It is this supposed ineffectiveness in the contemporary environment that feeds into the creation of the military approaches to countering terrorism.
The Efficacy of Military Policies
The military (or war) model of counterterrorism can be defined as the process of framing “the struggle against terrorism in military terms of an enemy-centric war where the armed forces of a state are primarily in charge of developing counterterrorism strategy”. 86 It differs from the criminal justice model in that it prioritises the use of hard power through overwhelming force over persistent measures of intelligence gathering and traditional legal procedures. The closest illustration of the military model can be seen in the declaration and subsequent elements of the ’war on terror’ declared in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq can both be seen as elements of this shift towards the employment of hard power in counterterrorist operations. The ‘shock and awe’ strategy utilised in Iraq, might be regarded as evidence of the implementation of the military model by pursuing overwhelming force to subdue the terrorist threat. More contemporary evidence of the use of hard power can be seen in the escalation of drone strikes as a counterterrorism tool. The US government, for example, carried out 122 separate drone strikes in Pakistan in 2010 alone. 87 86 Jason Rineheart, 'Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency', Perspectives on Terrorism, 4.5 (2010), 31–47, p. 37. 87 Aiden Warren and Ingvild Bode, 'Altering the Playing Field: The U.S. Redefinition of the Use-of-force', Contemporary Security Policy , 36.2 (2015), 174–199, p. 185.
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