I have the luxury of taking a graduate level class focused entirely on counter-terrorism taught by a former spook. As a part of that class I’m going to be required to write a term paper on any subject that relates to counter-terorism.
With that in mind, I think I’d like to take a deeper look at the development of counter-terrorism capabilities within the Armed Forces and law enforcement. By “development” I mean the genesis, formation, and evolution of counter-terrorism units within the Armed Forces and at least federal law enforcement, as well as perhaps the specific mechanics behind the US government’s transition from a policy of ignoring or negotiating with terrorists to a more productive policy of shooting them in the face.
I figure there is no better resource for pointing out the good resources on the topic than M4C, so I pose the question to the learned membership.
Both, either…anything that would be useful in showing the decision making involved in the formation of those groups or their evolution to the challenges placed before them.
Beckwith’s book seemed like a logical place to start.
These books are only suggestions for background material but you may not find them directly relevant. Read reviews to determine if they’re what you want.
Historically - My thesis was on the development of strategy in North America in the face of Native American warfare. Their form of warfare dealt a lot with psychology/terror so there are certainly parallels to be drawn
Armstrong Starkey’s European - Native American Warfare 1675-1815 is a decent primer/historiography on the topic and will give you some more things to read if you find it relevant.
Ian Steele’s Betrayals and James Merrell’s Into the American Woods deal a lot with the failure of diplomacy.
John Keegan Intelligence in War
Tierney’s Chasing Ghosts is probably most relevant from the historic perspective.
Contemporary -
The USMC’s The Small Wars Manual may give you some good information.
Warden The Enemy as a System is a paper and doesn’t deal with terrorism per se but deals with strategic psychology.
Gordon/Trainor Cobra II and Wright’s The Looming Tower may not be directly relevant to counter-terror ops but demonstrate how terrorism gets adopted against a superior foe.
Jonas’s Vengeance is probably the most relevant to terrorism.
The two authors who readily come to mind in this field for me are Leroy Thompson and Eitan Meyer.
As for the term paper, dependent on how detailed your examination of the subject will be it may be better to focus on either exclusively the military side or the law enforcement area and not both. But if you are looking at completing a 50 page plus paper it may be possible to do both.
Personally, I would complete your research first, and then choose my route based upon the area with the most available amount of information.