Security Council - Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) - Research

CTED & NYU’s CGA celebrate five years of cooperation

BMUSONI — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 20:18:00 +0000

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On 30 October 2019, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) participated in an event with New York University’s (NYU) Center for Global Affairs (CGA) marking five years of cooperation between CTED and CGA. The panel, “Futures of Counterterrorism” included discussions about emerging counter-terrorism trends around the globe such as drones. In May, CTED issued a Trends Alert outlining the increased use of drones by nonstate actors. According to one of the panellists, Melissa Salyk-Virk, Senior Policy Analyst of International Security at New America, at least 20 nonstate actors have used drones for various capabilities such as surveillance or attacks. Chief of Branch of CTED, David Scharia said terrorists have used technologies developed for certain purposes in dramatically different ways therefore, technology companies should perform more risk assessments for malicious actors.

Panellists also spoke about countering violent extremism and the evolving situation in Iraq and Syria such as issues facing Member States regarding foreign terrorist fighters and the way forward regarding prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration of women and children. In September, CTED published two Analytical Briefs about the repatriation of ISIL-affiliated women and ISIL-affiliated children.

CTED’s cooperation with CGA has developed over the past five years, allowing students and professors to engage with CTED, bringing academic perspectives and insights to CTED’s research and information-gathering activities. Some of the projects that NYU and CTED have collaborated on over the years include a decision-making framework, to use when vetting private sector partners and technologies which is useful for public-private partnerships on countering terrorism. Another activity was a roundtable on “Engagement with the private sector in promoting the use of technology for counter-terrorism purposes.”

NYU is one of the oldest members of CTED’s Global Research Network (GRN). In its resolution 2129 (2013), the Security Council directs CTED to identify emerging issues, trends and developments relating to relevant Security Council resolutions. In accordance with the resolution, and in order to strengthen its existing research and analysis capabilities, CTED launched the Global Research Network (GRN) in February 2015. Since then, the GRN has grown into a vibrant and diverse network of over 100 leading think tanks and research institutions from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania.

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CTED and NYU hold multi-stakeholder focus group on public-private partnerships on countering terrorism

BMUSONI — Fri, 03 May 2019 20:17:00 +0000

On 3 May 2019, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and New York University’s Center for Global Affairs jointly held a multi-stakeholder focus group on how to facilitate public-private partnerships to counter terrorist threats.

The main objective of the focus group was to evaluate a decision-making framework, designed by the NYU student group for CTED to use when vetting private sector partners and technologies. Using this checklist would allow CTED to mitigate risk and maximize opportunity in its engagement with the private sector, something increasingly central to CTED’s mandate.

The multi-stakeholder focus group discusses the proposed decision-making framework.

Representatives of the hotel, telecommunication, banking, and technology sectors attended the meeting, along with representatives from NGOs and academia. By gaining detailed and nuanced feedback on the framework, including by testing it in hypothetical scenarios, the focus group allowed NYU to refine the framework before sharing a final proposal with CTED.

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CTED moderates panel and hosts informal meeting at Fifth Global Security Forum

BMUSONI — Tue, 02 May 2023 21:09:00 +0000

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CTED moderated a panel of Global Research Network members and other partners on terrorism and technology in a post-COVID-19 world at the Fifth Global Security Forum in Doha from

13 - 16 March 2023.

The Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) participated in the Fifth Global Security Forum, organized and hosted by The Soufan Centre in Doha from 13 to 16 March 2023.

The conference was opened by the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mr. Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. The Forum covered international security broadly, which included the war in Ukraine, conflict in Africa, energy policy and space security. As in previous years, the Forum also had a specific focus on the threat of terrorism motivated by xenophobia, racism and other forms of intolerance, or in the name of religion or belief (XRIRB); enduring capabilities of Al-Qaida and ISIL (also known as Da’esh); the terrorism landscape in Iraq and Afghanistan; and terrorists’ use of new technology.

CTED moderated a panel of GRN members and other partners on terrorism and technology in a post-COVID-19 world. Panellists examined trends and case studies of terrorists’ use of technology in the Lake Chad basin, Afghanistan and South-East Asia. The panellists included Malik Samuel of the Institute for Security Studies, who spoke of the general wariness of technology of the so-called ISWAP and Boko Haram; Laura Courchesne of the International Crisis Group, who detailed the Taliban’s thorough digital communications plan, including their use of human rights groups’ messaging; Rachel Fielden of Moonshot, who warned that governments’ risk-averse nature meant they were not as effective as grass-roots groups at crafting counter- narratives; and Priyank Mathur from Mythos Labs, who argued for upskilling of national security professionals to better anticipate ways terrorists may harness technological change, including AI.

CTED also hosted an informal meeting of approximately 25 Forum participants who were affiliated with GRN institutions. The event provided CTED an opportunity to renew GRN relationships and to take stock of their latest research. CTED took note of recently published and soon to be published research on right-wing terrorism financing; ISIL (Da’esh) recruitment methods in Afghanistan; interconnectivity of terrorist groups in Europe; the threat post by Al-Qaida in South Asia; and practices relating to the repatriation of child returnees from the north- eastern part of the Syrian Arab Republic.

