Learning How to Counter Violent Extremism in Africa, and Globally

Andy Thompson speaks with David Otto, a highly experienced independent global Counter Terrorism, Security and Organized Crime Consultant / COIN Researcher at Stepped In Step Out (SISO) UK LTD and Geneva Centre for Security and Strategic Studies (GCASS). A subject matter expert consultant for governments and NGOs including the UN, NATO, Interpol, US DoD, and a selected trainer on AT/CT & Organized Crime solution strategies for the Anti-Terrorism Accreditation Board (ATAB).

How have you developed your expertise in Counterterrorism?

I am from the Country known as Africa in miniature – Cameroon – located in Central and West Africa. I have been in the UK for over 20 years. When I came to the UK as a curious student, my interest was first in physical security. I have always been naturally interested in security. I began by training as a security operative with the SIA (Security Industry Authority) focusing on security awareness training and door supervision training.

I studied Law and Criminology at university. After the tragic events of 9/11, I saw an opportunity to engage in a Masters in Counterterrorism and Organized Crime at the University of East London – we were the first badge to take this discipline in England. I was fortunate to be mentored by one of the foremost professors from St Andrews University, Andrew Silk, a notable expert in terrorism. We became very close on the subject matter. I talked to him about the impact of 9/11 on Africa, especially the fact that Osama bin Laden started his atrocities by launching attacks against the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. That was the beginning of my radar: asking what African countries are doing to safeguard themselves against international terrorists that use Africa as a platform to attack the West. I visited Northern Nigeria and Lake Chad basin states and spent three years researching and understanding the origins and connections between Boko Haram – its spread to regional states at the same period as Al-Qaeda’s attacks against the US on 9/11 – trying to identify the environmental push and pull factors and the ideological similarities of Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda – especially as one of the original groups referred to itself as the Taliban of Nigeria.

This period cemented my passion to pursue further – it is a subject that very few people talked about from an African perspective or even thought about from a non-military perspective. Few people understood why people became involved in terrorism besides the traditional poverty and lack of education rhetoric. They understood little about some of the hidden big drivers; some of the ways that people could leave terrorism behind. In the eyes of stakeholders, these were poor and uneducated criminals and this is how they were treated.

In 2011 – 2012, I conceived the idea of the African Dynamics to Terrorism. I participated in a series of conferences involving the UK Security Services, SO15, some of “Prevent” leads; some representatives of the African countries that were linked to terrorism from Nigeria to Cameroon. These gave me a platform to talk about solutions and also to warn the world about the need to develop a common strategic approach – but each country that experiences terrorism should be coordinating with other countries from the uniqueness of their identified threats and resource capacity. The war on terror cannot be effectively fought by one country alone. The solution cannot be provided by a single country – there is the need for collaboration and coordination of approaches. Even within a country, you have got to have several multi-level interagency approaches sharing a common strategy: Law enforcement or the intelligence services cannot successfully work isolation. They have got to coordinate with other sister agencies, military, Navy, Air Force intelligence depending on the nature of the threat. These agencies cannot ignore the role of local authorities – this is where a bottom top approach is most effective.

My breakthrough was in 2015 when I was invited to speak at the General Assembly of Interpol in Bali, Indonesia, and to be one of the five globally selected experts to set up the Interpol global counter-terrorism strategy. My unique bottom-top Multi-agency approach to Counter Terrorism and Organized Crime confirmed my recognition as s subject matter expert in the field.

Your career has effectively tracked the recent evolution of terrorism in the African continent over recent years?

Timing is everything, everything is timing! African countries need to understand that there is a need for global collaboration, but each country needs to develop its own strategy that can address its local threats.

Terrorism is a threat everywhere, but the dynamics and environment in which it occurs are very particular to each state but not without similarities. Selecting this career path was one of the best decisions I made. Being an African, it is important for people like myself to talk about cultural intelligence when it comes to engaging with authorities and local stakeholders in Africa, but also for the West for soft landing. My strategy has always been to bridge the gap between how Africans see the West in terms of being solution providers and how they see themselves as beneficiaries, but also to help Western countries, the UK, the US, understand how Africans appreciate security – differentiating between what they want and what they need.

What is “Step In, Step Out” and what’s the nature of the training you provide?

