as an international terrorist Organisation in Nigeria. The name “Boko Haram” is translated to mean “Western education is forbidden”. This terrorist group began its activities in Borno state in the Northeast of Nigeria, which is ironically the poorest part of Nigeria in collaboration with elements of the Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, Boko Haram Islamic terrorist attacks have claimed over 3,000 lives including foreigners, they were formerly known as Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād. Boko haram is a jihadist terrorist organization based in northeastern Nigeria, also active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon. Terrorism has grown to become one of the biggest issues in the world and majority of the global crisis being experienced in the world at the moment can be attributed to terrorism. However, In the past terrorism was non-existent in the Nigeria, but as the social problems have worsened in the country with no help from the government so has terrorism. The social work profession promotes social change, and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance wellbeing. Social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work. However, in mitigating terrorism, it is expedient to know the root causes of terrorism itself, Povertyis one of the factors perceived as being a cause of people participating and/or joining terrorist groups. The Northern states of Nigeria are the poorest in the country and thus prone to a lot of social problems, poverty is described as the most fundamental and intractable of problems and is attributed by many in the social sciences as the root of many social problems Healy (2008). Furthermore, the effects that social problems have on individuals within the community were found to be a main contributor to participation in terrorist acts and joining terrorist groups especially amongst the youths. Factors such as corruption, illiteracy, poverty and psychological and social orientation, where found to be among the main motivations to participating in such acts. Social work intervention in this regard for book haram insurgency could necessitate integration of Psychological and Mental Health into Public Health Planning. The psychological consequences of terrorism are an important determinant of the continuity of society, economic resiliency, health care utilization, and perception of threat and safety. To address the prevention, health care, and promotion needs related to psychological consequences of terrorism, this area must be integrated into national, state, and local planning. This will help ensure that the infrastructure is better able to meet needs and that gaps will be minimized. At the federal level, research support, education of health care providers, and development of model intervention plans can aid state and local planning. In order to improve responses for psychological consequences, a central focus of the new national response plan should be the coordination of efforts across the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Design and Implement Psychological First Aid Training. The nation's infrastructure should provide interventions and programs to promote individual and community resilience and prevent adverse psychological effects as a community program, it can provide a well-organized community task to increase skills, knowledge, and effectiveness in maximizing health and resiliency. Providing information about ways for people to physically protect themselves is one side of public information. To help prevent fear and limit uncertainty, the public should be made aware of normal psychological reactions to threats of violence, such as worry, anxiety, and difficulty concentrating, and how preparedness can help limit fear and promote effective coping. Materials should be adapted to local communities, cultures, and ethnic groups. Resources should address the language needs of various populations and consider variations in living environments.
The first things that come to mind when thinking about terrorism in the United States is the countless shootings we’ve seen in schools, movie theaters, concerts, etc. Although the reasons for these shootings vary, the number of shooters who end up being members of white nationalist groups (whether they are connected online or with in person groups) is astounding. I theme that is constantly heard from these groups is a hatred of the “other” and fear of loosing privilege. Post uses an example of a secular Palestinian terrorist group and argues that much of this hatred of the “other” seen in many terrorist groups is socialized; few of the members of this group had actually met any Israeli people (2005). Post also remarks on the prevalence of violent language and the encouragement of violence that thrives in terrorist groups (2005). Post’s suggested that the most effective antiterrorist policies would be ones that promote prevention of people actually joining these groups (2005). However, other suggestions that stood out were the suggestions of reducing support for the group and facilitating ways for members to exit the group safely if they are wanting to leave (Post, 2005). Possible social work interventions could include policy advocacy to increase law enforcement investigation and prosecution of people who participate in online white nationalist groups. Along with the group’s ability to continue without consequences being challenges through law enforcement, a social work intervention that could accompany these policies amnesty programs that would provide spaces for members to go to turn themselves in/exit the group safely and receive mental health services, protection from the group they are leaving, and less of a punishment.
Reference: Post, Jerrold. (2005). The new face of terrorism: Socio-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Behavioral Sciences and Law, 23, 451-465.
One aspect of terrorism in America that was sadly left untouched in the Post article was rampant white nationalism. It has become undeniable that white nationalism and far-right ideology have played a major role in mass shootings as far back as Columbine. Many of these shooters are radicalized in online communities in much the same way that Post describes religiously motivated terrorists are radicalized (2005). Youth stay involved in these groups and commit these acts out of a desire to fulfill their ideology and prove their worth. These groups use violent language and violence itself to recruit and indoctrinate others into the ideology.
As for interventions, Post advocates for interventions that prevent people from ever joining these groups in the first place. While this isn’t always possible, it is the most effective solution. I know of efforts by former white nationalists to help remove people from these groups and get them out safely. I think this is necessary to incorporate as a social work intervention. It is incredibly hard to get through to people in these kind of radicalized groups as an outsider; partnering with reformed radicals could help to lesson membership. This, of course, needs to be done in conjunction with legislation reform to be able to persecute and investigate white nationalist internet activity. In Germany, white nationalist/nazi social media accounts are censored, which is something we could implement here in the US. This prevents the dissemination of harmful ideology that serves to indoctrinate others. While free speech is important, it has been proven time and time again that this ideology brings harm to vulnerable populations and espousing it should result in consequences.
Post, J. (2005). The new face of terrorism: Socio-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Behavioral Sciences and Law, 23, pp. 451-465.
To me, domestic terrorism is moreso based on deteriorating their opposition’s lifestyle with extreme force and brutal execution. For example, religious groups utilizing brutal attacks to wipe other religions, and groups of people out. Post (2005) does expand on the fact that the culture plays a huge part in how people perceive their views on society, religion and other aspects. Opening up that conversation may provide some relief towards building a better community. Terrorists could be anyone, as anyone has the potential to take their beliefs to a violent level. Referencing Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment (1971), anyone with power could use their authority to control those that don't have much power, raising the concern of how those in higher positions use their gifts. Everyone would think that they’re doing the right thing and are the hero in their own story, but will have an opposing force that will see otherwise, causing tension that might end violently like many others before it. Preventing violent extremism and acts of evil would be very difficult as it depends on the way the extremist tries to deteriorate their opposition. It may prevent it, but a way that someone could lower tensions would be to gather cultural perspectives and assemble them as a group. Many people are opposed to each other and don’t leave the echo chambers of their viewpoints, whether it be politically, economically, or socially. Opening up the conversation without judgment of each other’s viewpoints may be a possibility in lowering tensions.
Sources: Stanford Prison Experiment (1971) Post, J. (2005). The new face of terrorism: Socio-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Behavioral Sciences and Law, 23, pp. 451-465.
Festering complacency of U.S. intervention and inequality is a machine of layered terrorism. I illustrate layers given that invisible hands push and develop pathways that ultimately destabilize other countries and project criminal images on everyday people. The layers spread from the consequences folks in other countries face as a result to U.S. intervention or domestic manifestations of violence for people within the country. Within the country, these examples of terrorism are the fear women live under, immigrants held in subpar conditions within detention centers, prisoners continuously subjected through physical and psychological torture, growing numbers of homelessness, and various other fears that grow for everyday communities in the country.
Much of the terrorism that Post discusses are the early examples of Islam Extremists, but I take the points of prevention and adapt it to a more institutional level. The paper’s focus on Islamist extremists for two reasons projects limitations. Religious extremists also exist in the U.S. under a Christian foundation and have enacted acts of violence on various marginalized communities with the KKK as a prime example. To draw a close focus to terrorist groups evades attention to larger problems considering Palestinian extremists with a backdrop of U.S. military funding of the Palestinian occupation. Post provides 4 means of circumventing terrorist; interrupting the “terrorist” recruitment process, creating tension within the “terrorist” group, providing alternatives, and discrediting the philosophy or justification (Post, 2005). To disrupt the wave of state sanctioned violence then requires consciousness raising, direct community action, and an investment in the well-being of vulnerable populations.
While painting the U.S. government as evil and chaotic is seamless given a timeline of executed violence it is Zimbardo’s complication of evil that is integral to state accountability. A simple and common approach is to consider evil actions reason enough to label evil people (evil as essentialized) shortfalls when a larger portrait exists where “good” people commit evil acts (Zimbardo, 2007). Considering that government policy is a production of figures entering the arena of politics and those people as byproducts of various factors of education, culture, violence, and geographies. Much of the work to address modern day terrorism requires a larger investment to consider the consequences of our leaders, listening to survivors of this violence, and pushing for solutions to undue as much damage as possible.
References: Post, Jerrold. (2005). The new face of terrorism: Socio-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Behavioral Sciences and Law, 23, 451-465. Zimbardo, Philip. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil. New York: Random House. Chapter 1: The psychology of evil; Chapter 16: Resisting situational influences and celebrating heroism. See also his website on the book: http://www.lucifereffect.com/index.html and the Stanford Prison Experiment: http://www.prisonexp.org/.
Aces, this is a very thought provoking post about the layering of terrorism that leads to situations of women's fear. I had to pause for a moment and think about what you said when you called inequality a machine of terrorism. Thinking of inequality as a machine forces me to ask different questions than I had before. One, what are the forces that continues this machines functioning? Two, when these machines are broken or disrupted due to the time deterioration who are the contributors that reinvent and re-imagine the machine of inequality? Yo mentioned how this machine is not so much found in the person to person interactions but in the institution that are created as a result. Therefore, I like how you would combat this with Zimbardo's theory of good and evil, and forces us to look at the oppression of women as not a question of who do we blame but an examination of ourselves in trying to find out in what ways did we all contribute to, or allow the current situation.
Terrorism has played varying roles in how people, society, and organization those take on levels of hostility to behavioral factors to provoke trauma and injustices (Post, 2005). Therefore, applications of beliefs that becomes absolute causes to promote ideologies towards violent extremists in causing destructions and punishment to those fighting against these terrorist individuals or groups. There will be platforms of conflict and exposure, which cannot being overshadowed in missed opportunities or problems, as strategies of social and political influences ca be important to whatever revolutionary cause(s). However, people and citizens of a country like the US, where terrorist have attacked internally, such as with the Orlando night club shooting, Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, 2019 El Paso shooting, and other examples, where the perpetrators are motivated by whatever responsibilities in their own beliefs. These must be interpreted and evaluated for the behavioral and informed from their acts of violence to challenge better policy decisions to respond in terrorism and other frameworks of approaches, even with limitations. Proposing best placed actions of responding to preventing any harm or injury to narrow arguments of threats for inflicting fears of violence or marginalizing groups or populations, political support, or areas of religious-based involvement. In addition, any additional instabilities of terrorist attacks would be with less hysteria and consequential movement of foundational behaviors and other interactions. Many stakeholder, officials and policy makers, institutions and organizations will utilize the advancements of what evaluations and barriers overcoming anxieties of respectful unification (Zimbardo, 2007). Finally, by having successful perspectives of processing local, national, international, and cross continental experiences of terrorism with globalization in many impacted communities, must be escalated in legislation and successful amnesty programs in negotiation advisories.
