CARIBBEAN MIGHT FACE ATTACK

A number of recent attacks have focused specifically on tourist and leisure areas in Egypt, Bali, Kenya, France, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, and a number of other countries.

In spite of this, a survey of the tourism industry in Jamaica found that senior operatives in the industry did not think that Jamaica was at risk of terrorism because “we’re not quarrelling with anyone”.

If, however, the intended targets are tourists, the Caribbean might be chosen as the scene of the attack, rather than the primary target. Tourism is by far the largest employer in the Caribbean, so any terrorist incident that damages confidence in the tourism industry would have immediate and widespread consequences for the region.

The best protection is to increase the resilience and preparedness of the Caribbean nations. The most important step is to resolve the social and economic problems that create pools of disaffected youth that can then be recruited by criminal or terrorist networks. A combination of better-targeted policing and social interventions will be required; the normalisation and reintegration of the high-crime, gangdominated communities and informal settlements will require a transition to intelligence-led proximity and community policing supported by both social and private investment. This must be accompanied by steps to end the political culture of corruption and patronage, so that people can trust their governments, and by reforms to dysfunctional legal systems so that the people can have faith in law, order, and justice.

This combination of measures represents the best way to ‘inoculate’ a population against the spread of virulent and malignant ideologies.