Recovering from Terror Attacks: A Proposal for Regional Cooperation

Release of an Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Occasional Paper

One of the big issues for governments to consider in the wake of September 11 is how to manage the consequences of mass terrorism, and especially an attack with biological, chemical, radiological or nuclear weapons. ASPI today released a paper that addresses this issue, entitled Recovering from Terror Attacks: A Proposal for Regional Cooperation. The paper proposes ways in which governments in the Asia Pacific might cooperate to improve their abilities to manage the consequences of a mass terror attack. 

ASPI commissioned Professor Ross Babbage to write this paper, the first of ASPI’s Occasional Paper series. Professor Babbage first raised the idea of regional cooperation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) conference of Asia Pacific Defence Ministers and other strategic thinkers and commentators in Singapore in May-June 2002-the idea generated a lot of interest among the conference participants. 

Asia Pacific governments have responded to the threat from international terrorism by focusing on the ‘front-end’ challenges of detection, apprehension and prosecution. More could be done to address the ‘back-end’ challenges- of incident management and recovery. 

A major terrorist attack using weapons of mass destruction could claim thousands of lives, and swamp a government’s capacity to manage the attack and recover from it. An enormous amount of coordination is required, from hospitals to police organisations to water management authorities. There is a strong case that regional cooperation and resource pooling should occur. 

ASPI’s aim in publishing Professor Babbage’s discussion paper is to see whether there might be scope to develop the proposal to the point that governments in the region would be prepared to place it on their agenda. 

Professor Babbage said that: 

‘The types of terrorist strikes that may be launched in the Asia Pacific in the future could be so catastrophic as to be beyond the immediate capacities of local authorities to manage alone.’ 

‘Asia Pacific governments … have a strong interest in putting in place an agreement that would facilitate close cooperation in preparing for, and in pooling resources to respond to, any future major terrorist attacks in the region.’ 

‘In the event of a country being struck by a major terrorist attack, each state could agree to assist, within its available means, through the provision of specialist search and rescue teams, medical specialists and facilities, engineering specialists and other capabilities.’