An Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS) outreach team conducted a three-day workshop entitled “Exploiting the Crime-Terror Nexus: Combating Violent Extremism through Multisectoral Information and Intelligence Sharing” in Manila, Philippines Feb. 11-13.
The workshop consisted of 51 participants from the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. The event was co-hosted by the National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP) and was attended by the Vice President of the Philippines Jejomar Binay and US Ambassador to the Philippines Phillip S. Goldberg. The APCSS outreach team was led by APCSS Dean Capt. Carleton Cramer and the academic lead was Dr. David Fouse.
The APCSS-NDCP workshop was held conjointly with a conference organized by the International Criminal Investigation Training and Assistance Program (ICITAP) of the US Justice Department on “Investigation and Development of Terrorist Related Cases,” which drew its participants from the same three countries. The two events maximized networking opportunities for the 100 combined participants through shared presentations, joint working lunches, combined opening and closing ceremonies and a welcome reception for both events.
Presentations for the APCSS-NDCP workshop highlighted the growing involvement of violent extremist groups in various types of criminal behavior, while interagency teams from each of the countries discussed ways to improve information and intelligence sharing that would allow them to take advantage of increased crime-terror linkages. Presenters emphasized that trends toward deeper involvement of violent extremist groups in various criminal activities afford greater opportunities for detection, tracking and infiltration- provided that there is adequate information and intelligence sharing between all members of the security sector.
Breakout sessions allowed the individual country teams to assess their ability to share information and intelligence with regard to violent extremism in its relationship with transnational crime. The workshop concluded with recommendations for enhancing each country’s internal information and intelligence sharing mechanisms as well as multilateral information and intelligence sharing between each of the countries involved.
On the final day after closing ceremonies, APCSS Alumni Chief John Gasner conducted a webinar with Comprehensive Security Responses to Terrorism (CSRT) Fellows around the world over the internet with a live audience of more than 50 APCSS Filipino alumni. During the webinar, Dean Cramer provided an update on Center activities and presented the first-ever Alumni Achievement Awards to Prof. Charie B. Joaquin and Mr. Jose T. Tale for their contributions to the Philippine APCSS Alunmi Association.
See more photos of the event on Facebook.
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