Security Awareness: How to Build Population Resilience in Order to Cope with Terrorism in Belgium and Europe?

Introduction

Terrorist activities are common in different parts of the world. Terrorism inflicts fear in civilians exploiting them to seek political attention and pursue personal political demands. Decision-makers are put at a crossroads to surrender to demands from the terrorist or risk and try to stop the attack. However, the pressure from the frightened citizens can be amplified especially through the media to pressure for compliance. Therefore, with reference to the definition of terrorism, the concept of resilience and security awareness elaborates the security concerns, the underlying promoting factors such as jihadists. Building resilience is important in enhancing preparedness and promoting security awareness initiatives such as cybersecurity and coproduction witnessed across Europe. The proposal recommends building resilience among the citizens through awareness programs that pass knowledge on security. The knowledge aid in building resilience and increased preparedness for terror attacks. The proposal recommends the establishment of a link with the police to enhance training programs in security and safety. The use of information technology is also highly recommended in e-policing programs. However, strong cybersecurity measures are recommended with cybersecurity awareness programs also proposed to employees and citizens to eliminate impersonation.

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Terrorist activities are widespread across various countries in Europe and across the world. This calls for the deployment of different approaches to come up with intervention programs to curb terrorism as well as improve population resilience to the acts of terror. Terrorism inflicts fear and tension in the people, and therefore creating mass awareness can boost the process of building the population's resilience. Terrorism is defined in various ways by different scholars, politicians as well as security experts (Schmid, 2012). According to Ganor (2002), establishing a clear definition is faced by challenges such as international collaboration, ideologies, and perspectives under which individuals are convinced to take part in the acts. As highlighted by Ganor (2002), terrorism entails distinguishing between terrorist activities, revolutionary activities, or national liberation. Terrorism targets the innocent population and therefore can be defined as intentional deployment, or threatening to use violence against innocent civilians or targets with a motive of attaining political gains or objectives. According to Comfort, Boin, and Demchak (2010), terrorism entails the use of threats or violence to civilians. In this case, it is vital to prepare the population psychologically in the event of the risks or exposure to violence and threats. The paper presents an overview of security awareness with respect to building resilience in coping with terrorism. Israel is used as a reference to coping with terrorism. The building of resilience is covered along with the initiative of security awareness in Europe, especially the UK and Belgium. The recommendations on the approaches to building resilience and the conclusion of the text are presented at the end of the paper. This proposal will outline ways in which population resilience can be built to allow coping with terrorist attacks in Belgium as well as Europe.

The paper is subdivided into chapters and subtitles into the respective chapters. It entails population resilience based on the Israeli population and strategies of building resilience. Also, security awareness approaches in Europe with reference to UK and Belgium, recommendations and conclusion of the strategies to achieve security awareness through the creation of resilience. The chapters covered include:

1. The population resilience based on Israel's population
2. Building resilience with respect to education, policy implication, and media
3. Security awareness initiatives in Europe with reference to UK and Belgium
4. Recommendations
5. Conclusion of the proposal

Terror activities are purposefully aimed at scaring the people and catching their attention in matters of community security. Pries-Shimshi (2007), hinted at the involvement of defenseless individuals being targeted randomly and therefore causing uncertainty on the future safety measures and abilities. Prevention of the acts of terror is the fundamental factor to be considered along with the different frameworks of resolving the safety and security concerns of the population (Jackson, 2008). In this light, it is important to establish the ability of terrorist activities to be prevented. However, failure to resolve and prevent the approach necessitates the preparation for the attacks.

On the contrary, preparation for the unknown is basically tricky and sometimes sounds impossible. In this case, it is left upon the government to deliberate on the most appropriate policies that can define the benefits of the prevention approach, its effectiveness as well as the cost of the prevention approach on social, economic, and civil freedom (Ganor, 2002). Since addressing the real challenge is not guaranteed due to the uncertainty of the terror threat, cases of interdependences may arise within the security departments of a state and international players in curbing global terrorist activities (Canetti, Waismel-Manor, Cohen & Rapaport, 2014).

In the recent past, terrorist activities in Europe have been on the rise which can be justified by the London bomb attack, the 2015 Paris attacks, and the 2016 Brussels attack which left hundreds of deaths reported. According to Jenkins & Clair (2016), heightened attacks are related to the return of jihadists and those who left Europe to join the Islamic States. Disillusions and trauma from the experiences in the Islamic states trigger their determination to bring war cases at home.