Post, J. M. (2005). The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 23(4), 451–465.
Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil. New York, NY: Random House.
Terrorism is now no longer based on petty or coercive fears - it includes data such as communication disruption, hacking into databases, when it is available, and when a person owns, owns certain books, or enters their idea, sometimes classifying in the same way as terrorism. Usually the ultimate goal of terrorism is political. Spreading fear is not an end in itself. It is a mechanism, a tool that terrorists use to gain political advantage, although there are exceptions. But when it comes to irrationality, we as a state cannot control terrorist actions. We can try to limit their ability to take certain actions, but we cannot control them. The essence of terrorism is to look for weaknesses and exploit them. So our security services, the police here will always be one step behind. Our irrational fears are about how we react and how we control our reactions to what is happening. So when we see that a certain group of people, a certain origin, a certain ideology, and a certain political goal are attacking us, our irrational reaction is to attribute the actions of that group of people to a huge group of people. As a specific example, the Charlie Hebdo editorial is attacked by ISIS, but some European countries tend to attribute blame for the attacks to all Muslims. Now, thanks to technology, we have the ability to easily travel from one place to another, which is affordable for many today. So we are watching a particularly large movement. Is there a debate about whether Syrian refugees will be in trouble? The answer is yes, because any movement of people presents challenges. In fact, we had the same debate in Britain when EU borders opened up and Poles and Lithuanians were massively flowing into the country. It also led us to Brexit and the question of whether we should stay in the EU or leave it. This debate is not dissimilar, but it must take place. We currently have COVID-19 in our world – that stops our lifes, stops our travel and has taken many lives… this virus will revolutionize our world, criminal activity will increase and may lead to mass terrorism. Let us hope that this crisis does not do more damage than it has already done.
The form of discrimination against women that I have chosen to you as context for this blog is taken from Gallagher's article on Amnesty International (AI) and their call for women's rights to be considered a humans right issue. This started out as a convention on civil and political rights and led to the United Nations decade for women (1975-85). During this decade other women's movements were unearthed such as domestic violence campaigns, honor killings, and female genital mutilation. Immediately after the Cold War the US along with other countries pledged to carry out humanitarian interaction on behalf of oppressed and marginalized groups. AI would al address "cases of women detained under discriminatory trial proceedings laws or procedures that are by design or application gender-based and on cases where governments fail to prevent violence against women". Ultimately what Gallagher argued is that women living in conditions where they are prisoners of conscience are living in oppressed conditions and that these condition should be considered a violation of not only a woman's rights but also a violation of human rights. In the US we can look at the story of Cyntoia Brown, a young woman who at the age of 16 was charged and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of the man who forced her into sex trafficking. The crisis of this situation is that Cyntoia who was victimized and disregarded as a child was then convicted and sentenced to life in prison. No one taking into account that the justice system had ultimately failed her when she was allowed to be forced into sex trafficking as a child. Then giving her life at the age of 16 for doing what many of us would have done as well. As Social Workers a lot of what we do is build civil society. One strategy for intervention to mitigate the situation where women are prisoners of conscience is the continual building of civil society, a society that see women as equal and deserving of life that has been given by their creator. Building a civil society is building positive social networks that support a woman's right to life thus creating a democracy that advocates for the woman.
Gallagher, N. (2005). Amnesty International and the idea of Muslim women’s human rights. Journal of Mideast Women’s Studies, 1, 96-107.
White supremacy groups have systematically threatened violence in the US against marginalized groups almost since the founding of this country. The purpose of this threatening of violence has always been to create a climate of fear and intimidation. The people who they are trying to intimidate and invest in are the people who are without power. In Zimbardo's book he talks about the powerful elite, "it is the power elite, the barrel makers, often working behind the scenes who arrange many of the condition of life for the rest of us who must spend time in the variety of institutional settings they have constructed". Preventing terrorism has to centered around a conversation about who is in power and what conditions are those who are in power creating that encourages and sustains an environment for the subjugation of entire groups of peoples. Another notion that Zimbardo talks about is the fact that the powerful elite also has the ability to create the "other" category. "When the power elite wants ti destroy an enemy nation it turns to propaganda experts to fashion a program of hate". White supremacist have always tried to create a narrative about those who they consider to be "others" that would picture them as the enemy and destroy them through propaganda. Take for example Black men in the US, Black men have always been depicted in new and many other media outlets in negative light telling the masses a negative and false narrative of who the Black man is making it easy for ordinary people in society to hate to a degree where they want to segregate, torment, and even kill Black men. "With public fear notched up and the enemy threat (seemingly) imminent reasonable people act irrationally independent people act in mindless conformity and peaceful people act as worriers. The way Zimbardo puts this helps me realize that those who stand in opposition of the liberation of the Black man in the US may not be doing solely out of a pure hatred but also out of fear. Zimbardo's theory does peace building in a way that restores humanity to both parties, by making evil a part of human nature. To combat these types of injustice the restorative justice approach would be most appropriate.
Zimbardo, Philip. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil. New York: Random House.
Who are the terrorists in the United States? It's a big question to answer, and the answer can differ from one person to another. However, the term "terrorism" conjures up images of power, brutality, and suffering for me. So who do I see as a terrorist in the U.S? A terrorist, in my opinion, is someone who takes advantage of his own power and privileges to spread hatred and humiliation against vulnerable and marginalized communities; someone who makes people suffer. As Zimbardo claimed, "when the power elite wants it destroy an enemy nation it turns to propaganda experts to fashion a program of hate"(2007). The Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" approach is a prime example of how unfair use of force has caused countless civilians to suffer. The Department of justice began criminally prosecuting those who crossed the border into the United States illegally, causing the separation of families. For months, children were detained in inhumane conditions and without adult supervision, causing them psychological and mental harm. During this "Zero Tolerance" policy, we were able to see how the abuse of authority has a negative impact on the lives of hundreds of innocent and vulnerable people. As future social workers, we must be aware of all the new changes in our government so that we can advocate for those who are not allowed to speak. Also, a huge global refugee crisis is currently underway, so we must be prepare to help diverse groups of people by understanding their needs and culture.
Zimbardo, Philip. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil. New York: Random House. http://www.lucifereffect.com/index.html and the Stanford Prison Experiment: http://www.prisonexp.org/.
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ReplyDeleteSocial work intervention to reduce the threat of terrorism in Lithuania to reduce social exclusion among the population.
ReplyDeleteThe current state of the Lithuanian state in the international security system is favorable because many states of the world generally recognize and respect the independence of the Republic of Lithuania, stable economy, friendly relations with neighbors, successful integration of minorities into Lithuanian society and integration into global and Western institutions He became a member of NATO on 29 March 2004 and a member of the EU on 1 May 2004).
ReplyDeleteIn the current period, most of the traditional and new challenges to Lithuania's national security are international in nature. One of them is terrorism. It is universally acknowledged and, moreover, evidenced by global events that terrorism is considered a global phenomenon. Consequently, terrorism and globalization as phenomena are closely linked, since the main consequence of globalization in the field of security is the internationalization of the factors determining states' national security and stability. It has to be said that globalization poses non-military challenges, threats and threats to national security, to which individual states are incapable of responding effectively. International phenomena such as terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking and illegal migration are crossing national borders and are becoming challenges, threats and threats to international security. It is the likelihood that such threats and threats will spread.
As Lithuania becomes more integrated into the world community, it is necessary to take measures to prevent the country becoming a place of terrorist acts or a terrorist transit corridor. All measures used in the field of national security of the State of Lithuania are called counter-terrorism measures. The following stages of counterterrorism (or terrorist control) can be distinguished: (a) prevention of terrorism, (b) eradication of a terrorist act, (c) investigation of a terrorist act. It is stated that various state institutions participate in the implementation of these terrorism control measures, which take the necessary measures to prevent the occurrence of terrorism in Lithuania.
It is no mistake to state that the state of Lithuania focuses on the prevention of terrorism in the fight against terrorism. In this sense, prevention of terrorism means the implementation of measures by public authorities to prevent terrorism, the prevention of the spread of terrorism and its favorable circumstances, the assessment of terrorist threats, education of the public and promotion of co-operation with law enforcement authorities. Measures for the prevention of terrorism may include the activities of operational and intelligence services aimed at protecting the security of the person, the public and the State against external terrorist threats, by applying operational, special and other methods.
After reading the articles, I notice that when a terrorist attack occurs in the world, the terrorists tend to be Muslims. Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but in my mind, the idea is, "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." Such a statement could be used to describe the views of a large group of Westerners about Muslims and about terrorism. Concerning Lithuania, I am glad that such a small country of ours is united with other states and seeks to prevent terrorist attacks.
1. Michael W Doyle, Nicholas Sambanis. The American Political Science Review. Menasha: Dec 2000. Vol. 94, Iss. 4; pg. 779, 23 pgs
2. Diržytė A., Patapas A. Terorizmo sociopsichologiniai ypatumai // Jurisprudencija: mokslo darbai, 2003. T. 38 (30).
3. Vysockienė L. Prieglobstis ir terorizmas: pabėgėlių teisių apsaugos problemos kovojant su terorizmu // Jurisprudencija: mokslo darbai, 2003. T. 44 (36).
4. Gutauskas A., Kalesnykas R., Terorizmas ir jo prevencijos Lietuvoje problema, 2004.
I agree with Dileta that in Lithuania, the Department of State Security protects against terrorism, which ensures state security in case of terrorist incidents, which prevents the development of terrorist activities in Lithuania. There are also 2 security departments in Lithuania that respond to possible communications in Lithuania.
DeleteBy linking Lithuania's destiny Europe, we are also responsible for the future of Europe, which may be influenced by modern terrorism and the nature of the fight against it. this issue is also relevant because of the direct and fundamental link between terrorism and the fight against terrorism, which has been and continues to be the fundamental value orientation of Western civilization.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Lithuania has not experienced any real terrorist threats, this does not mean that they could be more attractive to those who carry out these attacks. Especially as all terrorist attacks are getting more and more difficult to cure, the countries of the European Union have been executed. Terrorism is still considered a major threat to states and society. The activities of security-related authorities should therefore be strengthened and the public should be made more aware not only of terrorist attacks but also of ways and means of protection in the event of danger. Social instruments in the fight against terrorism are linked to the development of civil society, access to information, reduction of unemployment and poverty. Social measures are aimed at reducing the number of people joining terrorist organizations due to social disadvantages. Executing social programs requires significant financial resources and non-corrupt promoters. In addition, the positive results of social programs are not immediately visible, highly dependent on the economic situation in the country. The use of social instruments is a necessary but extremely complex process.
