Assessing 20 Years of Counterterrorism

The project assessed the United Nations Security Council’s counterterrorism efforts since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as lessons learned in addressing the evolving terrorist threat. Drawing on wide ranging research, analysis and consultations, the project offered policy-relevant recommendations for ensuring that the UNSC’s approach to addressing terrorist threats is both effective and sustainable.

As part of this, ICCT experts Tanya Mehra and Julie Coleman authored a research brief for the on the role of the 'UN Security Council in Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism: the Limits of Criminalisation?' This explored the UN Security Council's creation of a new legal paradigm in response to terrorism. It offers recommendations for both the UN Security Council and Member States on how to ensure that counter-terrorism architecture can be both human-rights based and simultaneously conducive to promoting peace and security. The report, commissioned by the Securing the Future Initiative and published by the RESOLVE Network published in October 2022, can be read here.

After this, ICCT, in coordination with the Soufan Center, which co-leads the RESOLVE Network, organised a two day conference in the Hague on 'Assessing 20 Years of Counterterrorism & Recalibrating the Way Forward'. 

This conference, held 17-18 November 2022, was introduced by Naureen Chowdhury Fink and Thomas Renard, co-lead of the Securing the Future Initiative and Executive Director of ICCT respectively. This was followed by a keynote address and discussion on 'Aligning the Multilateral Counterterrorism Response to the Current Threat & Priorities'. The key lessons learned and findings from global consultations undertaken for the SHI project, and the way forward, were introduced. The next session discussed how to move from the exceptionalisation of the UNSC's CT to a more integrated approach. Finally, the role and impact of the Security Council, and what actions the Council might take to incentivise states to implement their Council obligations to bring terrorists to justice while ensuring compliance with international law, was discussed.