Terrorist Financing

Although the financing of terrorist groups has been a significant concern since the 1960s and 1970s, it was the emergence of transnational terrorism at the turn of the twenty-first century that was the impetus for an international campaign against their financing as a key initiative to suppress and prevent acts of terrorism. This book provides a comprehensive examination of the post-9/11 efforts to counter financial support for terrorist actors.

The book begins by defining financial support and terrorism before providing some historical background of the national efforts to deal with terrorist financing in the 1970s and 1980s. The impact of 9/11, in particular the US response, and the fundamental changes that followed, which were internationalised through the UN Security Council, are examined in depth, including the unintended consequences that emerged from the move to make combatting the financing of terrorism (CFT) global. The more recent challenges of (non-cash) payment technologies for terrorist financing as well as the how to operate CFT regimes where territories and populations are controlled, as in the case of Islamic State, are also considered.

The book provides a clear and rigorous survey of terrorist financing and the international efforts to combat it suitable for a range of courses in international relations, politics and global political economy.