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When Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf speaks, he gets lots of attention in Washington DC and other capitals in the western world. For the past three years, he has been saying that he was determined to root out terrorism from the world. He was quickly dubbed as a staunch ally by the Bush administration.

For a nation such as India, which is among the countries most affected by terrorism, this is a time to take the lead in continuing to keep the spotlight on the menace of terrorism

The Modi government has declared that virtually everyone who opposes its policies in Jammu and Kashmir is a terrorist. This makes it difficult to find a way out of the Kashmir miasma.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Delhi, NSA A.K. Doval said there is a need for collective response by countries to tackle terrorism as it will be very difficult for countries individually to fight terror effectively. He called for a Comprehensive United Nations Convention against Terrorism.

Whoever thought that ¿terrorising¿ the people of one¿s own country through dictatorial methods is equivalent to terrorism, as generally understood, is learning a new lesson in Iraq. With the failure to prove that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass-destruction even months after the despot¿s exit, the US is finding that to the average Iraqi, it is not a ¿liberator¿ but an ¿occupier¿.

In March 2023, the foreign ministers of India, Japan, Australia, and the US (that form the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad) announced the establishment of a working group on countering terrorism. While the urgency of counterterrorism cooperation may have arguably faded in political debate in recent years, it remains steady in military-to-military cooperation at the bilateral and multilateral levels. In a fast-changing glo

The Pahalgam terror attack of 22 April 2025 raised the spectre of cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir yet again. Initially claimed and then denied by The Resistance Front (TRF), a Lashkar-e-Taiba affiliate, the attack triggered nationwide condemnation and protests, including among the local population in the Union Territory. After the 2019 revocation of Articles 370 and 35A, the Indian government intensified efforts to integrate Kashmir p

Piracy in the Arabian Sea has been coming dangerously close to the Indian shores. Piracy and sea terrorism also affect the security and commercial interests of major powers like China who seek to ensure continued supply of energy across the Arabian Sea. The pirates collect logistical data and raise funds for Al-Shahbab, in exchange for protection.

The presence of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan has been counter-productive and has only led to increase in terrorism, according to Dr. Saeed Jalili, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran.

For their survival and success, terrorist organisations need recruits, sanctuaries from which they could operate, funds and arms and ammunition, explosives and other material required for their acts of terrorism. Where, in addition, sponsorship by a State is available, it adds to their strength and to the difficulties of the counter-terrorism agencies in dealing with them.

India should not fall for hyped up fears of nuclear escalation; Pakistan is a rational actor that understands the limitations of nuclear weapons

No accurate estimate is as yet available on the human losses and material damage suffered by the Al Qaeda and other jihadi terrorist organisations belonging to Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) as a result of the earthquake, which struck Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan on October 8, 2005.

Maritime terrorism directed at international trade and energy supplies is not just within the realm of possibility but a distinct threat that confronts the international community. Acts of maritime terrorism of a noticeable scale began with the Palestinian Liberation Front hijacking an Italian cruise ship in 1985.

President Obama recently outlined a re-oriented counter terrorism strategy that aimed at trimming down the predominance that counter-terrorism had occupied in US policymaking. The speech also made public Obama's intention to scale down the drone campaign, subject it to tighter scrutiny and oversight.

India has said that the regional efforts to counter terrorism in South Asia continue to face significant challenges though there are various SAARC frameworks on suppression of terrorism since 1987.

What are the imperatives if the international community has to ultimately prevail over international jihadi terrorism of the Al Qaeda brand?

Since April, 2005, there has been a co-ordinated escalation of acts of jihadi terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Jammu and Kashmir (J) State of India. It is my assessment that the coming months will see more and not less incidents of jihadi terrorism in these three areas.

This paper proposes a counter-terrorism (CT) framework in terms of three types of CT policies—i.e., offensive, defensive, and confidence-building measures (CBMs)— targeted at a terror outfit that is either resource-constrained or resource-abundant. It argues that defensive measures are a ubiquitous element of CT, as these can prove effective irrespective of whether the targeted terrorist group is resource-abundant or resource-constrained. On

What are the gains that diplomacy on counter-terrorism, resolutions of the UN Security Council and other such multilateral instruments bring to the table?

The idea was to capture the different dimensions of the war on terror as has been perceived and to locate the war in the larger geo political context in order to appreciate and understand the consequences, according to Dr Ashley Tellis, a well-known senior US policy analyst.

There has rarely been a period in modern history, when the world has not been confronted with terrorism; somewhere or the other, in some form or another, for some reason or the other. As a mean of coercion through violence, terrorism ebbs and flows and keeps undergoing many mutations.

While New Delhi is getting more diplomatic support for its position, it is doing little to change the threat Pakistan poses.

