Network vs. Network: Countering Crime-Terror by Combining the Strengths of Law Enforcement, Military and Academia

Can we tackle the crime-terror nexus in a new and meaningful way? The nexus between transnational crime and terrorism manifests itself in several ways, and for this reason, it is complex and dynamic. The fall of the Soviet Union and the birth of the information age in the late 21th Century manifested in an increase of the intersection between crime and terrorism. Broad international efforts to disrupt terrorism over the last ten years generated sweeping changes in the application of military force, brought changes to legal frameworks for law enforcement and focused academic study on the essence and motivations of terrorist groups. In this article we discuss the changing world context of terrorism, the underpinnings of academic research on the crime-terror nexus and the influence of corruption and globalization. As practitioners, we then outline the challenges and frustrations of working in this field. We present a model to illustrate that bringing together the resources of law enforcement, academia, and the military can provide a structurally coherent instrument with which to challenge the ever-changing perplexities of this problem set.