Study On U.S.Domestic Counterterrorism Capacity Building Since 9/11

The 9/11 terrorist attacks have shocked the traditional U.S.security view,which brought“homeland security” into the U.S.political lexicon,and prompted U.S.to start a process of systematic domestic counterterrorism capacity building.Since then,with the establishment of an all-round,multi-layered defense system and the launch of costly overseas counterterrorism operations,international terrorists have almost lost all opportunities to carry out similar terrorist acts on U.S.soil.However,in recent years,the increasingly obvious differences among U.S.policymakers on the issue of counterterrorism,as well as the increasing number of violent terrorist attacks against innocent people in the country,all indicate that the U.S.domestic counterterrorism capacity building has fallen into a bottleneck.Considering that,it is of great practical significance to sort out and study the U.S.post-9/11 domestic counterterrorism capacity building practices to fully explore its theoretical and empirical values.How U.S.responding to terrorism after 9/11 is not a new topic though,the existing researches have centered on the United States’ response to the practice of international terrorism in the context of GWo T,and very little has been done on the issue of domestic terrorism and its response to it.Moreover,the main focus has been on the its national counterterrorism strategies,policies,technology and equipment construction as well as its overseas counterterrorism actions.These researches,though responding to the specific problems of the complex fight against terrorism,fail to discuss and analyze the effectiveness of the practices from a systematic perspective,lacking a unified analytical framework and systematic reflection.Based on theoretical and practical needs,the present author tries to solve the problem from the following three perspectives:(1)with the help of Pearson’s AGIL model and qualitative research on 25 counterterrorism strategy texts of different countries and international organizations,it tries to construct a 4R model of Counterterrorism Capacity Building,which argues that the national counterterrorism capacity building is an action system that contains four dimensions,i.e.,threat realizing capacity,counterterrorism responding capacity,security realization capacity,and reflection capacity.The basic logic of the model is to “recognize the threat-respond to the threat-re-recognize-re-act”.(2)Based on the above framework,the present author further analyzes the history,constraints and improvement measures of U.S.since9/11 terrorist attacks.After the attack,U.S.experienced a period of strong counterterrorism capacity building,not only constructed a horizontal and vertical three-dimensional national counterterrorism system,but also established a solid counterterrorism alliance at home and abroad.However,in the process of promoting the local counterterrorism capacity building,it also faces some constraints: the inherent limitations of the distinct U.S.security concept,the political interests of the decision-making level,the flaws in the design of the counterterrorism system,as well as the lack of timely security assessment and reflection,under the influence of which,in the past U.S.has been regarding terrorism as a foreign threat,and in the specific practice of the collective security of its domestic Muslim communities,the bias of the behavioral punishment instead of ideological factors,etc.(3)Drawing insights from the Counterterrorism Capacity Building Model and the improvement measures of U.S.In the face of the increasingly severe domestic counterterrorism situation,the U.S.has taken a number of improvement measures,such as issuing the first-ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism,strengthening domestic counterterrorism intelligence capacity,emphasizing the governance of disinformation,and innovating counter-extremism measures by drawing on the concepts of public health,which have provided certain useful insights for China’s counterterrorism efforts.Based on the above discussion it is considered that counterterrorism efforts must not be confined to a single causal path,nor should the effectiveness of counterterrorism goals be broken down into isolated,single concrete measures;Capacity Building is supposed be an important way of the effective promotion of counterterrorism efforts.In the process of promoting national counterterrorism capacities,Counterterrorism Capacity Building should not be simply equated with fragmented capacity building acts such as institutional creation and technological updating.It should,instead,be promoted holistically from the above-mentioned four dimensions,i.e.threat realizing,responding,security realization,and reflection,in conjunction with the wider meaning of the concept of security,civic trust,and systemic resilience.Counterterrorism efforts need to be explored and improved in the context of national security,by adhering to a comprehensive and dynamic view of terrorism,ensuring a strong leadership,strengthening identity capacity building,strengthening social communication mechanisms and ensuring timely reflection and action.