ABSTRACT
As Louise Arbour points out, the term “unintended consequences” is misleading. It seeks to evade human responsibility and accountability-“sorry, but it wasn’t our intention”—instead of focusing on the foreseeability of these consequences and the actual, negative impacts of the policies put in place (Arbour 2014). The following negative consequences will be explored in this chapter: (1) counterterrorism policies have created opportunity costs; (2) policies have tried to simplify problems that are in fact much more complex; (3) counterterrorism policies have created a disproportionate level of fear across society; (4) counterterrorism has at times been counterproductive, both leading to copycat attacks in the short term and fostering further alienation and discontent in the long term; (5) terrorism has often been used by policy officials as a political veil or tool for other purposes; (6) counterterrorism policies have infringed on privacy-as we will explore through a case study of the intelligence programs recently exposed by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden.
