UN Security Council Counterterrorism Efforts

The past two decades have witnessed a gradual shift away from state-sponsored terrorism toward a transnational terrorism by non-state actors, which prompted the international community to reconsider its understanding of terrorism as a domestic, internal problem of a particular country. This paper argues that international cooperation on counterterrorism is hindered by different geopolitical interests of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members, as well as by their different opinions on what constitutes a terrorist threat and who is considered a terrorist supporter. It also considers a counter-argument that terrorist threat is universal, thus cooperation among UNSC members cannot be hindered by a misunderstanding of the terms and has been successful since September 11, 2001.

This paper thus reviews particular geopolitical interests of the five permanent UNSC members, the attempts UNSC has made to encourage counterterrorism cooperation worldwide, and UNSC's achievements, shortfalls and possibilities of addressing the issue of transnational terrorism.