This Strong Cities Network (SCN) toolkit offers a guide for local governments in formulating a sensitive and effective response in the wake of a terror attack.
The motive behind an act of terror is not just to inflict violence, but to create societal fear and division. In the immediate aftermath of a terror attack, national authorities take the lead in emergency responses, reinforcing public safety and launching criminal investigations. However, as the days, weeks and months progress, the impact of a terror attack can run deep, causing untold social consequences across communities and across geographic borders. Communities, no matter how resilient, require strong local leadership to help them heal and recover.
Mayors and locally elected officials have a critical role to play in stabilising, reassuring and tackling social division in the aftermath of an attack. In the past decade, terrorist methods have evolved from the pursuit of ‘hard’ targets symbolising the state and its institutions, to an increased focus on ‘soft targets’. The Global Terrorism Index 2020 highlights that ‘[e]ven in conflict situations, civilians are most likely to be terrorist targets’. While total global deaths from terrorism fell for the fifth consecutive year since their height in 2014, the surge in far-right political terrorism over the last five years depicts a worrying trend in broadening the reach of terrorism, especially in increasingly polarised societies.
The impact of terrorism on urban centres has never been greater. Violent extremist groups encourage small-scale attacks that target civilians where they are most vulnerable as ‘soft targets’, from crowded places to faith institutions, making cities ideal battlegrounds. Between 1993 and 2000, the number of terrorist attacks in cities more than doubled. Were it available, more recent data would likely paint a bleaker picture. With this shift come increasing pressures on public institutions to establish clear roles and protocols for responding to attacks and planning ways to mitigate impact for their constituents.
With the development of this toolkit, we offer mayors, their cabinets and city officials a framework todevelop and deliver activities in the wake of such an event in a way that complements, rather than duplicates, national government action. The toolkit draws on a series of interviews with city members from across the 140+ SCN membership, desk-based research and the expertise of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) in addressing hate, polarisation and extremism at the local level.
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