ABSTRACT
Following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, countries have developed “whole of government” approaches to countering terrorism. These approaches have increasingly relied on “soft” counter-terrorism measures, including targeted fi nancial regulations and development assistance, alongside “hard” interventions like the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which are designed, respectively, to cut off fi nancing and support to terrorist organizations and eliminate conditions that lead to violent extremism. “Soft” counter-terrorism initiatives are motivated in part by an understanding that these measures must prevent, and not just respond to, terror attacks. States are increasingly implementing these “soft” measures both at the country and multilateral levels. The United Nations (UN) Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted in September 2006 recognizes that countries should prevent and combat terrorism by eliminating fi nancing to terrorists, including by:
encourage[ing] States to implement the comprehensive international standards embodied in the Forty Recommendations on Money-Laundering and Nine Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing of the Financial Action Task Force, recognizing that States may require assistance in implementing them.