Conventional theories have become insufficient in explaining the complexities of terrorist action. This brief offers an integrative approach that borrows from psychology, inter-group conflict theory and neuroscience to understand the mind of a terrorist and, by extension, inform counterterrorism strategies. It provides evidence against popular beliefs about terrorists as principally being religious extremists who lack a moral compass and belong t

Narcoterrorism—or the trafficking of illicit drugs by terrorist and insurgent groups—has long threatened India’s national security. Security agencies are attempting to address this challenge, which involves various groups like Khalistani terrorist organisations, Kashmir’s separatist militants, and insurgent groups in the Northeast; their efforts have achieved mixed results. This brief examines recent trends in drug trafficking and narcote

A detailed report by the US Senate Intelligence Committee recently has told us once again that torture doesn?t work. India should aspire to become a civilised democracy by putting an immediate legislative ban on torture. It will give our security organisations incentive to develop the interrogation and forensic skills, which are far more efficacious in countering terrorism.

This paper examines the environmental and policy-level challenges to the actualisation of US-India counterterrorism cooperation. Indeed, despite their seeming convergence on the imperative of effective counterterrorism, there has been limited cooperation between the two countries. While the US’ sense of “American exceptionalism” and its hegemon status purports a utilitarian notion of the adversary, India’s regional power status makes its

November 2003 was a black month for Turkey, which has been grappling with problems arising out of its geo-strategic location in the Middle East and its Islamic identity and its close proximity to the Western world. Even before the country could recover from the terrorist blasts outside the Beit Israel and Neve Shalom synagogues in Istanbul that killed 25 innocent civilians and wounded

India and the United States (US) are realigning their respective foreign policies to prioritise stronger ties in counterterrorism cooperation. However, challenges arise from differing national security perspectives, particularly regarding regional threats posed by entities like Pakistan and Afghanistan. Following massive terrorist attacks, this collaboration has intensified, encompassing various activities that include intelligence sharing and jo

The 9/11 Commission Report has been made public and has, since then, witnessed intense scrutiny and commentary in the international media. The Indian media and analysts have been exceptionally vocal about its findings on Pakistan¿s possible linkages with the 9/11 attackers and conspirators.

Clearly, the prime minister is very good at making speeches.

Indian counter-terror thinking needs strengthening from the ground up without care of international levers, FATF, and other multilateral security mechanisms

There is a serious terror threat posed by ISIS fighters returning to their home countries after losing the Syria expedition. While it was important to trace the routes taken by these foreign fighters — both in and out of Syria — one needn’t go to Syria to become radicalised through the ISIS ideology.

On 15 and 16 March 2007, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, and the Center on Global Counter-Terrorism Cooperation of the Fourth Freedom Forum, USA, convened a two-day South Asia Regional Workshop, "Security and Liberty," which examined the relationship between human rights and counter-terrorism. This Chairmen's Report highlights some of the themes and recommendations put forward during the workshop.

A two-day workshop on international terrorism in the South-East Asian region and its likely implications for South Asia was organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) at its headquarters at New Delhi on April 28 and 29, 2004, under its International Terrorism Watch Project.

The ISIS has the potential to become the unifying terrorist force in the South East Asia region, posing a bigger threat to the region, according to terrorism expert Mr. Vikram Rajakumar. He also pointed out the emerging pro and anti ISIS factions in the region, counter balancing the ISIS.

To expect that an activity which draws on all the ills of the world — fanaticism, crime, bloodshed and illegal trade — will not have a corrosive impact beyond its intended arena is unrealistic.

करते परवान गुरुद्वारे पर हमले ने अफ़ग़ानिस्तान में भारत की हालिया सक्रियता पर नए सिरे से सवाल खड़े कर दिए हैं क्योंकि काबुल में तालिबान के काबिज होने के बाद नई दिल्ली उसके

ORF examines the causes and consequences of the 26/11 attacks in this volume of articles (click thumbnail above) that focus on the multiple dimensions of this crisis and its aftermath: strategic, operational and tactical.

कोई भी खुफिया जानकारी- चाहे वह कितनी भी छोटी क्यों न हो- नजरअंदाज नहीं की जानी चाहिए. 26/11 से पहले भी एक दर्जन से अधिक खुफिया चेतावनियां दी गई थीं. लेकिन उन्हें गंभीरता से नहीं ल�

अलीकडे इस्रायलवर झालेल्या धक्कादायक दहशतवादी हल्ल्याचे परिणाम आता उलगडून लागले आहेत. हा हल्ला हराकाह अल-मुकावामाह अल-इस्लामिया किंवा हमास ने केला आहे.

The fact that a renewed idea of nation-building for Syria is now down to a non-traditional political entity with roots in extremism keeps the trajectory of the state’s future in suspension

The 2008 terrorist attack came during a sustained period of high economic growth in India.