The Need for a United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Coordinator

The case for a high level United Nations (UN) Counter-Terrorism Coordinator position within the UN system has become increasingly urgent in 2013. This need has diluted some Member State reticence to creating a new Assistant Secretary-General position that would supervise and manage the existing coun...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Howard Stoffer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: ICCT | International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague 2013-08-01
Series:ICCT Research Papers
Online Access:http://www.icct.nl/download/file/Stoffer-The-Need-For-A-UN-Global-Counter-Terrorism-Coordinator-August-2013.pdf
Description
Summary:The case for a high level United Nations (UN) Counter-Terrorism Coordinator position within the UN system has become increasingly urgent in 2013. This need has diluted some Member State reticence to creating a new Assistant Secretary-General position that would supervise and manage the existing counter-terrorism structures in the UN system. A Coordinator would have a basic responsibility to keep track of all of the activities of many formal inter-governmental organisations operating at the international, regional and sub-regional level and would also work closely with national counter-terrorism focal points. In this Policy Brief, Dr. Howard Stoffer reviews the debate among Security Council and Fifth Committee members about the efficacy of establishing a senior UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordinator. He argues that the creation of such a position could lead to a restructuring of the UN counter-terrorism architecture as well as its funding within the UN budget and among donors. The position would eventually make the UN overall counter-terrorism effort, under the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, a stronger, more effective and more efficient process with measurable impact on the ground among Member States.
ISSN:2468-0664