Page 141 - Cyber Terrorism and Extremism as Threat to Critical Infrastructure Protection

ALEXANDRU GEORGESCU, ADRIAN VICTOR VEVERA, CARMEN ELENA CÎRNU: A CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION
PERSPECTIVE ON COUNTER-TERRORISM IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

4 Towards a CIP Roadmap for Increasing Resilience to
Terrorist Threats

In the previous sections, we explained the usefulness of the system of systems perspective on the
functioning of society to counter-terrorism efforts. Inter-dependent systems across geographical
and sectorial boundaries create a topology of risk which may inform both attackers and defend-
ers, as well as decision-makers seeking to enhance long-term resilience, which is the capacity to
withstand attacks with minimum damage and rapidly regain an acceptable level of functioning
while maintaining business continuity and quality of life. We have also underscored the fact that
our proposed approach is already partially in place in South-Eastern Europe, through the EU
and NATO Member States, though it can always be improved. Meanwhile, the South-Eastern
European region and the Western Balkans feature many of the underlying conditions which, in
the literature, are associated with an increase in the risk of terrorism. It is necessary to utilize all
possible approaches to address this risk, reduce vulnerabilities and mitigate damage.

In this final section, we will list several possible elements of a roadmap or an action plan to
improve security against terrorist threats through CIP. The heterogeneity of the region with
regard to the implementation of a CIP framework is both an advantage and a disadvantage –
an advantage, since it gives a regional base for cooperation in the convergence of the quality
of CIP governance, while also a disadvantage, since persistent differences make acting in
lockstep against transborder threats much more difficult. Thankfully, existing cooperation ini-
tiatives such as the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center (SELEC) have mediated the
practice of cooperation on complex and sensitive issues, while also touching on CIP-related
aspects such as financial crime and cybercrime.

4.1 Creating or Improving a Legal and Administrative Framework for CIP

The most important process that should be initiated is for the non-EU countries in the region
to develop a legal and administrative framework for Critical Infrastructure Protection which is
compatible and compliant with EU norms and regulations. They should do this regardless of
the status of their candidacy and the challenges that may delay or thwart membership.

Every country has laws and institutions governing the security of certain critical assets or
processes from specific threats such as fire, theft and sabotage. The CIP framework builds
on these and ensures a holistic perspective on their protection across multiple sectors and
the entire threat spectrum, thereby filling in the gaps in the protection mechanisms which a
piecemeal approach would develop.

Each country in this situation will be at a different stage in the development of such a frame-
work and its constitutive elements, and will require a personalized approach while also being
included in a wider framework of cooperation which sustains the tempo of reform with regard
to political will, the allocation of resources, the management of reluctant interest groups, and
so on. It is to be expected that the smaller the country is, the more important civil-military co-
operation becomes in CIP security processes, to overcome the barriers of the lack of resources
and scale in the governance apparatus.

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