With regard to the international fight against terrorism, it should be noted that the Member States of the European Union, including Lithuania, are committed to combating terrorism together and to ensuring the best possible protection for their citizens.
Literature :
http://www.santaka.info/?sidx=40983
Bardauskaitė, D. (2011). Kovos su terorizmu priemonės: al Qaedos atvejis. Politikos mokslų almanachas, (10), 143-162.
Vaišvila, A. (2005). Terorizmas ir kova su terorizmu–dvi grėsmės žmogaus teisėms (metodologinis aspektas). Jurisprudencija, 68(60), 11-19.
Great post Stella! It is true that a country such as Lithuania should also hold accountability in being a part of Europe’s future with influences regarding terrorism and appropriate responses to it. The continued barriers and directions taken with the exposures of terrorist threats and attacks are definitely challenging, moreover demanding to have the European Union and/or beyond to respond with security. As communities and societies are becoming aware and important to be more aware of terrorism, there has be a balanced measure of protection towards them. Further actions of education with successful utilization of resources in social-economic barriers, will prevent recruitment and as you again mentioned social disadvantages or isolation of individuals. Overall, your explanation of having the distinguishability and reflection of social programs to be promoted in successful implementation of enact necessary interests and challenges to improve quality of care to life.
DeleteThe Department of State Security of the Republic of Lithuania and the Second Department of Operational Services under the Ministry of National Defense evaluated events, processes and trends that have the greatest impact on the national security of the Republic of Lithuania. In the 2019 National Security Threat Assessment Report, they identified the threat to national security for the next six months as unlikely, and for the next two years as undeniable.
ReplyDeleteThe State of Lithuania has assumed and fulfills all international obligations in the field of prevention and control of terrorism.
Events on 1991 of January 13, the attack in Medininkai border crossing point on 1991 of July 31 we can attribute to terrorist attacks. However, there has been no record of terrorist attacks in Lithuania in the last decade.
The main threat to Lithuania's security at the moment was Russia and its aggressive activities in the Euro-Atlantic neighborhood of Lithuania: attempts to influence the internal processes of Western democracies, the use of chemical weapons against a former Russian intelligence officer, aggressive cyber operations both from Russia and Europe.
Also in Lithuania, as in other NATO and EU countries, China's intelligence and security services are becoming more aggressive as China's economic and political ambitions grow. In order to obtain information of interest, Chinese intelligence is trying to recruit Lithuanian citizens.
Overcoming terrorism is one of NATO's strategic tasks. Security services and scientists are actively involved in this mission and in the development of anti-terrorist policies. Scientists analyze the phenomenon of terrorism from political, economic, legal, historical, sociopsychological points of view. The purpose is to determine why some individuals become terrorists, what their psyche is and how they can be effective in combating terrorism
I agree with the opinion expressed by Jerold M. Post that we do not fully know the psychology of terrorist. To discourage terrorists from engaging in terrorist attacks, we need to understand what compels them to do so? Most of terrorists are not psychopaths, they are normal mental states with clear group, organizational and social psychology and collective identity. According to the author, terrorism differs in its structure and dynamics and therefore the policy of terrorism should be adapted. Post emphasizes that terrorists cannot be forced not to commit terrorist attacks. Anti-terrorism policies should be directed at the head of state and government.
The post emphasizes that in order to prevent the escalation of terrorism, much attention must be paid to marginalized and vulnerable youth. Social work with families and children can be helpful in this area. To educate youth, this would reduce the number of potential terrorists joining terrorist groups. Another way is to create tension and pressure within the group. It is also important to be able to withdraw from a terrorist group through amnesty programs and so on. Minimize support for the group and its leader in every possible way. Educate the public that terrorist killers, which are damaging the economy and society as a whole, not cultural heroes, are announcing an amnesty program that allows terrorists to return to an earlier life.
Analyzing the political decisions of states that have an emotionally traumatic, negative impact on the lives of certain social or ethnic groups can predict the security of the states themselves, making peace policy, a genuine respect for human rights by the state and every member of society.
Fighting terrorism is not a quick process, but an effective way to reduce it.
Literature:
1. Post.J. M, The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism.
2. Diržytė A., Patapas A. Terorizmo sociopsichologiniai ypatumai // Jurisprudencija: mokslo darbai, 2003. T. 38 (30).
3. https://www.vsd.lt/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2020-Gresmes-LT-.pdf
4. Gutauskas A., Kalesnykas R., Terorizmas ir jo prevencijos Lietuvoje problema, 2004.
First I'll mention that while answering this question I've mentioned some terrorist groups as they are accepted by the government of Turkey and based on the literature. Therefore, not all the Kurdish or Marksist people are necessarily have to be terrorist. Respect to all my colleagues from any ethnic groups and ideologies.
ReplyDeleteCurrent terrorism in Turkey has its roots in the 1960s. For instance, between 1978 and 1982, 43.000 terrorist incidents were recorded. And these attacks were done by three main groups: Kurdish separatism, Radical Islamism and Marxism(Rodoplu, 2003). I’ll explain 1) Kurdish separatism and 2) Marxism in detail.
The PKK(Partiya Karrekeren Kurdistan) that is Kurdish separatist group, is the most known, and accepted by the government of Turkey and majority of Turkısh people (usually from west part/ non-kurdish people), as a terrorist group in Turkey. Based on Jerrold’s article, PKK is a nationalist- separatist terrorist group(Post, 2005), which seeks to establish their own nation, Kurdistan in the region of southeast Turkey, north Syria, and west Iraq. In line with Jerrold article, as he says this type of terrorist groups are the most active ones in the world(Post, 2005), the PKK is the most active and empowered one in Turkey. Just as he describes, these Kurdish people are loyal to their ancestry and families and disloyal to the regime and they are kind of getting revenge(Post, 2005). And this groups’ attacks take form of rocket, landmine, bombing, suicide bombing, metal additive and so on. Until 2001 more than 10 suicide bombing cases were reported(Rodoplu,2003). In addition, this group expended their strategy by targeting some other West Europe countries.
The second group is Leftist Terrorsit group which seeks to have a state of Turkey accordingly Marx principle (Rodoplu, 2003). This group is a social- revolutionary terrorism(Post, 2005). In 1970s Leftist students were becoming popular and as they got huge amount of members they got power and caused a civil war in Turkey. Then they were sentenced to death by hanging. Deniz Gezmiş, known as Turkey’s Ché Guevara, the most popular one, was leading many young people in Turkey, encouraging, empowering and arming them. It was wrong because if sufferers, victims of the system, use the same methods as they were treated by the powered ones, then only dominance changes hand and terrorism never ends. And it means the system is creating its own terrorists. Possible to see the same story in ‘animal farm’ book, New Brave World and 1984 books or Tv shows like Snowpiercer, Altered Carbon and Westworld..
Zimbardo says about turning to a bad person should be thought here due to the importance of ‘social effect’ while thinking of terrorism. Each of us actually has a lucifer in us and we have potentiality to do evil things under some circumstances (maybe not attacking people with guns but still harm them). He supports the idea that in some level it is possible to avoid to be influenced for doing bad things. We should understand how social influence operates, by analysing experiments like Stanford Prison, and become careful consumers instead easily obedience individuals. Try to be conscious all the time toward any kind of stimulus and ideas..
Lastly, for the intervention, I agree with Post that by reducing the potential terrorists from joining the group should be one of the most important duties of social workers in Turkey. Enhancing educational facilities, visiting families, encouraging those young people to get educated, get into parliament with their legal rights then raise voice for what their nation wants.
References
Post, J. M. (2005). The new face of terrorism: Socio-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Behav. Sci. & L., 23, 451.
Rodoplu, U., Arnold, J., & Ersoy, G. (2003). Terrorism in Turkey. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 18(02), 152–160. doi:10.1017/s1049023x00000923
Zimbardo, P. G. (2011). Lucifer effect. The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology.
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ReplyDeleteFor many countries in the world, the fight against terrorism is one of our top priorities today. Terrorism, despite its enormous focus, remains one of the most difficult to define. Lithuania has little to no history of terrorism, while that is a good sign it doesn’t mean precautions shouldn’t be made to stop potential terrorism from happening. After analyzing material provided by Post (2005) I came to conclusion that terrorism in Lithuania could occur from religious groups or prisoners.
ReplyDeleteAt first glance prisoners might seem like good candidates to turn to terrorism but it doesn’t seem to be the case. While prisoners might be in a weaker mental state, they do not tend to look for political or religious purposes/gains which is one of the main reasons why terrorism is happening, but rather join a group of people inside jail for safety or protection what usually turns into internal conflict against jail wards or other groups in jail. Religion seems to be more dangerous. Religion tends to turn to radical views more often, because of every individual understanding the holy reading in a different, religion is also accessible by all type of people. Which include low income families, problematic individuals, ill people. Those individuals more susceptible and vulnerable to charismatic leaders who are in search of power, they have outrageous ideas and promise help. Such ideas inspire hope in people and they join religious cults willingly, in which they are easily manipulated into ideologies of leader which in turn forms collective identity. Collective identity is foundation of terrorism groups, as noticed by Post (2005)” It is group, organizational and social psychology, with a particular emphasis on collective identity, rather than individual psychopathology, that is the foundation of terrorist psychology.” Can easily in turn to terrorism if the leader whishes to do so to gain power, which also was noticed by Philip George Zimbardo in his Stanford jail 1971 experment where students were placed in positions of prisioners and jail wardens. Wardens quickly felt the power and started abusing prisoners. It has shown that people are cruel and their negative qualities become apparent as soon as the conditions are right.
It can be concluded that power and environmental conditions have a major influence on the emergence of terrorism. I believe social workers could help prevent terrorism or mitigate terrorism by building trust with vulnerable individuals so they can open up if they belong to sects or any other type of organization. Spreading information through medias how religion might also be dangerous if you’re easily affected by different opinions and ideologies. Working in schools with Religion teachers to understand the dangers and benefits of religion.
References:
Post, J. M. (2005). The new face of terrorism: Socio-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Behav. Sci. & L., 23, 451.
Zimbardo, P. G. (2011). Lucifer effect. The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology.
After reading the articles on terrorism, it can be argued that conflicts are undoubtedly the result of disagreement. Disagreement arises when disputes arise, reluctance to settle, and disputing parties do not seek a compromise solution. Terrorist attacks have long been a threat worldwide. Practically every day terrorist attacks take place somewhere. With the increasing globalization, this threat is increasing as terrorists can use their modern communication tools to spread their ideology, recruit new members, plan and coordinate terrorist attacks without even face to face. So nowadays, the threat of terrorist attacks is on everyone, regardless of national borders, nationality or religion.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of terrorism was approved in Lithuania in 2004. 15 June Updated programs of the Republic of Lithuania against terrorism approved by decision of the State Defense Council. The National Security Strategy of the Republic of Lithuania identifies international terrorism as one of the factors shaping the Lithuanian security policy agenda. Terrorism poses a serious threat to the security of the international community and thus to Lithuania. However, for Lithuania this threat is more external - the current domestic situation and historical experience do not allow for the establishment of internal terrorist groups. The main threat comes from international terrorism.
