The study of counterterrorism mechanisms in Taiwan

Abstract

The 9/11 terrorist attack remains one of the darkest moments in American history and has had a great impact on the global strategic relationship in the beginning of the twenty-first century. To respond to this incident, Taiwan and the United States exchanged information and intelligence and signed the Sino-American Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which represents Taiwans willingness to participate in and cooperate with the international community in regards to information exchange, security, and anti-money laundering activities and in strengthening an emergency response mechanism. At the time, the Taiwanese government, under the idea of Taiwan needs to have what others have, established a Counterterrorism Office in January 2004, which was reorganized as the Office of Homeland Security in 2007. The Office of Homeland Security does not directly carry out intelligence gathering and counter-terrorism tasks. Instead, it combines intelligence from different intelligence apparatuses for further research, analysis, and lateral communication and consultation. The purpose of this thesis is to assess whether this two-track mechanismthe separation of intelligence and response systemscan respond efficiently to a major terrorist attack and whether a comparison of the approaches and experience of the United States and Japan offers useful insight into how to organize Taiwans system.