Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

264 • HOSTAGE TAKINGforce, which were relaxed in the war against drugs, have been furtherlessened to fight the war on terrorism. This expansion of the direct roleof the military emphasizes a direct operational role for the military, asopposed to a supportive role on behalf of civilian law enforcement.This military involvement is likely to expand on the plea that it will beessential to counter the threats of mass terrorism or its consequenceswithin the United States. The jurisdictional questions associated withthe changing roles of the military are also mirrored in the changing roleof the police and other law enforcement agencies in the United Statesand other nations. National and local police forces are becoming moremilitarized as they develop armed capabilities that can be used in moreaggressive actions to protect public order and security. Whereas liberaldemocracies formerly distinguished clearly between domestic policeenforcement, in which minimal force is used to apprehend suspects, andmilitary actions, in which maximum force is used to destroy the enemyforces, now there is an increasing “mission blur” between the roles ofthe police and the military in democratic societies.“Homeland security” refers principally to the civilian componentfor protecting internal security from man-made or natural disasters,while the notion of “homeland defense” or “civil defense” refers tothe military component used in protecting internal security. Homelanddefense or civil defense is generally directed to preventing ormitigating the actions of an external enemy in a wartime environmentand would also involve the military in defending internal securityand maintaining continuity of government programs in the event of apossible collapse of civil government. Since such enforcement powerswould at times be directed against a government’s own citizensand civilian authorities, this raises serious questions about changingcivil/military relations in democratic societies.HOSTAGE TAKING. See KIDNAPPING.HOSTAGE-TAKING ACT. The Act for the Prevention and Punishmentof the Crime of Hostage-Taking (Title 18 U.S. Code, Section 1203)was enacted on October 1984, ostensibly to implement the United NationsInternational Convention against the Taking of Hostages, adoptedby the General Assembly on 17 December 1979. This act makes theseizure of a U.S. national anywhere in the world a crime, as well as anyhostage taking directed against the U.S. government or any incident inwhich hostages taken are U.S. nationals. This act granted the FederalBureau of Investigation (FBI) powers of extraterritorial investigation