However, citizens can be enlightened in different aspects of terrorism to improve their awareness and resilience to potential terror threats. Influencing the population's awareness and decreased psychological disorientation, which is experienced in the vent of attacks or anticipation for attacks improves the stability and safety measures undertaken and therefore results in reduced casualties (Bloom & Daymon, 2018). According to Pries-Shimshi (2007), there are different platforms that can be used to create awareness in public as well as the impact on their resilience as far as terror and security concerns are concerned. These include the use of education programs, mass media, and public awareness platforms. Most importantly is the ability to eliminate anxiety, fear, and psychological effects of any impending danger of attack (Maeseele, Verleye, Stevens, & Speckhard, 2008). The preparedness for terrorist activities is influential in decision-making and handling emergency concerns in relation to the safety and security of the population.

According to Schmid (2011), each has a justification for terror activities. This implies that the perpetrators of acts of terror do not recognize themselves as terrorists but justify their course as revolutionaries, martyrs, freedom fighters, resistance fighters, or soldiers. Therefore, as noted by former US President Ronald Reagan, another man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. This implies that what is perceived as an act of terror is celebrated by other people as a fight for freedom, rights, or a revolution. However, Schmid (2011) in The Routledge handbook of terrorism research highlights that terrorism is a man-made construct that is defined by the interests of the perpetrators and cannot be used as a justification for violence and warfare.

Population Resilience in Israel

For instance, the case of Israel has citizens standing up against terrorists and therefore interfering with the initial plan (Dicter & Byman, 2006). This is through improved identification of suspicion in terrorists and how to tackle them without realizing the suspicion. The case of Shlomi Harel in 2002 who stripped off a terrorist's backpack. According to Nirenstein (2017), resilience is Israel's most significant weapon towards terrorism. As pointed out, 30% of terrorists in the country have been thwarted by civilians or bystanders. they deploy any available material in attacking the terrorist (Nirenstein, 2017). The ability to withstand a face-off with terrorists and stand up against them aids in curbing potential threats (Weisburd, Jonathan, & Perry, 2009). The mentality exhibited by average civilians in Israel is crucial in combating terror activities. This is however linked to trained and learned skills in countering terrorist activities (Dicter & Byman, 2006), (HM Government., 2011). Nationalism is embraced by an individual which highlights the collective responsibility bored by Israel in combating terrorism (Nirenstein, 2017). The unity among Israelis attained through training bonds the citizens on the same course regardless of the difference in political and religious differences (Bleich, 2017). On the other hand, the decline in the coverage of episodes of terror activities fortifies the quality of stoic coexistence. The attempt to destroy the social and economic resources of Israel has failed due to the nature of the country (McCleskey, McCord, Leetz & Markey, 2007). According to Nirenstein (2017), 78.2% of respondents believe that there is always someone out to help during difficult times. However, stress is hinted at a low scale in Israel due to the higher resilience level regardless of the wave of attacks running across the world (Dicter & Byman, 2006). Cooperation between the Israeli citizens and the police is high, which improves on coproduction of safety. A series of 53 terrorist attacks was lodged on Israel in 2002 but did not affect the response to terrorism by the citizens (Nirenstein, 2017). In this case, the acclimatization aids in adaptation to Israel's resilience and adjustment to normalcy after the threat is eliminated (Corzine et al., 2017).

Building Resilience

Terrorist activities are mainly intended to instill fear and scare people to question their safety and security. Acts of terror are mainly random, intentional, but unpredictable, and also are mainly targeted at civilians (Nirenstein, 2017). Consequently, there is a rise in anxiety in the civilians, which can also lead to psychological effects on the victims and society (Arciszewski, Verlhiac, Goncalves & Kruglanski, 2009). Resilience is recommended in civilians in the event of an attack. This is defined as the ability of the population to cope with the effects of a terror attack as well as prepare for the occurrence of such attacks (Bloom & Daymon, 2018). In this case, the population is instilled with the urge to deter terrorism or bounce back from a terrorist attack. This can be in the form of the recovery from the attack or going through the trauma and psychological effects of the attack. Resilience allows the citizens to survive the threats and give the authorities support in the management of terrorist activities across various parts of the country (Nirenstein, 2017). The anticipation for a terrorist attack aids in the initiation of the defense or prevention strategies among the civilian's aids in the stoppage and reduction of the damages from terrorist attacks (Choi, Lee & Chun, 2014). Resilience can be nurtured among the citizens, and grooming should focus on the various approaches a terror attack can challenge the civilians. However, the recovery from the terrorist activity is crucial, and the ability to rebuild from the wreckages, psychological, social, economic, and political impacts of the attack (M...