Criminal Justice Professor To Discuss Research At International Terrorism Conference

Oct. 10, 2014
SHSU Media Contact: Julia May

Professor Mitchel P. Roth, from Sam Houston State University’s College of Criminal Justice, has been invited to present his research on counterterrorism at the international Terrorism Expert Conference hosted by the NATO Center of Excellence-Defense Against Terrorism in Ankara, Turkey, on Oct. 15-16.

The conference will focus on recent conflicts and their impact on terrorist networks.

Roth will discuss “Recent Counterterrorism Strategies in Africa: Results and Unintended Consequences.” He has been researching and writing about Turkish counterterrorism efforts for more than a decade.

“Having worked with several Turkish doctoral students who have gone on to academic and police jobs in Turkey, I have had the opportunity to research groups such as the Kurdish Workers Party in Turkey and had access to materials not available in open sources,” he said.

In recent years Roth has expanded his research to studying the evolution of various European counterterrorism strategies in Western Europe and now in Africa. In 2011 the NATO Emerging Security Challenges Division published his article “The Evolution of State Counter-terrorism Strategies in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, 1960-2010” in Multi-Faceted Approach to Radicalization in Terrorist Organizations, part of the NATO Science for Peace and Security Series.

“My new research focuses on the impact of counterterrorism strategies by such forces as the African Union and France over the past two years in Mali, Somalia, Chad and other countries,” he said. “It examines successes and failures of these strategies and the unintended consequences of sectarian and religious conflicts and the various attempts to suppress them.”

At the conference, he will discuss such factors as poorly understood borders, increased domestic terrorism, illiteracy and rapid population growth, corruption, the replacement of justice systems, and the lingering effects of post-colonial rage.

“Economic challenges will also be noted, such as the impact on the Central African Republic of forcing out Muslim traders in the Central African Republic by Christian militias and the drop in oil revenue in South Sudan due to civil war,” he said.

“Concerns related to foreign fighters returning back to France with a jihadist agenda from Africa were once limited to residents of North African ancestry, particularly from Algeria and Tunisia. French counterterrorism strategy has now shifted focus from North Africa to former French colonies in Africa,” Roth said.

“Similar to American and Western European fears of recent involvement in the campaign against the Islamic State causing foreign jihadists to return home as security threats, there are fears, especially in France, of some French citizens of African ancestry returning home to France under the banner of jihad following French military intervention in Mali, Chad and elsewhere,” he said.

Roth has been selected as one of three moderators who will summarize the key findings of the conference at its conclusion. The findings of the moderators and the conference presenters will be published as an after-action report and a conference booklet. Speakers will come from France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Spain, Turkey, Germany, Canada, and Finland, and will also include representatives from Europol, Interpol and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes Terrorism Prevention Branch.

Earlier this year, Roth delivered a paper entitled “Africa: Regional Overview of the Terrorism/Organized Crime Nexus” in Ankara at the workshop Nexus Between Terrorism and Organized Crime: New Trends and Responses.

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