TRIDENT ISSUE

COVER STORY
MAJOR KATHLEEN MCKENDRICK
British Army
Course Director,
NATO Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism
EXAMINING THE MILITARY ROLE
IN COUNTER-TERRORISM:
the United Kingdom as case study
Editor's Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not represent those of the UK Government,
Armed Forces or of the Centre of Excellence, Defence Against Terrorism.
DESPITE THE traditional supposition
that "any liberal democracy
that uses its armed
forces to combat terrorism
will incur controversy both
domestically and internationally,"
1 the use of the military in counter-terrorism
roles by liberal democracies appears to be
resurgent. The large scale deployment of troops
on French and Belgium 2 soil in response to attacks
by Islamist extremists in 2015 represents
a domestic trend that has international antecedents.
The attacks on the Pentagon and the
World Trade Centre in 2001 heralded an era
of expeditionary military action "beyond the
bounds of recognised international humanitarian
law." 3 Though this response, led by the
United States of America, generated significant
controversy at the time, 4 the use of military
force against transnational threats has, to
some extent, become accepted as necessary. 5
This paper discusses the boundaries of
legitimacy in the employment of military force
to counter terrorism by liberal democracies.
The application of these boundaries is further
explored using the United Kingdom (UK) as a
case study. Having used its military at strength
for a sustained time period to counter a domestic
terrorist threat in Northern Ireland, 6
the UK government today remains vocally
prepared to employ its armed forces in the
conduct of the counter-terrorism. 7
The UK's experience has focussed attention
on the boundaries of the employment
of military force in the counter-terrorist role,
and has allowed them to adopt a comparatively
well-developed position. This position
is certainly not beyond controversy; nonetheless
Aniceto Masferrer (University of Valencia,
Spain) and Clive Walker (University of Leeds,
UK) observe that many jurisdictions "have followed
the blueprint of the UK's legal definition
of terrorism and the measures built upon it." 8
As terrorist threats continue to evolve
in a globalised context, the military have an
important and expanding role in counterterrorism.
It is impossible to successfully employ
them in this role unless the scope of their
activity is limited to constitute a legitimate response
for whichever state they represent. In
the case of the UK, this essay concludes that it
is of paramount importance that the military
is employed strategically. In the contemporary
context, this requires a response, which is both
intelligence-led and ethical.
Literature Review
Since the 9/11 attacks, there has been a vast
increase in literature on terrorism. Within
this field, the militarisation of the response
to terrorism and the question over whether
the means justify the ends in the war on terror
have been hotly contested. Concerns over
exceptional measures have undermined the
campaign completely in the eyes of some, who
conclude that "the position that there must be
moral certitudes and universal values in this
'war' (...) provides the ideological cover for (...)
instances when those certitudes and values are
abrogated." 9 Other commentators rally against
this view, mounting impassioned defences of
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