Terrorism and CT: Governing wicked problems - final paper
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Course
Terrorism and CT: Governing Wicked Problems
Institution
Universiteit Leiden (UL)
Graded with an 8.3. This final paper for the course TCT Governing Wicked Problems from the CSM program analyses based on a future scenario, the risks and benefits of conducting targeted strikes against the TTP, applying the Batelle Approach. When written, this paper was one of the select few that r...
The threat of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan: would targeted strikes prevent future
disaster?
s2839032
Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Governing a Wicked Problem
Final Paper
26-03-2024
Word count: 3299x
, The threat of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan: would targeted
strikes prevent future disaster?
Introduction
Since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the number of terrorist attacks in
Pakistan has spiked significantly (Hussain, 2023). Many of these attacks are perpetrated by
the Tehrik-e-Taliban, or TTP, an extreme Islamist organisation that has aligned itself with the
Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaida (Akhtar & Ahmed, 2023). The terrorist attacks have caused
unrest and the state of Pakistan is struggling to counter the organisation amidst ongoing
economic and political crises, especially with the recent elections.
This paper will analyse, based on a future scenario, the risks and benefits of
conducting targeted strikes against the TTP. It will specifically advise the United States (US)
government to act accordingly as, previously, the US predominantly conducted targeted
strikes in comparison to the Pakistani government (Topich, 2018). Using the TTP’s
characteristics and attributes, the paper will conduct an analysis using the Battelle Approach.
Due to the wide variety of targeted strikes, this paper will focus solely on (leader)
decapitation strikes. It, foremost, asks whether targeted strikes against the TTP will be
effective for the US government, and it will, additionally, provide more detailed policy
recommendations that conclude that targeted strikes do pose a desirable course of action to
counter the TTP threat.
It will start with an inquiry into the TTP’s history, current status, characteristics and
attributes, after which it will delve into the analysis. Here the Battelle Approach is described
and justified in more detail, after which the results are presented. Then, the policy
recommendations are drawn based on these results. The paper will end with some concluding
thoughts.
The TTP’s who, when, where, why and how
The origins of the TTP
The TTP originated in the formerly Federally Administered Tribal Areas (ex-FATA) regions,
which were autonomous in western Pakistan until 2017, and has been regarded as a product
of the War On Terror and the US invasion of Afghanistan (Akhtar & Ahmed, 2023). After
many Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda members sought refuge in ex-FATA, the Pakistani
government was pressured into exercising a security operation in the regions, leading to
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