ABSTRACT
Over the past 40 years the world has witnessed a transformation in the capabilities of terrorists to pose an increasingly potent threat to a fragile international order. Further, it appears that this threat will intensify in the next decades as terrorists refine their abilities through more sophisticated technology and strategies. In this protracted conflict, where there may be no definitive outcomes, it is essential that policy makers in the counter-terrorism arena re-evaluate their policies, strategies and doctrines. They must consider the imperatives not only of responding to terrorist attack but, more importantly, of taking the initiative against a form of violence that may be as old as the Assassins but as contemporary as the most technologically sophisticated attack.1