Lithuania is active in international counter-terrorism formats. During the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council in 2013 In the second half of the year, Lithuanian representatives chaired working groups on internal and external aspects of the Council of the European Union. As it can be seen, due to the increasing challenge of globalization in European and world countries, Lithuania needs to become more aware not only of the phenomenon of terrorism, but also to adjust the measures used to prevent the occurrence and spread of this phenomenon.
The legal framework for the prevention of and fight against terrorism consists of the conventions ratified by Lithuania, international treaties on cooperation in combating terrorism, laws establishing various counter-terrorism measures, as well as substatutory legal acts establishing the competence of the Government and its authorized institutions area.
It is also important to implement community-oriented policing models that enable the police to better understand and know the problems of communities and the ability to work with vulnerable people. A National Program for the Prevention of Violent Extremism should also be established, which should consolidate national priorities for the prevention of violent extremism and involve the widest possible range of institutions and partners - NGOs, youth, civil society organizations, religious, cultural and educational leaders, media and the private sector.
The Program should be consistent with the objectives of Sustainable Growth such as poverty eradication, quality education and access to lifelong learning, gender equality, sustainable, inclusive and long-term economic growth, productive employment, access to employment for all, reduction of inequalities within and across countries. Long-term conflicts are one of the strongest drivers of violent extremism, and every effort must be made to resolve them. There is a need to invest in education, especially in early childhood, ensuring that all children have equal access to inclusive, high-quality education. It is proposed to implement soft skills, critical thinking and digital literacy programs and to include civic education in school curricula. It is recommended to create socio-economic opportunities in rural and urban areas by providing skills training and employment opportunities, and providing young people with additional career opportunities through an entrepreneurial culture and related education.
Terrorism is violence, although not all violence is terrorism. The types of violence are equally different. Coercion can be legal or illegal. Terrorism is politically motivated, premeditated and continuous, and it is unlawful for radical non-state actors to change the current sociopolitical situation by intimidating society or individual groups.
ReplyDeleteToday, terrorism is both global and international. Global because the geography of terrorist attacks has expanded so much that there are fewer countries in the world who have not experienced terrorism than those who have experienced it in one way or another. It is noteworthy that the spread of transnational terrorism is directly related to globalization, and terrorism itself poses a serious threat to the communities of the world and thus to the security of Lithuania, but this threat is more external to the Republic of Lithuania. It is noted that globalization does not only bring about positive changes in society. It also poses a threat to international terrorism and international crime. The listed real threats related to terrorism in Lithuania are primarily those related to the illegal use of deadly hazardous substances (radioactive, biological and chemical) and immigration (both legal and illegal).
The threat of terrorism to Lithuania is also seen in a completely different area - social. This is case with the challenges of migration. In the Lithuanian context, this refers to immigrants and other foreign nationals who have entered the territory of the Republic of Lithuania both legally and illegally. Several common measures to prevent terrorism in Lithuania include the development of a common legal framework for the fight against terrorism, the protection of potential terrorist targets, the identification and termination of potential terrorist groups and their sources of financing and financing, strengthening intelligence and counterintelligence.
In view of the global threat of international terrorism, it would appear that the Lithuanian authorities should have already taken steps to form new or separate specific responsible structures and units in Lithuanian special services and law enforcement and law enforcement agencies, with specialists trained and trained abroad, able to identify professionally and promptly the ideological orientations of individuals and their groups, their relationships and activities, and their ability to act both preventively and as a response to terrorist attacks. However, while legislation and other documents and structures are relatively easy to develop, it is much more difficult to find specialists for those structures. Specialists here are understood in two ways - professionals with relevant education and practical experience. There is a shortage of such in Lithuania. At the level of practical skills, the staff of the relevant state institutions of the Republic of Lithuania should have a consistent period of traineeships with the counter-terrorism institutions of the countries facing terrorism.
References:
• Račius, E. (2005). Terorizmo globalumas: žvilgsnis iš Lietuvos. Lietuvos metinė strateginė apžvalga, 3, 11-38.
• Gutauskas, A., Kalesnykas, R., & Petrošius, D. (2004). Terorizmas ir jo prevencijos Lietuvoje problema. Jurisprudencija, 63(55), 24-45.
• Post.J. M, The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism
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DeleteI agree with your answer and I would like to add that we need to be even more aware, because you never know when a terrorist attack will occur. Although Lithuania is small country, but the world is changing, people are migrating from one country to another and most of the time it's too late to do something, the damage done, and we just hear the saying that we weren't ready. We should pay more attention to this question
DeleteWhile i do not believe, lithuania will have any issues with terrorism soon since we do not too much impact on the world or any important strategical targets we do have well known special forces known as Aitvaras who could deal with terrorism quite well.But i do agree there should be more work done on immigration policies. Currently its too easy, for eastern part of europe to travel, to lithuania especially for russians. While it might seem like easier movement is good, in reality it doesn't help us. Since rusians already put too much political pressure on Lithuania, letting them into our country unchecked could lead into terrorism attacks, similar to what happened on January 13th.
DeleteThe situation of terrorism prevention and counter – terrorism in Lithuania and it’s evaluation in Lithuania society, as well as integration into global and Western institutions (eg. NATO membership on 29 March 2004 and EU membership on 1 May 2004).
ReplyDeleteIn order to describe the situation of prevention and control of terrorism and its evaluation in Lithuania, it is important to analyze the possible preconditions for the emergence of terrorism, the current level and prevalence of terrorism, and how and by what means secret activities in liquidation and investigation are performed.
As aforementioned, Lithuania features a low GTI of the threat from terrorism. For this reason, both the arriving and the local tourists are fairly safe in Lithuania. Nevertheless, with the increasing number of outbound tourists, the Lithuanians run the risk of becoming the victims of terrorist attacks beyond the borders of their country. We have already recorded cases when Lithuanians hap
pened to find themselves at the points of terrorist attacks (e.g., during the terrorist attack of 8 January 2016 which took place in Hurgada’s Bella Vista resort in Egypt, 10 Lithuanians were present in the attacked hotel), we also have recorded a victim of terrorism (in 2013, a climber from Lithuania was killed in Pakistan). For this reason, the research aimed to learn the attitude of Lithuanians to security, i.e. to evaluate the perception of the threat from terrorism). It turned out that the Lithuanian tourists are most affected by the following factors when choosing their travel destinations: price, the risk of terrorism, accessibility, friends’ responses, campaigns/special offers/discounts and security in terms of criminality. The factors that have the least effect are as follows: travel operators, advertisements, media, press releases by state institutions, public opinion and the level of development of the tourist destination.
After reading the theories of Post and Zimbardo, the idea emerged that there was a need for as many streets as social workers to talk about young people who are more easily recruited to join terrorism. Their main task would be to go out to the community and try to connect with people, get to know them, answer questions, communicate and show that life is not just violence, that there can be positive things in the world, make them feel needed, valuable and important. Parents could also be involved in counseling them so they can have more help and knowledge to help their child.
References:
1. Gutauskas, A., Kalesnykas, R., & Petrošius, D. (2004). Terorizmas ir jo prevencijos Lietuvoje problema. Jurisprudencija, 63(55), 32-33.
2. Mikėnas, E., Survila A., Žuromskaitė B. (2017). The Impact of Terrorism on the Tourism Sector of Lithuania. Montenegrin Journal of Economics. 3 (2017), 101.
3. Zimbardo, P. G. (2011). Lucifer effect. The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology.
Terrorists are looking for big targets, for headlines, because then they look bigger than they really are, so they focus their attention on the United States, the United Kingdom and France. According to British terrorism expert Tasnime Akunjee, Lithuania is a small and less attractive target for people who want to influence global politics, so there are no indicators that terrorist attacks in Lithuania are likely. These days terrorism is no longer based solely on violence or fear of violence - it includes phenomena such as communication disruption, hacking into databases and so on.
ReplyDeleteThe last time a terrorist attack took place in Lithuania was in 1998 - the explosion took place at the ,,Iki” shop in Kaunas, and that was the only incident that could be linked to a terrorist attack - one committed by an unknown criminal. In 2002 Government of Lithuania, allocated 7 mln. litas for the work of security institutions and the threat of terrorism. Since then, there have been no terrorist attacks in Lithuania and there are no indicators that such attacks are likely to occur in the country. In fact, it makes sense, because of the history of Lithuania - the country had no colonies, did not cultivate a negative attitude towards of any Islamic country, Lithuania has a Tatar population that has been living here successfully and quite peacefully for over 700 years.
According to Post (2005) traditional groups include Islamic, Jewish, Christian and Sikh radical fundamentalist extremists. In contrast to social revolutionary and nationalist–separatist terrorists, for religious fundamentalist extremist groups, the decision-making role of the pre-eminent leader is of central importance. For these true believers, the radical cleric is seen as the authentic interpreter of God’s word, not only eliminating any ambivalence about killing, but endowing the destruction of the defined enemy with sacred significance. A vigorous public education program, framing the terrorists as murderers who were damaging the economy and hurting the entire society, rather than cultural heroes, in concert with an effective amnesty program, the pentiti program, was instrumental in breaking the back of the social-revolutionary movement, with a major reduction in public support for the group. All of these goals are components of a strategic communication process that must be a central component of our anti-terrorist policy. This is not a policy that will swiftly end terrorism, but a process that must be put in place (Post, 2005). In my opinion, all countries should have an anti-terrorist policy, just in case. In addition, all countries should educate their citizens about terrorism and its consequences.
Philip Zimbardo has studied human behavior in social situations for decades, and his efforts have given us some of the most memorable glimpses into the surprising possibilities of social behavior. There is one important distinction is that between physical risk and social risk types of heroism. Heroism in service of a noble idea is usually not as dramatic as physical risk heroism. However, physical risk is often the result of a snap decision, a moment of action. Further, physical risk heroism usually involves a probability not the certainty of serious injury or death (Zimbardo, 2007). Zimbardo said that heroism exists, and ultimately decided that heroism is banal, just like evil. The fight against terrorism or the prevention and control of terrorism is impossible without reconnaissance and operational activities. Reconnaissance in the fight against terrorism differs from classic military, political or criminal reconnaissance.
Post, J. M. (2005). The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 23, 451-465.
Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil.
