The confluence of international and domestic trends in terrorism

This article assesses the changing nature of terrorism in the 1990s within the context of the growing overlap between international and domestic terrorist trends and its potential implications for aviation security. It argues that the emergence of either obscure, idiosyncratic millenarian movements or zealously nationalist religious groups possibly represent a very different and potentially far more lethal threat than more ‘traditional’ terrorist adversaries. Further, as these threats are both domestic as well as international, the response must therefore be both national and multinational. In this respect, national cohesiveness and organisational preparation will necessarily remain the essential foundation for building the effective multinational approach appropriate to these new threats.