ABSTRACT
It is not easy for liberal democracies to find an adequate response to terrorism. Because of their identity as constitutional states, they cannot physically eliminate or radically suppress their political enemies. Instead, they are compelled to develop an armoury of more subtle antiterrorist methods (E.H. Evans 1978; Wilkinson 1981, 2000). To minimize the risk to life and limb of the victims, and in part even to avoid unnecessary bloodshed amongst terrorists, they have established special commando units with the professional ability to intervene in terrorist attacks. To prevent such attacks from happening in the first place, and to capture the perpetrators when an attack has already occurred, they have also introduced sophisticated systems of surveillance. Other methods include negotiation techniques for hostage scenarios, aviation security, target hardening, the protection of diplomatic premises and, more recently, the fight against terrorist finance.