Lithuania has taken great care of its security. The international community drew attention to the topic of terrorism even before World War II and already in 1934 put the issue on its agenda. Member States of the United Nations, 2006 In September 2005, it launched a new phase in the fight against terrorism by adopting a Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. It was the first time that United Nations member states had agreed on a common strategic and operational framework in the fight against terrorism. This strategy is at the heart of a concrete action plan: it is a constraint on the conditions favorable to the development of terrorism; prevention of and fight against terrorism; implementation of measures to strengthen states' ability to fight terrorism; Strengthening the role of the United Nations in the fight against terrorism; respect for and protection of human rights in the fight against terrorism. In December 2005, the European Union launched its Counter-Terrorism Strategy, which focuses on four aspects of the fight against terrorism: prevention, protection, prosecution and response. So, to prevent terrorism, all these strategies have been developed and adopted. According to Ivanauskienė and Makštutytė, Following terrorist attack social workers engage in short-term and long-term interventions with victims. The most effective interventions are on the macro level, which means group work and community interventions. Group work is indispensable after traumatic events and can serve as a counterforce to bleak outcomes that result in isolation after disaster occurs. It is suggested to use cognitive behavioral strategies in group work to empower young people to cope with intrusive insights (Malekof, 2008).
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Post (2005), I agree that terrorism stems from political controversy. I was struck by the author's story of an eight-year-old boy whose dad died and how he studied the art of explosives and how he became a participant in mass victim terrorism. That is why I agree that most of the difficult experiences that have gone through themselves are taking that atrocity.
References:
1. https://urm.lt/default/lt/uzsienio-politika/uzsienio-politikos-prioritetai/lietuvos-saugumo-politika/kova-su-terorizmu
2. Post, J. (2005). The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism.
3. Ivanauskienė, V., Makštutytė, R. (2012). Terrorism : implications for international social work. Tiltai.Klaipėda : Klaipėdos universiteto leidykla, 2012, nr. 2(59)
Globalization processes lead not only to positive changes, but also and negative trends. As a result, all of humanity is immersed in the challenges of globalization: international terrorism, illegal migration, drug addiction. In Lithuania 2013 July 2 Amendments1 broaden the definition of terrorist offense, The Criminal Code is complemented by new terrorist activities - recruitment for terrorism, threat of terrorist offense, financing and sponsorship of terrorist activities, training of terrorists, statutory "terrorist offenses", "terrorist-related offenses", disclosure of "terrorist purposes" (Lithuania Republic The Criminal Code, 2013). But what is terrorism, the act of terror, whatever its limits, is not a single opinion, there is no universal definition, even though it is supposed to exist. The world states have not yet agreed on a universal convention that would define terrorism, terrorism, act of terrorism and provide sanctions against it. This is largely due to political reasons - the lack of disagreement between individual countries over freedom fighters, national liberation movements, and the exercise of the peoples' right to self-determination (Pakštaitis, 2016, p. 61).
ReplyDeletePakštaitis (2016), defines such goals to terrorist targets to force the state or organization, or to destabilize, to destroy the state as an alternative. In contrast to the social-revolutionary terrorist groups, nationalist–separatist terrorism continues as one of the two predominant terrorist types active today. Also known as ethno-nationalist terrorism, these groups are fighting to establish a new
political order or state based on ethnic dominance or homogeneity (Post,2005).
In my opinion from Post article I can learn about the goals of terrorism - is the desire for revenge against damages for the family, community support strengthened for the attacks, authority of religious. Like reading Zimbardo article it was more about being survivor like in Rwanda report that woman are not save even in your community, neighborhood eve in home than sleeping with your husband it can be your last night. Reading both articles understand one thing that the biggest prisons of thought are in our head, minds are the biggest weapon. Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds (Roosevelt).This situation in Standford Prison shows that minds are influence of decision, good soldiers can to do such a bad things, so good people are changing by influence of a bad place.
Social work intervention to mitigate the terrorism on of the step which Post (2005) sees components of strategic communication process that must be a central component of our anti-terrorist policy. This is not a policy that will swiftly end terrorism, but a process that must be put in place.
ReplyDeleteThe threat of terrorism as a global crisis has long been analyzed. As regards the international fight against terrorism, it should be noted that the Member States of the European Union, including Lithuania, are committed to combating terrorism and to ensuring the best possible protection of their citizens.
The threat of terrorism in Lithuania's official documents is also seen in a completely different area - the social one. This is in particular the case with the challenges of migration. In the Lithuanian context, this refers to immigrants and other foreign nationals who have entered the territory of the Republic of Lithuania both legally and illegally. The position of foreign nationals in the territory of Lithuania is governed by the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Legal Status of Aliens, adopted in 2004. April 29th
In examining the potential terrorist threat to Finland, Archer says that "a terrorist attack requires opportunities and motives." So what is the probability of a terrorist attack in Lithuania? Opportunities are human, financial and material resources. As already mentioned, the probability of a planned and executed terrorist attack by immigrants or other foreign nationals in Lithuania is low, primarily due to the small number of people willing and able to engage in such activities. To date, there are no radical politically motivated organizations or informal groups in Lithuania. This does not, of course, mean that there are no individuals inclined to violence who can justify their actions on political grounds. As regards the threat of terrorism, it is today associated with one of the most at-risk Muslims in the world. Muslim extremists are responsible for many of the terrorist attacks and their victims in the last decade, and are often the subject of media coverage and interest from experts, both theoreticians and practitioners. However, the Muslim community in Lithuania remains dwarf, as compared to those living in Finland or Poland. And while it is marginalized and negatively described in the local media and in society, the social tensions between the indigenous (non-Muslim) majority and the arrivals and Muslim minorities prevalent in many EU Member States are not even manifested in Lithuania.
References:
1.Račius, E. (2004). Terorizmo globalumas: žvilgsnis iš Lietuvos // Vilniaus universiteto Tarptautinių santykių ir politikos mokslų institutas Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija
2.Černiauskienė, N. (2005). TERORIZMO GRĖSMĖ GLOBALINIŲ KRIZIŲ VALDYMO KONTEKSTE, 68(60); 58–65.
The National Security Strategic International Terrorism of the Republic of Lithuania is identified as one of the factors shaping the security policy agenda of Lithuania. Terrorism poses a serious threat to the security of the international community and thus of Lithuania. But for Lithuania, this threat is more than external - the current domestic situation and historical experience are incompatible with the conditions for the establishment of terrorist groups. The main threat comes from international terrorism.
ReplyDeleteLithuania's most popular international forms of counter-terrorism. During the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Council in 2013 For the second time, Lithuanian representatives chaired working groups on internal and external aspects of the Council of the European Union.
At the beginning of 2014, Lithuania began serving on the United Nations Security Council, which lasted two years. Lithuania also chaired the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committees and such working groups.
Jerrold M. Post argued that “When ‘‘hatred is bred in the bone,’’ and passed from generation to generation, it does not yield easily to peace talks“. When a person is in a terrorist group for a long time, his fundamental values and cultural awareness change. A social worker could work with children, their families, groups of people that to bring new values and perceptions to the world.
“Countering the terrorists’ highly effective media-oriented strategy through more effective dissemination of information and public education must be key elements of a pro-active program.“ (Jerrold M. Post, 2005).
Furthermore, to prevent terrorism according to the European parliament weapon and air passenger data control is must, also, cooperation and border security between countries.
References:
1. Post.J. M, The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism
2. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/lt/headlines/security/20180316STO99922/kova-su-terorizmu-es-priemoniu-apzvalga-infografikas
3. https://urm.lt/default/lt/uzsienio-politika/uzsienio-politikos-prioritetai/lietuvos-saugumo-politika/kova-su-terorizmu
Thank you Migle for your response. I have learned something new about the threat of international terrorism in Lithuania. I want to read more about the Lithuanian presidency over the EU and the work they did around international and external threats of terror. In my post I talked about restorative justice approach but now am second thinking that approach based off the quote you mentioned by Post about hatred beig bred in the bone and how those bred in that manner are not likely to be open to peace talks. I also appreciate you speaking about ones own awareness. How aware we are of ourselves and the influences we have over others who are less powerful is a topic needing to be discussed.
DeleteIn Canada, there has been a long and devastating history of events that occurred by the government to Indigenous people. Not only did the government systematically kill Indigenous people, they spread this belief of hatred and fear towards Indigenous people to all of society. Similar to the horrifying wars in China, Rwanda, and Germany, there was a stereotype which dehumanized Indigenous people and made them out to be the enemy which became widely accepted and conformity to it occurred (“National Inquiry”, 2019; Proulx, 2014; Zimbardo, 2007). This belief was set out by the government. This belief allowed the violent extremisms and acts of evils the Colonial government committed to be accepted. Indigenous people were made out to be “savages,” and the only solution was “to kill the Indian in the child” (“National Inquiry”, 2019).
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, to this day the beliefs and stereotypes that influenced the genocide of Indigenous people in Canada, maintains today, and is one of the reasons why Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered but the government continues to leave it unaddressed (“National Inquiry”, 2019) or why police officers get away with performing “starlight tours”. A starlight tours is a term used to describe when a police officer would find an Indigenous man late at night in the midst of winter and drive them miles out of the city and leave them there to find their way home, often resulting in the individual to freeze to death.
Social work intervention in Canada, although often done in good faith has perpetually acted upon the fear and conformity that has be caused and based upon the beliefs made about Indigenous people. Therefore I think a social work intervention to mitigate the terrorism, the violent extremism, and acts of evils caused by the belief that Indigenous people are the enemy, must be one which is actively committed to becoming allies and advocating for the recognition that Indigenous are first and foremost human beings, and should be treated with respect. Social workers, according to Zimbardo (2007), must also be able to and continually work to recognize and resist false information being spread about Indigenous people and their current and past relations with the government. In addition, I think social work intervention must also include a social worker taking responsibility for their actions, actions that may have been done in good faith but failed. This for example, could be social workers recognizing when their intervention results in an Indigenous child being put into foster care, whether it was done with good faith or by biased beliefs that caused fear and conformity against Indigenous people.