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CTED and New York University’s Center for Global Affairs mark long-standing partnership

BMUSONI — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 16:38:00 +0000

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On Thursday, 13 April 2023, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and New York University’s Center for Global Affairs (CGA) celebrated their decade-long partnership. Each semester, CGA and CTED hold consulting practicums which place students in real-world situations with faculty supervision. This brings academic perspectives and insights to CTED’s research and information-gathering activities. The anniversary event brought together alumni of these consulting practicums and CTED staff to discuss past and current practicums – their accomplishments, contributions, and the value of the experience to their postgraduate careers.

NYU is one of the founding members of CTED’s Global Research Network (GRN). In its resolution 2129 (2013), the Security Council directs CTED to identify emerging issues, trends, and developments relating to relevant Council resolutions. In accordance with the resolution, and in order to strengthen its existing research and analysis capabilities, CTED launch GRN in 2015.

GRN enables CTED to leverage the expertise of research institutes and think tanks from across the globe and provides CTED with evidence-based research insights from diverse regional perspectives.

In resolutions 2395 (2017) and 2617 (2021), the Security Council reiterates CTED’s essential role within the United Nations to identify and assess issues, trends, and developments, and notes the value of CTED’s relationships – including GRN – in promoting an analysis of emerging threats and trends.

Here are highlights of some of the events that NYU and CTED have collaborated on over the years as well as a list of all 17 projects to date.

Here is a Flickr album of the event.

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CTED Brownbag Series: In Conversation with Development Services Group (DSG)

BMUSONI — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 06:27:00 +0000

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On 23 February 2023, CTED held a brownbag conversation with Development Services Group (DSG) who showcased their Global Terrorism Trends and Analysis Center (GTTAC) database. Ambassador Adam Blackwell, DSG’s Vice President of International Development, and Dr. Eoin Healy, senior research scientist specialising in quantitative statistical analysis and methodology, terrorism research, and risk assessment, briefed CTED on the GTTAC platform.

GTTAC is a platform used to: (i) collect data from open-source, multimedia data aggregators to identify reports of potential terrorist incidents; (ii) process data for text analysis, predictive modelling, and feature extraction; (iii) finalise incident creation and validation by team of data analysts; (iv) result in a database of global terrorism incidents with their many attributes. The database and access to terrorist incidents are available, accessible and gratis.

GTTAC was created by DSG and its partner the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) of George Mason University, to support its work for the United States Department of State’s Counterterrorism Bureau.

The CTED Brownbag Series emerged as a result of a suggestion from its Global Research Network (GRN) to hold more frequent and targeted communication to keep abreast of the latest empirical research and available data on terrorism and counter-terrorism trends, issues, and developments.

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CTED and NYU hold roundtable on private sector engagement on technology and counter-terrorism

AKHVEDELID — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 14:25:00 +0000

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On 30 November 2018, CTED and the New York University (NYU) School of Professional Studies for Global Affairs organized a multi-stakeholder roundtable discussion on “Engagement with the private sector in promoting the use of technology for counter-terrorism purposes.”

Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of CTED Michèle Coninsx speaking at the event.
In her remarks, Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of CTED Michèle Coninsx expressed her gratitude to Professor Michael Oppenheimer and Dean Dr. Vera Jelinek of co-organizer the NYU School of Professional Studies for Global Affairs for hosting the timely discussion. She pointed out that the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters especially highlights the need for technology considerations in counter-terrorism responses, mentioning biometrics, the importance of digital evidence, and the use and abuse by terrorist groups of the Internet.

Ms. Coninsx also underscored that CTED is actively working on numerous aspects related to technology and counter-terrorism with a wide range of partners, including within the UN and other international or regional organizations, as well as civil society actors, the private sector, and academia – as the response to these challenges must be a whole-of-society approach. She specifically mentioned CTED’s partnerships with academic and research institutions, through the Executive Directorate’s Global Research Network (GRN), which continues to provide the Committee and CTED with new insights and feed into CTED’s analysis of the latest terrorism/counter-terrorism trends and developments.

More photos from the event can be found at CTED’s Flickr account.

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New CTED Trends Report stresses challenges stemming from returning and relocating foreign terrorist fighters

AKHVEDELID — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 05:55:00 +0000

The Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) today issued its latest Trends Report.¹ Titled “The Challenge of Returning and Relocating Foreign Terrorist Fighters: Research Perspectives,” the report outlines a number of issues United Nations Member States are facing related to foreign terrorist fighters.

The current wave of foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) shows clear differences compared to previous waves. The present wave is larger, increasingly global, and more diverse in terms of age, gender, and experience in conflict zones. These differences make the potential challenges associated with returnees and relocators significantly greater, but also more complex. One key challenge for Member States is to establish which returning individuals may pose a threat, or act as facilitators for acts of terrorism, in the future.

