Counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism refers to the practices, tactics, and strategies that governments, militaries, and other groups adopt in order to fight terrorism. Counter-terrorism is not specific to any one field or organization; rather, it involves entities from all levels of society. For instance, businesses have security plans and sometimes share commercial data with the government. Local police, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel (often called "first responders") have plans for dealing with terrorist attack. Armies conduct combat operations against terrorists, often using special forces. Building a counter-terrorism plan involves all segments of a society or many government agencies.There is a linguistic debate about the difference between counter-terrorism and anti-terrorism. The general consensus in the law enforcement community is that actions taken to prevent or significantly inhibit terrorism are considered anti-terrorism, whereas actions taken directly against terrorist groups are considered counter-terrorism. An example of anti-terrorism is the construction of barriers and barricades around important sites. An example of counter-terrorism is the assassination of a known terrorist.
Protecting against terrorism is an increasingly important task for military and security forces around the world. Counter-terrorism activities also include intelligence gathering, bomb disposal, negotiation, and hostage rescue. In the United States, counter-terrorism grew in importance following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The term counter-terrorism originally referred to terrorist activities that were in response (or revenge) to other terrorist activities, although this sense of the word is now obsolete.
See also: counter-insurgency