References:
1.National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (2019). Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (Volume 1a). Retrieved from http://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/
2.Proulx, C. (2014). Colonizing Surveillance: Canada Constructs an Indigenous Terror Threat. Canadian Anthropology Society, 56(1), pp. 83 -100. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/24469643
3.Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil. New York, NY: Random House
My country is small and safe. While alarming sings are being watched in the information space, they are cyberattacks against government agencies, banks, business organizations. ,,Trolls“ also try to incite national and sometimes racial hatred on the internet. Jerrold M. Post writes about but in fact terrorism is usually dated back to the early 1970s, represented by the radical Palestinian terrorist group. In the early years of the modern era of terrorism, two terrorist types dominanted the landscape. They were the social-revolutionary terrorists and the nationalist-separatist terrorists. Oh DR. Phil examined what makes a good person do bad things, the ‚‘‘Lucifer effect“. Now, they will continue to explore blind obedience to authority and how social influences can have negative impact on your life. Both authors talk about how ordinary people sometimes turn evil and commit unspeakable acts. Principle 4 Identifying and Developing Strengths-Social workers should focus on the strengths of all individuals, groups and communities and thus promote the..... In order to prepare for the provision of measures is envisaged during the prie-crisis preparation phase. This phase involes strategic planning, training groups of professionals and paraprofessionals on how to deal with an emergency, identifying who needs to do what, where and what to do, and providing assistance. In the second phase, individuals or groups are subjected to acute crisis intervention. Three main goals of the intervention are envisaged: reducing stress, relieving symptoms, and restoring adaptation mechanisms to referral for further assistance. During the post-crisis period, we work with individuals and small groups, and post-work. Properly conducted post-accident group mitigation of the psychosocial effects of trauma and reduced the likelihood of developing post-traumatic stress syndrome. I can point to several initiatives and events that are helping set our profession on a course that will tap into its full potential to respond to human need and build more resilient communities.
ReplyDeletePost.J. M, The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism.
Zimbardo, P. G. (2011). Lucifer effect. The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology.
In Lithuania, the threat of terrorism is not negligible, and it is no mistake to state that the state of Lithuania focuses on the prevention of terrorism in its fight against terrorism. In this sense, prevention of terrorism means the implementation of measures by public authorities to prevent terrorism, the prevention of the spread of terrorism and its favorable circumstances, the assessment of terrorist threats, education of the public and the promotion of co-operation with law enforcement authorities. But in the world, terrorism is a very serious problem that needs more attention. At the global level, the fight against terrorism requires more than just prevention.
ReplyDeletePhilip Zimbard, a professor at Stanford University and Scott Plous, an academic social psychologist currently working as a professor of psychology at Wesleyan University, in an article published in 2005 entitled How Social Science Can Reduce Terrorism, analyzes the events of September 11, 2001, and trying to describe the psychological portrait of the perpetrator of terrorist acts. After this research researchers came to some fundamental conclusions.
Terrorists differ greatly from other people in self-esteem, religiosity, socioeconomic status, education, or personality traits such as introversion. Nasr Hassan, who spent years studying Palestinian terrorists, put it this way during a lecture she gave in 2002: “What is frightening is not the abnormality of those who carry out the suicide attacks, but their sheer normality.” Thus far, behavioral research has found only one psychological attribute that reliably differentiates terrorists from nonterrorists: a propensity toward anger. In the words of a National Research Council report titled “Terrorism: Perspectives From the Behavioral and Social Sciences”: “There is no single or typical mentality—much less a specific pathology—of terrorists. However, terrorists find significant gratification in the expression of generalized rage.” Beyond various sociopolitical, economic, and religious objectives, one of the most common motivations for joining a terrorist organization is the desire for revenge or retribution for a perceived injustice. Many terrorists report that acts of violence committed by police officers, soldiers, or others are what led them to join a terrorist group. Studies by Ariel Merari and others have found, for example, that Palestinian suicide bombers often have at least one relative or close friend who was killed or injured by the other side. In addition to harboring intense anger over a perceived injustice, terrorists differ from the general public in their demographic composition. Although exceptions exist, terrorists are usually males between 15 and 30 years of age—the same population most likely to commit a violent crime in general, and the demographic group least likely to be deterred by the threat of physical force.
Professor Philip Zimbardo conducted a study in 1971 on August 14 - 20 - the Stanford prison experiment. A prison simulation study which had to be discontinued after only six days due to several distressing outcomes and mental breaks of the participants. The research has given us an idea of why good people do bad things and call it the Lucifer effect. The main conclusion of the study was that the environment encourages human behavior. This is where the social worker must come and provide services to the individual and his or her environment to prevent his or her cruel behavior. It is very important to provide timely assistance to a person who is experiencing severe shocks, bereavement or bullying.
References:
ReplyDelete1. Aurelijus Gutauskas, Raimundas Kalesnykas, Darius Petrošius (2004). TERORIZMAS IR JO PREVENCIJOS LIETUVOJE PROBLEMA. Jurisprudencija, 2004, t. 63(55); 24–45
2. Philip Zimbard, Scott Plous (2005). How Social Science Can Reduce Terrorism. A Publication of the Society for General Psychology. Division One of the American Psychological Association Volume 40, No. 1 - Spring 2005
3. 1999-2020, Philip G. Zimbardo. Social Psychology Network. Stanford prison experiment.https://www.prisonexp.org/the-story
There are no terrorists in Lithuania who may adversely affect Lithuanian politics or security. In my opinion, terrorists in Lithuania may be criminals who have served their sentences in prison, members of a particular religious group or sect.
ReplyDeleteI have analized the material provided by Post (2005) and Zimbardo (2008), preventing and resolving violent extremism and acts of evil is not short and internal organizational limitations can help mitigate terrorism. According to Post (2005) and Zimbardo (2008), social work intervention can mitigate terrorism by preventing individuals from joining terrorist groupings, promoting stronger diplomatic meddling , to reform the education system, paying more attention to terrorist groups and their work. Disseminating information through the media, openly acknowledging the "dark side of religion", in terms of about howreligion-based value systems can be distorted to justify and reward the most terrible of human deeds. To create group discord to increase group competition and tension through effective means, to provide information on potential "traitors" , thereby facilitating the individual's withdrawal from the group. To rganize amnesty programs that offer, where for less punishment in or amnesty, to cooperate with the government. This can facilitate not only withdrawal but also strife within the group. To reduce group support and discredit group leaders.
I appreciated that you mentioned reforming education systems as a method of preventing/addressing terrorism. It has me thinking about the opportunities we have to teach kids who may be growing up with families who are connected to terrorist groups about other ideas and values to hopefully combat harmful ideas. Just putting people in front of different ideas and options could start small changes in people's thinking. This goes along with Post's ideas of promoting discord within a group or less support for the group/its leader. I also agree that it is important to provide amnesty programs for people who may be wanting to leave a terrorist group to do so safely.
DeleteTerrorism – one of least predictable violent event wich humanity was forced to face in the last few decades. Worldvide comunities come in contact with terrorism acts and become witnesses of it on day to day basis, these acts are organized mostly by organizations with different politic, religious, etnic agendas. I think terrorism is one of the most dangerous crimes, its level and a paricular form of manifestation, in one hand it shows the community view on this matter and on other hand it shows efectiveness of separate countries and international comunities effort towards solving quetions related to terrorism. There is no known Islamic terrorist atack yet in Lithuania. It can be said that terrorist atacks was long time ago, for rgzample like genocide and massive killings. It was just a begining of Lithuanians genocide. Meanwhile Soviet Union was preparing to withdraw the guarantor of the nation‘s life – independency.
ReplyDeletePhilip Zimbardo whriting in the area of social- psychological, group behavior and the social- psychological pressures that facilitate immoral or illegal conduct, as well as my investigation and analusis of the forces that contributed to egregious behavior of Military Police, guards and civilian interrogators.
One does not counter psychological warfare with smart bombs and missiles,
although they can certainly play a useful role in a military campaign against
harboring states. One counters psychological warfare with psychological warfare.
In the long run, the most effective ways of countering terrorism are the following.
• Inhibit Potential Terrorists from Joining the Group.
• Produce Dissension Within the Group.
• Facilitate Exit from the Group.
Reduce Support for the Group and Its Leader
In most of the countires its not only security services are working on taking action againt terrorism, but the scientists are involved aswell. They analize the data they get from social media, politicians, religious representitives.Lately there was more and more atention towards sociopshychology wich is related to terrorism. It is said that if you want to understand terrorism – you need to analize the motivation, thiking of a person and the personality.
Terrorism – one of least predictable violent event wich humanity was forced to face in the last few decades. Worldvide comunities come in contact with terrorism acts and become witnesses of it on day to day basis, these acts are organized mostly by organizations with different politic, religious, etnic agendas. I think terrorism is one of the most dangerous crimes, its level and a paricular form of manifestation, in one hand it shows the community view on this matter and on other hand it shows efectiveness of separate countries and international comunities effort towards solving quetions related to terrorism. There is no known Islamic terrorist atack yet in Lithuania. It can be said that terrorist atacks was long time ago, for rgzample like genocide and massive killings. It was just a begining of Lithuanians genocide. Meanwhile Soviet Union was preparing to withdraw the guarantor of the nation‘s life – independency.
ReplyDeletePhilip Zimbardo whriting in the area of social- psychological, group behavior and the social- psychological pressures that facilitate immoral or illegal conduct, as well as my investigation and analusis of the forces that contributed to egregious behavior of Military Police, guards and civilian interrogators.
One does not counter psychological warfare with smart bombs and missiles,
although they can certainly play a useful role in a military campaign against
harboring states. One counters psychological warfare with psychological warfare.
In the long run, the most effective ways of countering terrorism are the following.
• Inhibit Potential Terrorists from Joining the Group.
• Produce Dissension Within the Group.
• Facilitate Exit from the Group.
Reduce Support for the Group and Its Leader
In most of the countires its not only security services are working on taking action againt terrorism, but the scientists are involved aswell. They analize the data they get from social media, politicians, religious representitives.Lately there was more and more atention towards sociopshychology wich is related to terrorism. It is said that if you want to understand terrorism – you need to analize the motivation, thiking of a person and the personality.
The dreaded Boko Haram is based in the northeastern Nigeria (Maiduguri in Borno state) was formed in 2002 by Mohammed Yusuf but became an insurgent group in 2009 under Abubakar Shekau drawing their ideologies from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Initially their aim was to sanitize Islam in Nigeria and to impose sharia (Islamic) law in probably all states in Nigeria. Boko haram means non-Western and they frown on anything western. They claim "Western" or "non-Islamic" education is a sin and opposes the Westernization of Nigerian society.
