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Terrorism and Counterterrorism: The Criticality of Context

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The Palgrave Handbook of Global Counterterrorism Policy

Abstract

The chapter examines how local police supported by the British Army (particularly its Special Forces) fronted a security effort in countering a sophisticated terrorist insurgency that defines Northern Ireland’s conflict (1969–98). The main focus is on the dedicated police intelligence agency (Special Branch (SB)) from 1983 to 1998 when security was at its most effective. The aim is to illustrate that policing in an armed conflict and policing in peacetime conditions are entirely different. This is a basic distinction lacking in most contemporary views about how policing operated during Northern Ireland’s conflict and has been similarly absent in Police professionalisation programs in Iraq and Afghanistan. The argument presented is that security was a crucial factor in ending Northern Ireland’s conflict. Not until the last few years when unambiguous military defeat was inevitable – an outcome that would have been politically catastrophic for the insurgent network because it publicly exposed the utter futility of their terrorist campaign – did insurgents lean genuinely towards peace. Up to then, they were as uninterested in peace as the Islamic State in Iraq is today. The lessons learned from a Whole of Government strategy successfully employed in Northern Ireland (of which security was a crucial component) were not used in subsequent conflicts a few years later in Iraq or Afghanistan. A major impediment to the knowledge transfer was failing to frame the correct context in examining how peace was brought about in Northern Ireland, which helps to explain why the West failed in Iraq and seems destined to fail in Afghanistan.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Edward M. Kennedy Institute for Conflict Prevention, National University Maynooth, Ireland

    William R. Matchett

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  1. William R. Matchett
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Correspondence to William R. Matchett .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of International Studies, University of Trento, Trento, Trento, Italy

    Scott Nicholas Romaniuk

  2. Department of Political Science and International Studies, McDaniel College , Westminster, Maryland, USA

    Francis Grice

  3. Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Catania, Italy

    Daniela Irrera

  4. DefenceReport, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada

    Stewart Webb

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Matchett, W.R. (2017). Terrorism and Counterterrorism: The Criticality of Context. In: Romaniuk, S., Grice, F., Irrera, D., Webb, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Counterterrorism Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55769-8_2

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