The Role of SWAT Units Amidst Changing Dynamics of Counterterrorist Hostage Rescue

Author(s): Prem Mahadevan
Journal Title: IFS Insights
Issue: 3
Publisher(s): Institutt for Forsvarsstudier
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Place: Oslo

Should SWAT units respond differently to mass-casualty assault than to political hostage-taking? Dr Prem Mahadevan looks at the cases of the Beslan 2004 school massacre, Mumbai 2008 and Oslo-Utøya 2011 and compares and contrasts the response of counterterrorist SWAT units. He suggests that some terrorist threats have mutated over the years as a result of tactical innovation, becoming far more dangerous to unprotected soft targets than was the case when SWAT capabilities first emerged in the 1970s. The question is then, how the current SWAT concept can develop a capacity for aggressively neutralising such threats before they cause heavy loss of life?

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