ReplyDeleteCASUALTIES: Notorious amongst its massacres were the Suicide bombings of the UN building, Christmas day bombings of two churches in Abuja, abduction of 276 schoolgirls, kidnapping and extortion. 10 years of insurgency after the death of its founder in 2009 left at least 27,000 lives dead, 2.3 million people displaced from their homes by 2019, burnt churches etc
HOW DO WE MITIGATE AGAINST SUCH IMPIOUS ACTS AGAINST HUMANITY? One salient principle of social workers which is social justice and rights implies that social workers have an important role to play in this field coupled with social workers expertise in intervention with victimized and displaced people. The focus of social workers is to eliminate or prevent harm to our clients. However, as social workers, we should know that we cannot predict human conduct. Though we are obliged, “under the CT&S Act 2015, to provide information about our clients to the appropriate channels, we should bear in mind that we are not an enforcement official”. The police have the responsibility to arrest such who threaten violent extremism. So, what can social workers offer to the fight against violent extremism? Advocating and involving the Community by setting up practice that embraces community-led approaches. As service users confide in us about their experiences, we should use this opportunity to sensitize them about the ugliness of war, politics, ethnicity, etc Working with Multi-agency like schools, police and health services. Section 38 of the CT&S Act requires social workers to co-operate with the different agencies to provide information to ascertain if an individual is at risk to being recruited into terrorism. As postulated by J M. Post on how to prevent violent extremism and acts of evil, that the “policies designed to deter terrorists from their acts of terrorism should be based on an understanding of ‘‘what makes terrorists tick.’’ These fanatics have been brainwashed and wholly fused in their group and the task to change the minds and ideologies of terrorists is tough as the fear of losing their identity leaves a lot to be desired by them. They are extremists whose only sense of significance comes from being terrorists and their stopping is to lose their essence of living” What then did Post suggest:
(1) Deter new prospects from Joining by sensitization through the reformed education system, with the establishment of secular schools with moderate curriculums could assist in this effort. (2) Produce Dissension Within the Group: (3) Facilitate Exit from the Group, (4) Reduce Support for the Group and Its Leader. Another Prominent psychologist, P. Zimbardo stipulates that “Sensitivity to situational determinants of behavior, also guides risk alerts for avoiding or changing prospective situations of vulnerability. This
perspective focuses on the situation and environmental factors can impact on Man’s behavior to commit evil or not.It is only by understanding the situational determinants of terrorism that programs can be developed to win the hearts and minds of potential terrorists away from destruction and toward creation. Zimbardo in his post also educated us on the need to shift heroism from notoriety to the simple few who resist temptations to do evil and are rather promoting civic virtue and human goodness.
Terrorism is an increasingly pressing issue in international relations. Although there have been positive developments in the fight against terrorism in the last decade of the 20th century, it has not disappeared. Some terrorist attacks are not, to a large extent, inconsistent with military action by states. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 1998 defined terrorism as the planned, politically motivated violence of sub-national secret groups targeting the peaceful population in order to influence political addressees.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of terrorism was established in Lithuania in 2004, 15 June. Updated programs of the Republic of Lithuania against terrorism approved by the decision of the State Defense Council. The said program has been updated taking into account the prevalence of terrorism in the world, the experience of the international community in the fight against terrorism and the problems of preventing terrorism in Lithuania. The legal framework for the prevention of and fight against terrorism consists of the conventions ratified by Lithuania, international treaties on cooperation in combating terrorism, laws establishing various counter-terrorism measures, as well as substatutory legal acts establishing the competence of the Government and its authorized institutions area. As is known, the Lithuanian State has ratified the United Nations and Council of Europe Conventions directly related to the prevention of and fight against terrorism by national legislation.
In Lithuania, a great deal of attention is devoted to the prevention of theorism. In this meaning, terrorism prevention is implementation of means used by the state institutions and preventing the terrorism, prevention of terrorism outspread and the circumstances enabling such an outspread, evaluation of terrorism threats, teaching of public and promoting the cooperation with the police institutions and coordination of these means implementation. Only scantlings by terrorism already exist in Lithuania. Separate violence acts, that occurred up to now, were performed out of criminal and economic stimulus, taking vengeance on criminals by other criminals or out of other reasons. Thus, the major threat for Lithuania is international terrorism and dangers thereof. Institutions participating in the terrorism prevention and combating the terrorism may be called as police institutions. According to the law of national security base of the Republic of Lithuania of 19 December 1996 and the program against the terrorism of the Republic of Lithuania of 22 January 2002, the National Security Department is the main (also the only) state institution, coordinating combating the terrorism in Lithuania.
References:
Gutauskas, A., Kalesnykas, R., & Petrošius, D. (2004). Terorizmas ir jo prevencijos Lietuvoje problema. Jurisprudencija, 63(55), 24-45.
Vasiliauskienė, V. (2008). Teroristų veiksmai kaip ginkluotas užpuolimas. Teisė, 66, 99-111.
The Boko Haram terrorist group is the only group that is classified as an international terrorist Organisation in Nigeria. The name “Boko Haram” is translated to mean “Western education is forbidden”. This terrorist group began its activities in Borno state in the Northeast of Nigeria, which is ironically the poorest part of Nigeria in collaboration with elements of the Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, Boko Haram Islamic terrorist attacks have claimed over 3,000 lives including foreigners, they were formerly known as Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād. Boko haram is a jihadist terrorist organization based in northeastern Nigeria, also active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon. Terrorism has grown to become one of the biggest issues in the world and majority of the global crisis being experienced in the world at the moment can be attributed to terrorism. However, In the past terrorism was non-existent in the Nigeria, but as the social problems have worsened in the country with no help from the government so has terrorism.
ReplyDeleteThe social work profession promotes social change, and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance wellbeing. Social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.
However, in mitigating terrorism, it is expedient to know the root causes of terrorism itself, Povertyis one of the factors perceived as being a cause of people participating and/or joining terrorist groups. The Northern states of Nigeria are the poorest in the country and thus prone to a lot of social problems, poverty is described as the most fundamental and intractable of problems and is attributed by many in the social sciences as the root of many social problems Healy (2008). Furthermore, the effects that social problems have on individuals within the community were found to be a main contributor to participation in terrorist acts and joining terrorist groups especially amongst the youths. Factors such as corruption, illiteracy, poverty and psychological and social orientation, where found to be among the main motivations to participating in such acts.
Social work intervention in this regard for book haram insurgency could necessitate integration of Psychological and Mental Health into Public Health Planning. The psychological consequences of terrorism are an important determinant of the continuity of society, economic resiliency, health care utilization, and perception of threat and safety. To address the prevention, health care, and promotion needs related to psychological consequences of terrorism, this area must be integrated into national, state, and local planning. This will help ensure that the infrastructure is better able to meet needs and that gaps will be minimized. At the federal level, research support, education of health care providers, and development of model intervention plans can aid state and local planning. In order to improve responses for psychological consequences, a central focus of the new national response plan should be the coordination of efforts across the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Design and Implement Psychological First Aid Training. The nation's infrastructure should provide interventions and programs to promote individual and community resilience and prevent adverse psychological effects as a community program, it can provide a well-organized community task to increase skills, knowledge, and effectiveness in maximizing health and resiliency. Providing information about ways for people to physically protect themselves is one side of public information. To help prevent fear and limit uncertainty, the public should be made aware of normal psychological reactions to threats of violence, such as worry, anxiety, and difficulty concentrating, and how preparedness can help limit fear and promote effective coping. Materials should be adapted to local communities, cultures, and ethnic groups. Resources should address the language needs of various populations and consider variations in living environments.
ReplyDeleteThe first things that come to mind when thinking about terrorism in the United States is the countless shootings we’ve seen in schools, movie theaters, concerts, etc. Although the reasons for these shootings vary, the number of shooters who end up being members of white nationalist groups (whether they are connected online or with in person groups) is astounding. I theme that is constantly heard from these groups is a hatred of the “other” and fear of loosing privilege. Post uses an example of a secular Palestinian terrorist group and argues that much of this hatred of the “other” seen in many terrorist groups is socialized; few of the members of this group had actually met any Israeli people (2005). Post also remarks on the prevalence of violent language and the encouragement of violence that thrives in terrorist groups (2005).
ReplyDeletePost’s suggested that the most effective antiterrorist policies would be ones that promote prevention of people actually joining these groups (2005). However, other suggestions that stood out were the suggestions of reducing support for the group and facilitating ways for members to exit the group safely if they are wanting to leave (Post, 2005). Possible social work interventions could include policy advocacy to increase law enforcement investigation and prosecution of people who participate in online white nationalist groups. Along with the group’s ability to continue without consequences being challenges through law enforcement, a social work intervention that could accompany these policies amnesty programs that would provide spaces for members to go to turn themselves in/exit the group safely and receive mental health services, protection from the group they are leaving, and less of a punishment.
Reference:
Post, Jerrold. (2005). The new face of terrorism: Socio-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Behavioral Sciences and Law, 23, 451-465.
One aspect of terrorism in America that was sadly left untouched in the Post article was rampant white nationalism. It has become undeniable that white nationalism and far-right ideology have played a major role in mass shootings as far back as Columbine. Many of these shooters are radicalized in online communities in much the same way that Post describes religiously motivated terrorists are radicalized (2005). Youth stay involved in these groups and commit these acts out of a desire to fulfill their ideology and prove their worth. These groups use violent language and violence itself to recruit and indoctrinate others into the ideology.
ReplyDeleteAs for interventions, Post advocates for interventions that prevent people from ever joining these groups in the first place. While this isn’t always possible, it is the most effective solution. I know of efforts by former white nationalists to help remove people from these groups and get them out safely. I think this is necessary to incorporate as a social work intervention. It is incredibly hard to get through to people in these kind of radicalized groups as an outsider; partnering with reformed radicals could help to lesson membership. This, of course, needs to be done in conjunction with legislation reform to be able to persecute and investigate white nationalist internet activity. In Germany, white nationalist/nazi social media accounts are censored, which is something we could implement here in the US. This prevents the dissemination of harmful ideology that serves to indoctrinate others. While free speech is important, it has been proven time and time again that this ideology brings harm to vulnerable populations and espousing it should result in consequences.
Post, J. (2005). The new face of terrorism: Socio-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Behavioral Sciences and Law, 23, pp. 451-465.
To me, domestic terrorism is moreso based on deteriorating their opposition’s lifestyle with extreme force and brutal execution. For example, religious groups utilizing brutal attacks to wipe other religions, and groups of people out. Post (2005) does expand on the fact that the culture plays a huge part in how people perceive their views on society, religion and other aspects. Opening up that conversation may provide some relief towards building a better community. Terrorists could be anyone, as anyone has the potential to take their beliefs to a violent level. Referencing Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment (1971), anyone with power could use their authority to control those that don't have much power, raising the concern of how those in higher positions use their gifts. Everyone would think that they’re doing the right thing and are the hero in their own story, but will have an opposing force that will see otherwise, causing tension that might end violently like many others before it.
ReplyDeletePreventing violent extremism and acts of evil would be very difficult as it depends on the way the extremist tries to deteriorate their opposition. It may prevent it, but a way that someone could lower tensions would be to gather cultural perspectives and assemble them as a group. Many people are opposed to each other and don’t leave the echo chambers of their viewpoints, whether it be politically, economically, or socially. Opening up the conversation without judgment of each other’s viewpoints may be a possibility in lowering tensions.
Sources: Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)
Post, J. (2005). The new face of terrorism: Socio-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Behavioral Sciences and Law, 23, pp. 451-465.
