Country Reports on Terrorism 2012

In November, the EU held a conference in Brussels regarding their external countering
violent extremism programming plan for 2013. U.S. officials from the Department of
State, USAID, and DHS participated.
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The OSCE was chaired by
Ireland in 2012 and concluded the process of consolidating the organization’s counterterrorism
mandate and focused efforts on promoting a rule of law-based counterterrorism approach. In
November, an OSCE Rule of Law Conference on counterterrorism featured a wide-ranging
discussion about how to both best respect human rights in law enforcement counterterrorism
actions and promote the implementation of the Global Counterterrorism Forum Rabat
Memorandum of Good Practices for Effective Counterterrorism Practice in the Criminal Justice
Sector. U.S.-funded border security training in Central Asia, particularly through the OSCE’s
Border Management Staff College in Dushanbe, also contributed to the capabilities of border and
customs officials to counter threats. Through the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department and
its Action against Terrorism Unit, the United States continued to support additional initiatives
aimed at critical energy infrastructure protection, travel document security, cyber-security, nonproliferation,
and promoting the role that women play in countering violent extremism,
particularly in Central Asia and South East Europe.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO leads ISAF stability operations in
Afghanistan. ISAF conducted operations to degrade the capability and will of the insurgency,
support the growth in capacity and capability of the Afghan National Security Forces, and to
facilitate improvements in governance and socio-economic development to provide a secure
environment for stability. For details regarding ISAF contributions by country, see:
http://www.isaf.nato.int/troop-numbers-and-contributions/index.php.
NATO’s new Policy Guidelines on Counterterrorism were endorsed in May at the NATO
Chicago Summit. The guidelines called for the development of an implementation action plan,
which is intended to identify initiatives to enhance the prevention of, and resilience to, acts of
terrorism with a focus on improved threat awareness, adequate capabilities, and enhanced
engagement with partner countries and other international actors in countering terrorism. Under
Operation Active Endeavor, NATO conducts maritime operations in the Mediterranean to
demonstrate NATO’s resolve to deter, defend, disrupt, and protect against terrorism. NATO also
focused on the protection of critical infrastructure, including energy infrastructure, as well as
harbor security and route clearance. Many of these challenges are being addressed by NATO’s
Emerging Security Challenges Division.
NATO-Russia Council (NRC). Founded in 2002, the NRC provides a framework for
security cooperation to address shared challenges, including NATO-Russia
counterterrorism cooperation. Through the NRC’s Science for Peace and Security
Committee, NATO Allies and Russia are working on the STANDEX (“Stand-off
Detection of Explosive Devices”) project, which is designed to detect and counter a
terrorist threat to mass transit and other public spaces.
The African Union (AU). In 2012, the AU Commission (AUC) provided guidance to its 54member
states and coordinated limited technical assistance to cover member states'
counterterrorism capability gaps. The AUC established a Sub-Committee on Terrorism, in part to
coordinate submissions to terrorist-related lists, both from the UN and other partners as well as
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