Soft Counterterrorism Strategies: The Italian Case

Abstract

The discussion of the approach in counterterrorism started to arise especially around the United States and its tactics in its missions to other countries to "fight terrorism". Thus, this approach particularly developed around threats that did not come from 6 within but in relation to threats that were fought in other countries. With the worsening of the jihadist threat, the so-called new terrorism, the debate regarding homegrown threats became more pressing. In Europe, countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and Norway understood the need to develop strategies other than the classic hard approach to contain the new threat. Thus, soft power started to be applied in homeland security. This new method of approaching counter-terrorism, however, entails numerous criticisms, especially, due to problems in measuring the results obtained. The academic world is extremely divided on the utility and the benefits of the approach (see van Dongen, 2018). Italy has been dealing with homegrown terrorism since the birth of its first republic. However, contrary to its European neighbours, there seems to be a lack of debate surrounding the state of its counterterrorism approach and its prevention tactics. This gap represents the scenario that this thesis aims to fill. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)