Festering complacency of U.S. intervention and inequality is a machine of layered terrorism. I illustrate layers given that invisible hands push and develop pathways that ultimately destabilize other countries and project criminal images on everyday people. The layers spread from the consequences folks in other countries face as a result to U.S. intervention or domestic manifestations of violence for people within the country. Within the country, these examples of terrorism are the fear women live under, immigrants held in subpar conditions within detention centers, prisoners continuously subjected through physical and psychological torture, growing numbers of homelessness, and various other fears that grow for everyday communities in the country.
ReplyDeleteMuch of the terrorism that Post discusses are the early examples of Islam Extremists, but I take the points of prevention and adapt it to a more institutional level. The paper’s focus on Islamist extremists for two reasons projects limitations. Religious extremists also exist in the U.S. under a Christian foundation and have enacted acts of violence on various marginalized communities with the KKK as a prime example. To draw a close focus to terrorist groups evades attention to larger problems considering Palestinian extremists with a backdrop of U.S. military funding of the Palestinian occupation. Post provides 4 means of circumventing terrorist; interrupting the “terrorist” recruitment process, creating tension within the “terrorist” group, providing alternatives, and discrediting the philosophy or justification (Post, 2005). To disrupt the wave of state sanctioned violence then requires consciousness raising, direct community action, and an investment in the well-being of vulnerable populations.
While painting the U.S. government as evil and chaotic is seamless given a timeline of executed violence it is Zimbardo’s complication of evil that is integral to state accountability. A simple and common approach is to consider evil actions reason enough to label evil people (evil as essentialized) shortfalls when a larger portrait exists where “good” people commit evil acts (Zimbardo, 2007). Considering that government policy is a production of figures entering the arena of politics and those people as byproducts of various factors of education, culture, violence, and geographies. Much of the work to address modern day terrorism requires a larger investment to consider the consequences of our leaders, listening to survivors of this violence, and pushing for solutions to undue as much damage as possible.
References:
Post, Jerrold. (2005). The new face of terrorism: Socio-cultural foundations of contemporary terrorism. Behavioral Sciences and Law, 23, 451-465.
Zimbardo, Philip. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil. New York: Random House. Chapter 1: The psychology of evil; Chapter 16: Resisting situational influences and celebrating heroism. See also his website on the book: http://www.lucifereffect.com/index.html and the Stanford Prison Experiment: http://www.prisonexp.org/.
Aces, this is a very thought provoking post about the layering of terrorism that leads to situations of women's fear. I had to pause for a moment and think about what you said when you called inequality a machine of terrorism. Thinking of inequality as a machine forces me to ask different questions than I had before. One, what are the forces that continues this machines functioning? Two, when these machines are broken or disrupted due to the time deterioration who are the contributors that reinvent and re-imagine the machine of inequality? Yo mentioned how this machine is not so much found in the person to person interactions but in the institution that are created as a result. Therefore, I like how you would combat this with Zimbardo's theory of good and evil, and forces us to look at the oppression of women as not a question of who do we blame but an examination of ourselves in trying to find out in what ways did we all contribute to, or allow the current situation.
DeleteTerrorism has played varying roles in how people, society, and organization those take on levels of hostility to behavioral factors to provoke trauma and injustices (Post, 2005). Therefore, applications of beliefs that becomes absolute causes to promote ideologies towards violent extremists in causing destructions and punishment to those fighting against these terrorist individuals or groups. There will be platforms of conflict and exposure, which cannot being overshadowed in missed opportunities or problems, as strategies of social and political influences ca be important to whatever revolutionary cause(s). However, people and citizens of a country like the US, where terrorist have attacked internally, such as with the Orlando night club shooting, Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, 2019 El Paso shooting, and other examples, where the perpetrators are motivated by whatever responsibilities in their own beliefs. These must be interpreted and evaluated for the behavioral and informed from their acts of violence to challenge better policy decisions to respond in terrorism and other frameworks of approaches, even with limitations. Proposing best placed actions of responding to preventing any harm or injury to narrow arguments of threats for inflicting fears of violence or marginalizing groups or populations, political support, or areas of religious-based involvement. In addition, any additional instabilities of terrorist attacks would be with less hysteria and consequential movement of foundational behaviors and other interactions. Many stakeholder, officials and policy makers, institutions and organizations will utilize the advancements of what evaluations and barriers overcoming anxieties of respectful unification (Zimbardo, 2007). Finally, by having successful perspectives of processing local, national, international, and cross continental experiences of terrorism with globalization in many impacted communities, must be escalated in legislation and successful amnesty programs in negotiation advisories.
ReplyDeletePost, J. M. (2005). The New Face of Terrorism: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Contemporary Terrorism. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 23(4), 451–465.
Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil. New York, NY: Random House.
Terrorism is now no longer based on petty or coercive fears - it includes data such as communication disruption, hacking into databases, when it is available, and when a person owns, owns certain books, or enters their idea, sometimes classifying in the same way as terrorism.
ReplyDeleteUsually the ultimate goal of terrorism is political. Spreading fear is not an end in itself. It is a mechanism, a tool that terrorists use to gain political advantage, although there are exceptions. But when it comes to irrationality, we as a state cannot control terrorist actions. We can try to limit their ability to take certain actions, but we cannot control them. The essence of terrorism is to look for weaknesses and exploit them. So our security services, the police here will always be one step behind.
Our irrational fears are about how we react and how we control our reactions to what is happening. So when we see that a certain group of people, a certain origin, a certain ideology, and a certain political goal are attacking us, our irrational reaction is to attribute the actions of that group of people to a huge group of people. As a specific example, the Charlie Hebdo editorial is attacked by ISIS, but some European countries tend to attribute blame for the attacks to all Muslims.
Now, thanks to technology, we have the ability to easily travel from one place to another, which is affordable for many today. So we are watching a particularly large movement. Is there a debate about whether Syrian refugees will be in trouble? The answer is yes, because any movement of people presents challenges. In fact, we had the same debate in Britain when EU borders opened up and Poles and Lithuanians were massively flowing into the country. It also led us to Brexit and the question of whether we should stay in the EU or leave it. This debate is not dissimilar, but it must take place. We currently have COVID-19 in our world – that stops our lifes, stops our travel and has taken many lives… this virus will revolutionize our world, criminal activity will increase and may lead to mass terrorism. Let us hope that this crisis does not do more damage than it has already done.
The form of discrimination against women that I have chosen to you as context for this blog is taken from Gallagher's article on Amnesty International (AI) and their call for women's rights to be considered a humans right issue. This started out as a convention on civil and political rights and led to the United Nations decade for women (1975-85). During this decade other women's movements were unearthed such as domestic violence campaigns, honor killings, and female genital mutilation. Immediately after the Cold War the US along with other countries pledged to carry out humanitarian interaction on behalf of oppressed and marginalized groups. AI would al address "cases of women detained under discriminatory trial proceedings laws or procedures that are by design or application gender-based and on cases where governments fail to prevent violence against women". Ultimately what Gallagher argued is that women living in conditions where they are prisoners of conscience are living in oppressed conditions and that these condition should be considered a violation of not only a woman's rights but also a violation of human rights.
ReplyDeleteIn the US we can look at the story of Cyntoia Brown, a young woman who at the age of 16 was charged and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of the man who forced her into sex trafficking. The crisis of this situation is that Cyntoia who was victimized and disregarded as a child was then convicted and sentenced to life in prison. No one taking into account that the justice system had ultimately failed her when she was allowed to be forced into sex trafficking as a child. Then giving her life at the age of 16 for doing what many of us would have done as well.
As Social Workers a lot of what we do is build civil society. One strategy for intervention to mitigate the situation where women are prisoners of conscience is the continual building of civil society, a society that see women as equal and deserving of life that has been given by their creator. Building a civil society is building positive social networks that support a woman's right to life thus creating a democracy that advocates for the woman.
Gallagher, N. (2005). Amnesty International and the idea of Muslim women’s human rights. Journal of Mideast Women’s Studies, 1, 96-107.
White supremacy groups have systematically threatened violence in the US against marginalized groups almost since the founding of this country. The purpose of this threatening of violence has always been to create a climate of fear and intimidation. The people who they are trying to intimidate and invest in are the people who are without power. In Zimbardo's book he talks about the powerful elite, "it is the power elite, the barrel makers, often working behind the scenes who arrange many of the condition of life for the rest of us who must spend time in the variety of institutional settings they have constructed". Preventing terrorism has to centered around a conversation about who is in power and what conditions are those who are in power creating that encourages and sustains an environment for the subjugation of entire groups of peoples. Another notion that Zimbardo talks about is the fact that the powerful elite also has the ability to create the "other" category. "When the power elite wants ti destroy an enemy nation it turns to propaganda experts to fashion a program of hate". White supremacist have always tried to create a narrative about those who they consider to be "others" that would picture them as the enemy and destroy them through propaganda. Take for example Black men in the US, Black men have always been depicted in new and many other media outlets in negative light telling the masses a negative and false narrative of who the Black man is making it easy for ordinary people in society to hate to a degree where they want to segregate, torment, and even kill Black men. "With public fear notched up and the enemy threat (seemingly) imminent reasonable people act irrationally independent people act in mindless conformity and peaceful people act as worriers. The way Zimbardo puts this helps me realize that those who stand in opposition of the liberation of the Black man in the US may not be doing solely out of a pure hatred but also out of fear. Zimbardo's theory does peace building in a way that restores humanity to both parties, by making evil a part of human nature. To combat these types of injustice the restorative justice approach would be most appropriate.
ReplyDeleteZimbardo, Philip. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil. New York: Random House.
Who are the terrorists in the United States? It's a big question to answer, and the answer can differ from one person to another. However, the term "terrorism" conjures up images of power, brutality, and suffering for me. So who do I see as a terrorist in the U.S? A terrorist, in my opinion, is someone who takes advantage of his own power and privileges to spread hatred and humiliation against vulnerable and marginalized communities; someone who makes people suffer. As Zimbardo claimed, "when the power elite wants it destroy an enemy nation it turns to propaganda experts to fashion a program of hate"(2007). The Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" approach is a prime example of how unfair use of force has caused countless civilians to suffer. The Department of justice began criminally prosecuting those who crossed the border into the United States illegally, causing the separation of families. For months, children were detained in inhumane conditions and without adult supervision, causing them psychological and mental harm. During this "Zero Tolerance" policy, we were able to see how the abuse of authority has a negative impact on the lives of hundreds of innocent and vulnerable people. As future social workers, we must be aware of all the new changes in our government so that we can advocate for those who are not allowed to speak. Also, a huge global refugee crisis is currently underway, so we must be prepare to help diverse groups of people by understanding their needs and culture.
ReplyDeleteZimbardo, Philip. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: How good people turn evil. New York: Random House. http://www.lucifereffect.com/index.html and the Stanford Prison Experiment: http://www.prisonexp.org/.