The Terrorism Research Center (TRC) is non-profit

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

focused on investigating and researching global

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

issues through multi-disciplinary collaboration amongst a group of international experts.

History 1996 to 2012

The TRC was founded in 1996 by Matthew Devost, Brian Houghton, and Neal Pollard to establish an organization with a specific focus on terrorism and emerging international security issues like

information warfare Information warfare (IW) (as different from cyber warfare that attacks computers, software, and command control systems) is a concept involving the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a ...

. It was purchased by Blackwater's

Erik Prince Erik Dean Prince (born June 6, 1969) is an American businessman, former U.S. Navy SEAL officer, and the founder of the private military company Blackwater. He served as Blackwater's CEO until 2009 and as its chairman until its sale to a group ...

in 2007. Over the course of 14 years, the TRC conducted research, analysis, and training on variety of

counterterrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that Government, governments, law enforcement, business, and Intelligence agency, intellig ...

and

homeland security Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" to ...

issues.

Website (1996 to 2012)

The TRC web site (which operated at www.terrorism.com since 1996 and then also mirrored at www.homelandsecurity.com starting in 2000) was the top search engine result for “terrorism” and other security keywords for over a decade. The site regularly received as many as 5,000,000 hits per month and had tens of thousands of active registered users. The site has also been cited in thousands of books, news articles, academic papers, and other works.

Major projects (1996 to 2012)

The TRC was involved in several major projects, from 1996: * Responder Knowledge Base. * Terrorism Early Warning Group Expansion Project. * Mirror Image Training. * RealNews List. * Project Pediatric Preparedness. * Lecture Series.

Responder Knowledge Base

The TRC conceived, prototyped, designed, built and operated the RKB over a period of six years. The RKB provided emergency responders, purchasers, and planners with a trusted, integrated, online source of information on products, standards, certifications, grants, and other equipment-related information. The RKB was operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from 2008 until it was decommissioned in September 2013.

Terrorism Early Warning Group Expansion Project

The TRC has worked with the Los Angeles Terrorism Early Warning (TEW) Group since 1997. The TRC and

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States a ...

(LASD) submitted a grant application to the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism to expand the Terrorism Early Warning Group concept to six high threat cities in the U.S. The Terrorism Early Warning Group concept fulfills the intelligence requirements outlined in Homeland Security Directive 8: Interim National Preparedness Goal. After the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

in 2001 and the formation of the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

, the Terrorism Early Warning Group program was migrated to DHS and expanded to cover 56 high threat urban areas. The TRC worked with these 56 cities to develop early warning and intelligence centers that became the precursor the national Fusion Center network.

Mirror Image training

The TRC developed the renowned Mirror Image training program in 2001 to allow military, intelligence, security and first responder personnel to better understand the international terrorist threat. Participants were subjected to an intense immersion program where they were trained to think and act like the adversary and adopt their tactics, techniques, and procedures. TRC Mirror Image training became a U.S. Army Foundry course, was featured in major news media, and became the most popular training course the TRC ever developed.

RealNews List

The TRC provided a free daily

news clipping News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. New ...

service on a variety of global security issues. An archive of several hundred thousand clippings was available via the TRC web site. The mailing of the TRC free daily news clipping service, became known as the 'early bird of global risk issues'.

Project Pediatric Preparedness

The TRC 'Project Pediatric Preparedness' report responded to emergency preparedness and response planning, technology investments, and training frequently, in respect to the unique requirements of responding to pediatric victims of a larger scale terrorist attack. The project explained these unique needs and gaps, and provided a foundation for homeland security planning for pediatric victims of terrorism. The final report described the minimum capabilities essential for emergency response to pediatric victims.http://www.terrorism.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/PPP_Report_Final_4-11-06.pdf The report laid out fifteen Functional Areas for pediatric response – general areas describing functions, tasks, and missions of emergency response. This report is available on the TRC website.

Lecture series

The TRC developed a lecture series, that brought together a wide array of experts to discuss emerging threats. These lectures were then released as audio downloads on the site. Popular speakers from the lecture series included

Brian Michael Jenkins Brian Michael Jenkins (born 1942) is an American expert on terrorism and transportation security. During his nearly four decades of analysis, Jenkins has advised governments, private corporations, the Catholic Church, and the Church of England on t ...

Rohan Gunaratna Rohan Gunaratna (born 1961) is a Sri Lankan born political analyst specializing in international terrorism. He is the Director General of thInstitute of National Security Studies Professor Gunaratna has over 30 years of academic, policy, and op ...