Despite military progress and enhanced counter-measures by Member States, the fate and location of a large proportion of foreign terrorist fighters is uncertain. Identifying and locating these remaining FTFs remains a critical priority for the international community, and is a major focus of the measures included in Security Council resolution 2396 (2017).

This resolution calls on Member States to develop tailored prosecution, rehabilitation, and reintegration strategies, including programmes that address radicalization in prisons, or are focused on the needs of children associated with foreign terrorist fighters.

The complete CTED Trends Report is available here

For additional information, please contact Mattias Sundholm, CTED, at this email address, or +1-917-628-3531.

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Counter-Terrorism Committee holds second open meeting with Global Research Network on #TerrorismTrends

BMUSONI — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 17:03:00 +0000

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In an effort to enhance its analytical capacity and its engagement with the research community, the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) in February 2015 launched the Global Counter-Terrorism Research Network. The network currently consists of over 100 leading think tanks and research institutions from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and Oceania. Engagement through the network enables CTED to enhance its analytical capacity, and to cooperate closely with the global research community and research units of international, regional, and sub-regional organizations, with the aim of supporting the Counter-Terrorism Committee’s efforts to promote Member States’ implementation of relevant Council resolutions. It also supports the Committee and CTED to keep abreast of emerging terrorist trends and developments and identify current challenges, as well as effective approaches to addressing them.

A second open meeting of the Committee with the Global Research Network was organized at the United Nations in New York on 16 November 2017. This was preceded by a full day’s discussions at New York University (NYU) between representatives of the network and CTED experts.

The open meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Committee focused on three main topics: (i) implementation of Security Council resolution 2178 (2014) in the context of the challenge of returning and relocating foreign terrorist fighters; (ii) national practices on countering violent extremism, which can be conducive to terrorism; and (iii) the protection of civilian (“soft”) targets.

Panelists’ remarks and presentations can be found below. A more comprehensive summary of the open meeting will follow shortly.

Webcast

The webcast of the open meeting can be watched here.

Photos

Pictures from the NYU event and the Counter-Terrorism Committee are available here.

Remarks/presentations

Summary of workshop hosted by New York University (NYU) Center for Global Affairs (CGA) with members of the Global Research Network, by Mr. David Wells, CTED Officer

BEYOND THE CALIPHATE: Foreign Fighters and the Threat of Returnees (a report by the Soufan Center)

Presentation by Mr. El Mostafa Rezrazi, OCP Policy Center, Rabat

Statement by Ms. Emman El-Badawy, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

Statement by Mr. Pavel Mareev, Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorism Center (CIS ACT) in English

Statement by Mr. Pavel Mareev, Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorism Center (CIS ACT) in Russian

Presentation slides of Mr. Pavel Mareev, Commonwealth of Independent States Anti-Terrorism Center (CIS ACT)

Statement as delivered by Mr. Matthew Levitt, Washington Institute For Near East Policy

Statement by Ms. Cheryl Frank, Institute for Security Studies, Pretoria

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Conference: Collaboration to counter terrorists exploiting ICT

BMUSONI — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 00:40:00 +0000

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Participants in the workshop

On Friday 24 April 2015, New York University’s School of Professional Studies/Center for Global Affairs together with the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) hosted a workshop on Collaboration to counter terrorists exploiting information and communication technologies (ICT). Recalling the recent attack against TV5 which led to a shutdown of its 11 channels, all social media accounts, and its website, CTED Executive Director Jean-Paul Laborde pointed out that ICT can be used for both legitimate and malicious purposes.

One of the speakers underlined how easy it is today for a potential terrorist to connect with an established bad actor: Whereas at the time of the 9/11 attacks against the United States smart phones did not even exist, today anybody can use their phone and social media to communicate with Da’esh/ISIS, buy a plane ticket and apply for a visa to a transit country online, and later the same day be in a conflict zone to participate in fighting.

A number of matters of a more strategic nature was raised, including when to prevent a person from travelling vs. when to keep tracking the person to learn more about planned terrorist activities, etc.; where to draw the line between tracking a person online yet avoid becoming a ‘thought police;’ when to take content off-line and how this may affect terrorists’ activities outside the virtual space, thereby making them more difficult to track; what material is successful in radicalizing individuals and what assumptions we make about this; what happens when private companies have more data about an individual than the government does; and how the so-called MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty) process can be sped up and the time to manage requests for mutual legal assistance shortened

frequently cited statement was that it is not the technology that is the issue, but the content and users inciting violence using the technology. In a world with over one billion social media users, however, what does successful law enforcement look like? According to one law enforcement representative, watching terrorist videos online is not a crime in most jurisdictions, but taking concrete steps to join Da’esh/ISIS is; proving overt terrorist acts and criminal intent is very challenging.

Participants in the workshop included representatives from NYU, various UN entities, Government officials, private companies, and civil society. This meeting was organised in the context of the CTED mandate to reach out to Member States, the private sector, and civil society in relation to the use of ICT for terrorism purposes.

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