2nd Edition

Antiterrorism and Threat Response Planning and Implementation

By Ross Johnson Copyright 2025
    464 Pages 125 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    464 Pages 125 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    As security professionals, we tend to get seduced by the beauty of our technology.  We go to trade exhibitions filled with the latest innovations and marvel at what we see without understanding how it fits in with what we do.  It’s both overwhelming and distracting, like trying to learn to cook by walking through a grocery store.

    This focus on technology teaches us to judge the effectiveness of physical protection systems by the strength of the barriers, the acuity of the cameras, and the sensitivity of the sensors.  Terrorists and criminals look for something else entirely, though: where we see strength, they find weakness and vulnerability. We are looking at the same things, but not seeing the same things.  If we want to stop them, we need to know more than how they work.  We need to learn to see the way they see.

    A physical protection system - that collection of people, sensors, barriers, policies, and technology – is a lot like a piano: and you cannot tell if a piano is in tune by looking at it.  You have to play it.  The major contribution of Antiterrorism and Threat Response: Planning and Implementation, 2e is the detailed instruction and practical advice on how to see the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in physical protection systems and upgrade them to meet the challenges of terrorists and criminals.

    Key features of this book are:

    • Provides professionals with the background to understand how terrorists think and operate, in order to best coordinate their counterterrorism efforts and antiterrorism strategies 
    • Examines difficult new problems facing security professionals: such as the use of drones, guns, and the internet as a tool of both recruitment and indoctrination
    • Teaches the reader how to step outside the security department to find and fix weaknesses and vulnerabilities in physical protection systems
    • Introduces and discusses security management and insider threat risk management programs

    This is the advanced course in protecting physical assets from terrorists and criminals.

    Introduction

     

    1. Some Thoughts on Terrorism and Government

    2. Terrorism

    3. Counterterrorism

    4. Antiterrorism Planning

    5. Threat Vulnerability Assessment

    6. Security Measures

    7. Design Basis Threat

    8. The VISA Methodology

    9. Outsider-Only Scenarios

    10. Insider-Only Scenarios

    11. Insider Colluding with Outsiders Scenarios

    12. Observation Planning & Surveillance Detection

    13. Random Antiterrorism Measures

    14.  Response Planning

    15. Insider Threat Risk Management

    16. Individual Threat Response Planning

    17. Threats from Drones and Guns

    18. Security Management Programs

    19. Searching for Weaknesses and Vulnerabilities

    20. Checklists and Worksheets

     

    Glossary

    Biography

    Ross Johnson, CPP is the President of Bridgehead Security Consulting, Inc.  He has 47 years of international and domestic experience in intelligence and security in both the private and public sectors. With his combination of government sector intelligence experience and private sector critical infrastructure protection experience, he is well-suited to understand security issues from both government and private industry perspectives. He has taken part in security operations and training in the United States, Canada, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Angola, Egypt, Israel, Guam, the Gulf of Mexico, Malaysia, Singapore, the Strait of Malacca, Singapore Strait, Burma, and Ukraine. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Military Arts and Sciences from the Royal Military College of Canada and is Board-Certified in Security Management by ASIS International.  Ross is also a photographer and took most of the photographs in this book.