Director of the National Security and Democracy Project: Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer
Terrorism and Democracy Project Director: Prof. Yuval Shany
Researcher: Dr. Amichai Cohen
Research Assistants: Adv. Noa Alsheich, Adv. Amir Fuchs, Adv. Neta Konigstein, Adv. Shiri Krebs, Adv. Lina Saba, Adv. Ido Rosenzweig
The increased threat of global and local terrorism has led modern, democratic countries to adopt controversial methods to fight terrorism, including invasive techniques of surveillance and supervision, the confiscation and destruction of property, detentions without trial, operations by incognito military units and even "pre-emptive killings" that target terror suspects.
The main question that arises in these cases is how can the fine line between legitimate security measures and our commitment to democracy and human rights be established? And are the legislative and legal tools that have been made available by democratic institutions sufficient for waging a successful war on terror? If not, how can they be developed and expanded without compromising human rights?
Over the past few years, IDI has examined the methods that have been developed by democracies in order to cope with terrorism in the framework of its National Security and Democracy Research Program, headed by Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer, and the Terrorism and Democracy Project, coordinated by Prof. Yuval Shany.
The team working on the Terrorism and Democracy project publishes position papers and policy research work on the topic, as well as a monthly newsletter covering developments on this topic. Since 2010, the team has formed an international task force, together with researchers from other institutions, to study how democratic societies grapple with the challenges of terrorism.