Aziz, Sahar F., Rethinking Counterterrorism in the Age of ISIS (February 18, 2016). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2734341

Nations engage in preventive counterterrorism primarily through military and security tactics. Rather than address the underlying social, political, and economic conditions that produce politically-motivated violence, they misguidedly focus on the symptom — international terrorism. Moreover, the military and security interests of authoritarian states whose state violence breeds non-state violence animate global counterterrorism campaigns. Western nations often limit their counterterrorism efforts to merely preventing violence on their soil while buttressing dictators with military aid used against their own citizens.  This Article argues for a paradigm shift in preventive global counterterrorism strategies. With the advancement of technology, fluidity of borders, and ubiquity of international travel, countries can no longer afford to ignore the deteriorating conditions in failing states or repressive regimes where terrorists set up bases. Nor can they limit their interest in stopping terrorism to bombing terrorist training camps or pushing terrorists underground. Only when the underlying political, social, and economic inequalities that enable terrorism are resolved can security improve for all people. Simply put, citizens in the West can no longer wall themselves off from violence inflicting citizens in the East. It is thus long overdue to rethink counterterrorism in the twenty-first century.”