ABSTRACT
This article proposes the Just Counterterrorism Model for shaping and assessing counterterrorism strategy and tactics that are comprehensive, effective and ethical. After deconflating non-state terrorism from other sources of terror and briefly surveying how terror groups end, the article develops the Just Counterterrorism Model’s three components of Justice for the Attacked, Justice for Terrorists and Justice for Others. Each component addresses one of the three sets of actors involved in non-state terrorism (comprehensive), incorporates lessons learned from surveying how terror groups end (effective) and is informed by Rawls’ ethic of justice as fairness (ethical).
Acknowledgments
Comments, challenges and questions from my students at the Naval Postgraduate School were important catalysts for developing the Just Counterterrorism Model. My former NPS colleagues Mark Smith and Darrell Wesley repeatedly offered encouragement and insightful critiques. Recommendations and advice received from the anonymous peer reviewers and the journal editor are also gratefully acknowledged for producing a stronger, clearer argument. Any errors that remain are solely my responsibility.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
George M. Clifford
George M. Clifford is an Episcopal priest, retired U.S. Navy Captain, and former Visiting Professor of Ethics and Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA. His research and publication interests include counterterrorism, military ethics and the philosophy of religion.