Topic: 2025 – Reducing Recruitment Capabilities of Terrorist Groups
Country: Peru
Delegate Name: Minhao Chen
Disarmament and International Security Committee
Reducing the Recruitment Capabilities of Terrorist Groups
Republic of Peru
Minhao Chen
Forest Hills Northern
Terrorism, the unlawful use of violence to achieve a political or social objective, is a globally increasing threat to safety and security. Spanning from the establishment of Al-Qaeda to the mass recruitment efforts of ISIS to the contemporary threat of JNIM, terrorism has often been somewhat overshadowed, which has allowed it to continuously grow. The most notable issue with terrorist organizations is their recruiting capabilities: they tend to select vulnerable individuals, often those who lack education, are impoverished, or are socially marginalized, and provide ideological narratives and propaganda to grow their numbers. Furthermore, social media has been an increasingly useful medium for terrorist organizations to recruit more members. Currently, the United Nations has worked with local leaders to provide alternate, positive stories to communities in order to combat the propaganda used by terrorist groups. While these measures are a step in the right direction, they do not fully address the underlying issues of poverty, limited educational opportunities, social marginalization, and the exploitation of online platforms to propagate narratives and recruit members that enable terrorist groups to recruit with unprecedented ease.
Peru has experienced significant terrorism in its history, most notably from the terrorist organizations Shining Path and Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) during the late 20th century. These groups targeted rural areas and took advantage of social and economic disparities to cause mass harm which includes over 70 thousand deaths and projected an image to the international stage showing national instability and vulnerabilities in security. Furthermore, the impact created by the aforementioned terrorist groups did not involve any online efforts, which goes to show how dangerous contemporary terrorist groups that can use online recruitment can be. To address the lack of transparency and information in terrorism, the Peruvian congress has developed a national program titled “Terrorism Never Again,” which aims to inform the general public, especially vulnerable individuals, of the history, consequences, and dangers of terrorism.
The methods used by the Shining Path and the MRTA parallel those used by contemporary terrorist organizations, and as such Peru believes viewing the issue retrospectively and addressing root causes is a strategy that can inform international counter-terrorism efforts. Although the aforementioned terrorist organizations in Peru have been addressed and no longer pose a major issue, future organizations may rise and use the same methods to recruit members into their group. Peru advocates for international cooperation, knowledge-sharing, and awareness campaigns modeled after “Terrorism Never Again” to address the root causes directly. Given that the internet acts as a bridge connecting terrorism efforts globally, Peru stresses the importance of coordinated international strategies to counter propaganda and recruitment capabilities.
Resources:
https://www.congreso.gob.pe/participacion/tnm/
