Terrorism and Transnational Organized Crime

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Security grade: 10 Humboldt-University of Berlin language: English abstract: We will direct every resource at our command to win the war against terrorists every means ofdiplomacy every tool of intelligence every instrument of law enforcement every financial influence.We will starve the terrorists of funding turn them against each other rout them out of their safehiding places and bring them to justice (Cited in Biersteker and Eckert 2008: 1).President George W. Bush September 24 2001In the immediate aftermath of the attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001 President W.Bush declared America's War on Terrorism in which he assured to defeat terrorist movementsand their methods of funding that could be used to support the acts of global terrorist (Bierstekerand Eckert 2008; 1). The examination of broader terrorism studies literature shows financial andmaterial resources are correctly perceived as the lifeblood of terrorist operations and governmentshave determined that fighting the financial infrastructure of terrorist organizations is the key totheir defeat (Grialdo and Trinkunas 2007; 1). Since the attacks of 9/11 the US has designed a strongstrategy to fight terrorist groups and their financing. International and national measures have beencarried out such as the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorismthe enforcement of international sanctions and the expansion of law enforcement to targetterrorism financing and disrupt terrorist operation (Sheppard 2002). However the spectrum ofterrorist funding is broad. In particular the increasing reliance on criminal activities by terrorist sincethe end of the Cold War and the subsequent decline of state sponsorship such as the rising pressureof law enforcement network structures became an essential source to safeguard the existenceof many terrorist and