Governments around the world have separate agencies to combat terrorism and respond to transnational organized crime, which has a significant impact on the quality of life experienced by individuals in their immediate environment. In the recent past, transnational organized crime has posed a series of challenges that undermine the efforts to safeguard the wellbeing of individuals. To this end, portraying a transnational organized crime as a threat to national and global security defines the measures that countries should use in response to the rising cases of crime-related incidents. Both terrorism and Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) require governments to gather intelligence from the criminal organizations to identify their organizational structures and patterns. It should be noted that countries with a weak rule of law are easy targets for TOC because of its ability to exploit the weaknesses in the legal system through activities such as insider trading and corruption involving government officials. Therefore, the existence of two different strategies for both terrorism and TOC are guided by the motivation manifested by the criminal groups when executing different crime-related activities in the world today.
Terrorist Groups
Terror groups pursue non-profit ideas when engaging in violent acts that threaten both national and international security. In this regard, government agencies are compelled to develop a unique strategy that enables them to understand their political and religious beliefs before developing feasible solutions that can be used to address the underlying issues. While the vision for terror organizations cannot hinder them from collaborating with TOC groups, governments should develop proactive measures that outline the need to neutralize their influence in the modern world. Terrorist groups use attrition, intimidation, and provocation among strategies to execute their violent acts in the community (Van der Wilt & Paulussen, 2019). World peace exists because of the ability of individuals to form meaningful relations with others in their surroundings. At any given time, the government can intervene when two population groups are involved in conflicts that threaten the quality of their relations. However, terrorist take advantage of certain weaknesses in the community to penetrate and gain some level of acceptance before exposing individuals to a wide range of risks that interfere with the wellbeing of individuals.
Transnational Organized Crime Groups
It should be noted that terrorists and TOC groups are independent but operate within the same framework that defines their operations in the contemporary world. From time to time, terrorist and TOC groups may form collaborations to accomplish certain milestones, which elevate their ideologies in the contemporary society. When this happens, the two criminal organizations extend operational support to each other and perform joint operations that allow them to gain access to certain areas of interests (White House, 2011). For instance, terrorists may want to gain entry into the U.S. but since they cannot use formal channels, they might engage TOC groups who can facilitate their movements into the country. In instances where the existence of both is threatened, the two criminal groups work closely to overcome the pressing need. Having two strategies for each criminal organization increases the probability of neutralizing their influence in the community because of the specificity element that yields positive outcomes. Besides, it shares the risks across the two strategies, increasing the chances of success, as opposed to relying to a common approach of solving the problem.
Dear Tarawali,
I loved your strategies that should be used to combat the crime terror nexus. Mostly, governments use law enforcement, intelligence, and monitoring the financial systems to identify any anomalies that track the interactions between groups in the criminal ecosystem. The fact that you emphasized the importance of intelligence sharing between governments and other agencies mandated to collect information about the criminal organizations adds value to your arguments towards the topic. Unlike other strategies that can be used in responding to the organized crime network and terrorism groups, intelligence sharing provides intrinsic information that facilitates any efforts to combat the fast spread of the related criminal activities. I believe in the development of an effective financial system that tracks transactions and creates viable outcomes that respond to the ongoing changes in the world today.
Dear Sudan,
I am awed by your simple approach in defining the reason governments have different strategies to respond to terrorism and TOC groups. The interpretation of both criminal networks varies significantly in the modern world, a move that allows individuals to gain an understanding about the criminal enterprises. However, using varied strategies provides an opportunity for the government agencies to decentralize operations and reward selected groups that can overcome various scenarios affecting individuals in their immediate environment. In the same vein, using different strategies allows security agencies to focus on the operational performance of each security group and create an ideal solution that addresses the impact of the issues affecting individuals in their surroundings. Although you believe that the strategies should be merged, there is a need to maintain the current approach because of its ability to yield numerous outcomes.
