Psychological Strategies for the Defence Against Terrorism
Abstract
Various subdisciplines of psychology are relevant to the defence against terrorism, in terms of anti-terrorism, counter-terrorism, and terrorism consequence management. Anti-Terrorism: Psychological methods can be applied to reduce vulnerabilities to attack and to encourage the general public to identify infrastructure and other vulnerabilities. Counter-Terrorism: Psychological techniques are available to assess and improve terrorism awareness in the general population. The detection performance of counter-terrorism personnel can be improved: psychological methods can enhance situation awareness, situated cognition, detection capabilities, and decision-making; automated expert system tools employing fuzzy signal detection can assist personnel; other psychological techniques can enhance individual and team function, personnel selection and training. Psychological principles can also be applied to obstruct and impede terrorist functioning. Consequence Management: Psychological methods can be used to enhance capabilities of first responders, improve escape and evacuation procedures for civilians, promote resilience in the general population, and treat victims of terrorism more effectively. We propose possible configurations for psychological consulting teams who would help defence authorities use these strategies to address terrorist activity.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 25, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA457807
Entities
People
- Mark E. Koltko-rivera
- P. A. Hancock