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Conference Report

The NATO Emerging Security Challenges Division teamed up with Carnegie Europe to organize the conference The World in 2020 – Can NATO Protect Us? The Challenges to Critical Infrastructure.

Threats to critical infrastructure, such as cyber attacks international terrorism and attacks on energy supply, can be devastating to the livelihoods of modern societies and cannot be met by military means alone. The conference with renowned speakers from NATO, academia and national administrations discussed NATO’s role in meeting security challenges to critical infrastructure.

The conference report can be downloaded here:

The World in 2020 – Can NATO Protect Us? The Challenges to Critical Infrastructure (10 Dec 2012)

Keywords

When searching for information on this topic, potentially useful keywords to use include :

intelligence sharing
information sharing
international intelligence cooperation

Notes

This LibGuide includes links to content found on the web (e.g. websites, news & blogs, reports, etc.) as well as a select number of articles and books available from the NATO Multimedia Library.

Please note that this is not a comprehensive collection of material on intelligence sharing in fighting terrorism. The selection criteria for the websites and documents included was based on each item's currency and relevancy to this topic.

Furthermore, quick search boxes for online databases subscribed by the Library (available to staff working at NATO HQ) as well as links to the library catalog are available for you to locate additional resources.

Welcome!

From the NATO Topic page on Countering Terrorism:

Since 11 September 2001, NATO has sought to increase consultations on terrorism and terrorism-related issues among its members, as well as with non-member countries. Information-sharing and, more specifically, intelligence-sharing are key aspects of this exchange.

At the 2002 Prague Summit, improved intelligence-sharing was identified as a key aspect of cooperation among Allies. A Terrorist Threat Intelligence Unit (TTIU) was set up under the NATO Office of Security at the end of 2003, replacing a temporary cell established immediately after the 11 September 2001 attacks. The TTIU functioned for the following seven years as a joint NATO body composed of officers from civilian and military intelligence agencies, having as its main task the assessment of the terrorist challenges, risks and threats to NATO and its member nations. To that end, the TTIU developed an efficient liaison mechanism with Allied intelligence services and national terrorism coordination centres. In addition, the TTIU shared terrorism-related information with partner nations.

Based on the decision taken at the 2004 Istanbul Summit to review the intelligence structures at NATO Headquarters, connections with partner nations have been improved. In that regard, a new intelligence liaison cell was created at SHAPE in Mons, Belgium, and an Intelligence Liaison Unit (ILU) at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.

Within the framework of the comprehensive intelligence reform at NATO Headquarters that took place in 2010-2011, the TTIU’s functions were taken over by the newly created Intelligence Unit. That transformation further enhanced the analytical approaches on terrorism and its links with other transnational threats. The current mechanism has also enhanced cooperation among the NATO civilian and military intelligence components, and preserved the previously developed mechanisms that ensure coherent intelligence-sharing with partners.

This LibGuide is intended to provide a few starting points to assist you with your research on issues related to intelligence sharing in fighting terrorism, in particular in the NATO context.

Good places to start your research include :

the NATO Topic pages on:

the NATO portal on NATO and the fight against terrorism
the NATO Briefing on Countering Terrorism (2011). In particular, please refer to page 15, which briefly describes NATO's partnerships with other international organizations such as the UN, the EU and the OSCE in the fight against terrorism:

"NATO works with affiliated United Nations (UN) bodies such as the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee, its Executive Directorate and the Security Council Committee 1540. It has also established contacts with the UN on its Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and works closely with UN agencies".

"Both NATO and the EU are committed to combat terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. They have exchanged information on their activities in the field of protection of civilian populations against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks. The two organizations also cooperate in the field of civil emergency planning by exchanging inventories of measures taken in this area."

"NATO and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) are working together to build security and promote stability in the Euro-Atlantic area. In recent years dialogue has expanded to include terrorism and other new security threats, which today constitute a priority area for each of the two organizations."