, and Hekmat Karzai.

2005 U.S. Capitol flag honor

In 2005, to honor of TRC's contributions to the first responder community through the development of the RKB system, it received a U.S. flag that had been flown over the U.S. Capitol building (one of more than 100,000 such flags flown annually).

Today

Early in 2009, none of the TRC founders were still involved with the center. The Terrorism Research Center ceased operations in 2010 at the discretion of new owners and managers.
In April 2012, the founders of the TRC announced it was being reconstituted as a non-profit at www.terrorism.org. The new focus was on sponsoring research publications, and facilitating research. In December 2014, the TRC was included as a collaborating partner with the Microsimulation & Risk Modelling Group at the

University of Wollongong The University of Wollongong (abbreviated as UOW) is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2017, the university had an enrolment of ...

. The project with them is assessing the tactics and counter tactics involved in lone wolf knife attacks on the public.

2012-2013 publications

The Terrorism Research Center has initiated sponsorship of new publications in terrorism, and related research areas. The main focus has been research into

Terrorist Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) is an essential concept in terrorism and cyber security studies. The role of TTPs in terrorism analysis is to identify individual patterns of behavior of a particular terrorist activity, or a particular ...

by its research associates, such as Dr. Robert J. Bunker, and Dr. Chris Flaherty. The 2012-2014 Terrorism Research Center sponsored publications: * Flaherty, C. (2012) Dangerous Minds: A Monograph on the Relationship Between Beliefs –Behaviours – Tactics. Published by OODA LOOP (7 September 2012). * Flaherty, C. (2012) Adam Lanza and Dangerous Minds. Published by OODA LOOP (19 December 2012). * Flaherty, C. (2013) Skid Row Terrorist. Published by OODA LOOP (26 July 2013). The TRC research in 2013 made a significant contribution to the understanding of

surgically implanted explosive devices A body cavity bomb (BCB) is an explosive device hidden inside the body of a person in order to commit a suicide attack. While this concept has been used many times in fiction, it is almost unknown in real life. A body cavity bomb is only known to ...

, better known as the 'Body Cavity Bomb' (BCB) concept: * Bunker, R.J. Flaherty, C. (eds.) (2013) Body Cavity Bombers: The New Martyrs. Published by Terrorism Research Center (http://www.terrorism.org/). iUniverse, Inc. Bloomington.

2014 publications

The TRC research in 2014 has continued to develop new publications in terrorism, and related research areas, with the latest research, on

interposing tactics Interposing Tactics is tactical concept, developed under Terrorist Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures, to explain a tactical action where a small-scale action takes place between two combatants, where one manoeuvres into interposition or interject ...

, as a branch of

, by its research associate Dr. Chris Flaherty. * Flaherty, C. (2014) 3D Vulnerability Analysis Solution to the Problem of Military Energy Security and Interposing Tactics. Journal of Information Warfare. (13)1: 33-41. The TRC research in 2014, has also developed a new reader on Fifth Dimensional Operations: * Robert J. Bunker & Charles "Sid" Heal. (2014) Fifth Dimensional Operations: Space-Time-Cyber Dimensionality in Conflict and War—A Terrorism Research Center Book. iuniverse.

2015 publications

The 2015 published TRC research has included a new reader on current terrorism analysis, and has continued work on Terrorist Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs): * Robert J. Bunker, John P. Sullivan, Brian M. Jenkins, Matt Devost, and James T. Kirkhope (Editors) (2015
Counterterrorism: Bridging Operations and Theory: A Terrorism Research Center Book
iUniverse. This book incorporated 50 contributors, including internationally recognized scholars: Dr. John Arquilla; Dr. Martin van Creveld; Dr. Rohan Gunaratna;

. * Chris Flaherty (2015) Wild Predator Erratic Attacks versus Dynamic Defence. Journal of Information Warfare. (14)1.

2016 publications

* Bunker, R.J. (ed.) (2016
Blood Sacrifices: Violent Non-State Actors and Dark Magico-Religious Activities
Published by Terrorism Research Center (http://www.terrorism.org/). iUniverse, Inc. Bloomington. * Chris Flaherty (2016) Employment of 3D-Printed Guns in the 5D Battlespace. Journal of Information Warfare. (15)1.

References

External links

* Terrorism Research Center http://www.terrorism.org/ {{authority control Terrorism research institutes Think tanks based in the United States