On the Throes of Transition: Terrorism – Analysis, Assessment and Action

This forum, themed "On the Throes of Transition," will consist of a series of Occasional Papers on the topic of terrorism and promises to serve as a medium of exchange among defense planners, policy makers and intelligence analysts.

It offers an empirically framed rationale for medium to long-term counter-terrorism strategies relying on political and economic context, geographical activity, the mutating nature of felonious groups like gangs, criminal deportees and drug cartels and relevant socio-economic indicators that determine those factors most closely associated with terrorism. The series is part of an ongoing disquisition of Sirius International (Caribbean) Defense Contractors Ltd entitled "On the Throes of Transition" which will come to culmination within the next eighteen months.

The focus of the inquiry is the Caribbean Community as a geopolitical bloc of interest within the Americas. As part of what is referred to by defense planners as "the eastern corridor," this area is primarily maritime and air and nations located there are faced with thriving criminal networks, youth gangs and smuggling routes for commodities such as drugs and guns. Additionally, the transnational nature of terrorist actors allows them to link disparate criminal groups and exploit ungoverned spaces and established trafficking routes already controlled by drug cartels. The emerging trend is of growing concern in this part of the world. The situation is compounded further by the fact that connectivity among actors within the illicit market place is relatively high, as will be disclosed in subsequent case studies.

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