Counter-terrorist Strategies in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis of Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK

摘要

What should an effective counter-terrorist strategy look like? Can any lessons be drawn from pastEuropean experiences? How does terrorism end? Having answers to these three questions would be ofgreat help to both practitioners and scholars interested in the disbandment of home-grown terroristgroups. Preventing processes of radicalization and, if at all possible, enabling the reverse process ofde-radicalization has become a priority objective for EU Member States. And yet, there is a curiousgap in the literature with respect to the precipitants and facilitators of terrorist disengagement. Thispaper provides a qualitative analysis of how four Western European states – Italy, Germany, Spain,and the UK – dealt with groups employing political violence and terrorism, and what lessons can belearned from these policies that can be applied towards future counterterrorism campaigns. Thedisbandment of two ethno-nationalist groups - the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the politicalmilitarybranch Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA-PM) - and two revolutionary groups - the Red ArmyFaction (RAF) and the Red Brigades (RB) – are examined in order to identify some of the policies thatfacilitate abandonment, defection, decline or defeat.