Understanding Terrorist Finance

Wittig presents the first unified coherent framework for the systematic analysis of terrorist finance. With empirical examples from around the globe, he dispels several popular myths about these activities to make an important step forward in our understanding of not only terrorist finance, but also the place of terrorism in the contemporary world.

Groups committing acts of terrorism have adapted their means of financing to elude detection since the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Surveying the global community’s multi-year effort to cut off terrorist funding, this volume offers a much-needed analysis of a complex, widely discussed, yet poorly understood subject. While books on terrorism have touched upon the topic, this is the first comprehensive, balanced, and scholarly overview of terrorist financing, its methods, and efforts to counter it. Bringing together leading analysts of terrorism, international relations, global finance, law, and criminology, Countering the Financing of Terrorism provides a critical assessment of the international effort to restrict terrorist financing. It evaluates the costs and benefits and offers recommendations for more effective policies for the future.

This book takes a broadly comparative approach to analyzing how the financing of global jihadi terrorist groups has evolved in response to government policies since September 11, 2001.

Without money, terrorists cannot function as organizations and cannot conduct attacks. Yet the questions remain, how vulnerable are terrorists to financial disruptions? Can governments put pressure on their finances in meaningful ways or are they too resilient and adaptive to be affected by state actions? These and other questions about terrorism financing are vigorously debated by scholars and policymakers, particularly since the attacks of September 11th 2001 . While there is a growing literature on policy issues, strategies, and countermeasures, states must first understand their enemies before developing strategies to defeat them. So, instead of focusing on the state response, this book asks a more foundational question: How do different terrorist groups actually raise money? What are their budgets? What do their portfolios look like? How have they changed over time? What are the advantages and disadvantages of different sources of financing? The book includes case studies of 11 different terrorist groups or sets of groups within a country. It is clear that each group has a different portfolio tailored to their needs and their environment and this makes countering terrorist financing more challenging for the state. This topical book will be required reading for all students and scholars interested in terrorism financing as well as those working in government agencies tasked with combating terrorist groups and their financial resources.

This book examines the dynamics of terrorist financing, including a discussion about the importance of money from both the terrorist and the counter-terrorist perspective. Targeting Terrorist Financing argues that it is not the institutions that have failed the war on terrorist financing; rather it is the states that have failed the institutions. The measures contemplated by the world community to interdict terrorists and their financial infrastructures are sufficient to debilitate the terrorists both militarily and financially. However, what has been increasingly lacking is political will among the states, and this has overwhelmed the spirit of cooperation in this very critical front against terrorism. This volume assesses the need for international cooperation and the role of institutions and regimes in targeting terrorist financing. After the 9/11 attacks, there was an expression of global willingness to target terrorism generally, and terrorist financing in particular. The institutional mechanisms that grew out of this are explored in detail here, with a critical examination of the progress made by the international community. The impact of these measures is considered with respect to changes in the nature of the terrorist threat, money confiscated, adoption of international conventions, and global standards by states, and levels of compliance, among others. This book will be of great interest to students of terrorism, international organisations, international security, and IR in general. Arabinda Acharya is Research Fellow, Manager of Strategic Projects and Head of the Terrorist Financing Response Project at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

This book analytically reviews the impact of the global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) framework on the compliance trajectory of a number of jurisdictions to this framework. The work begins by examining the international financial sector reform and its evolution to inculcate the global framework for AML/CFT regulations. It challenges the resulting uniform AML/CFT due to its paradoxical impact on the compliance trajectory of African countries and emerging economies (ACs/EEs). This is done through an examination of the pre-conditions for effective regulation and compliance drivers for ACs/EEs that reveals the behavioural impact of the AML/CFT standards on the bloc of countries. Through the application of agency theory, it explores the relationship between ACs/EEs on the one hand and the international financial institutions that formulate, disseminate and facilitate compliance with the global framework for AML/CFT standards on the other. The remaining chapters review empirically the compliance pressures and resulting compliance trajectory of ACs/EEs with the AML/CFT standards. The final part of the book provides a detailed explanation of the compliance challenges of ACs/EEs and the legitimacy concerns that facilitate this. This book offers a new direction on the impact of global AML/CFT standards on ACs/EEs and contributes to the understanding of the conditions under which the global standards are likely to facilitate proactive compliance within these blocs of countries. As such it will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers working in this area.

The aim of this book is to make a significant contribution to guide countries in the financial war on terrorism. It is published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on behalf of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the ...

Regulation and control of the financial industry has become the weapon of choice for governments struggling to control the rise in global crime and terrorism. Tim Parkman and Gill Peeling's Countering Terrorist Finance - A Training Handbook for Financial Services is a practical, specialist guide for training staff in financial institutions in the processes and skills needed to respond to terrorist financing activities. The book explains international legal responses and obligations (with particular jurisdictional emphasis on the US, the UK, and Hong Kong); dissects the financing typologies behind terrorist attacks including September 11th, Madrid, Bali and other non al-Qaeda examples; analyzes potential causes for suspicion and offers an overview of the main issues and considerations affecting compliance professionals, in their efforts to protect against terrorist financing. The accompanying collection of eight training activities, with supporting materials and presentation slides, provides compliance officers with a resource for developing awareness and appropriate behaviour amongst employees tasked with managing terrorist finance risk. Additional training resource materials, including Powerpoint presentations, audio visual slideshows and pdf handouts are available ondownloadable resources that accompany the book. The background material, practical advice and training resources make this collection an excellent starting point for organizations striving to make a difference in this complex and difficult area.