Step In, Step Out (SISO) was specifically a programme – what I call a “counter violent extremism” programme. Step In refers to the question “Why and how do people join terrorist organizations – Why do they “step in””? Step Out – how can they leave – what options do they have to leave; whose responsibility is it and how are these options provided? What incentives are there to get them out of terrorism? This is my maiden organization where I am a Director.

As well as SISO, I am a trainer and counter terrorism programme designer for the Anti-Terrorism Accreditation Board, a United States based organization. I engage with private corporations, state , and other entities to design and implement security frameworks, focusing on counterterrorism strategy or strategic communication against terrorist and organized crime groups.

I provide bespoke security consultancy; design specialized counter terrorism programs, delivered where and when required; carry out security program reviews, Monitoring and evaluation. I am often invited as a subject matter expert to give my views, generate context by several international media outlets Aljazeera; BBC; CNN; Fox News; and many others.

I consult with NATO, as an expert on Africa – Lake Chad and Sahel. I am a consultant for the yearly Defense Against Terrorism Programme for NATO School. I have also worked on the same with the US, AFRICOM, providing cultural awareness training and understanding the networks within the region between Great Lakes, Sahel Liptako Gourma triangle Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic.

What would you actually deliver?

It depends on the needs of each client. My solution focused programs are designed to accommodate the best interest of the stakeholder. The first step for a client is threat identification- who or what is the threat. What does the threat look like? How do you design your threat assessment tool? How do you build a dependable threat framework? How do you design your vulnerability assessment? Each entity has specific requirements, the resource capacity. We take this into consideration in delivering our training and capacity building.

Each Counter Terrorism programme I design follows the Otto terror-crime Triangle structure; Motivation, Capacity and Target:

• Triangle A is understanding the motivation of your threat: what motivates the group to carry out these attacks?
• Triangle B is understanding the group’s capacity. How many people are they recruiting? What kind of tactics do they use? Where do they get their weapons from? How do they carry out their logistics? How is the network structured? Understanding this triangle gives you a clear insight into how a group operates.
• Triangle C is understanding the group’s target; who and why a terrorist or criminal group selects a particular target? What kind of resilience can you build to protect your target? Turning yourself or your critical infrastructure into a hard target.

The capacity building in the form of training we provide is structured around the terror-crime triangle and takes the shape of the UK’s CONTEST (Counter Terrorism Strategy). I have added an extra element to CONTEST – projection: The ability for a client to project on prevention methodologies, protection, pursue and preparation strategy is at the core of our training programs.

Cultural Intelligence in Force Deployment is another element of our training in an era of asymmetric warfare. How does a country deploy its forces to a region to confront an enemy they know little about the environment and culture? What do you need to know and from who? What cultural training do you need to have? Is the environment in one country like Iraq, the same with another like Nigeria? What about intra-country differences? Our training focus on knowing who lives there but also getting people to think before they act.

You work with high level organizations – governments, NGO, International Organizations – do you work with commercial clients too?

We provide our services to whoever needs them – as long as it’s a legitimate organization of course – We provide our services to commercial and banking services, national or international. These entities want to mitigate their threats and how best to protect their investments – business continuity analysis, insider threats etc.

What are your thoughts on the market outlook and the trends that you are seeing in the requirements for this training?

Terrorism has become a global agenda. Everybody talks about it, but very few people understand what is required from a solution point of view. Terrorists are still treated as conventional criminals but they are not. Gone are the days of conventional policing and law enforcement where governments had monopoly of approach using the military. Today’s threat is more horizontal and requires a multi-agency approach with the local population at the core of the solution.

Typically, experts are from an academic or a military background. My unique approach is a mix of both practices backed by thorough research. My push is towards a changing market behaviour of what providers need to bring about change. But it is a broad and open market. People want human security. People want to feel safe, but with limited resources, you have to focus on what people really need rather than what they want.

Is that what differentiates you?

Yes. That is how the unique solution idea of Step In Step Out strategy was born. A client will only be happy if your solution mirrors their problem. Remember “if you want to solve the problem right, you have got to solve the right problem”. That is what distinguishes me from the big organizations out there with one size fits all approach – my service is tailored to the client making it unique.

Counter Terrorism is indeed a unique profession, not a side job and the responsibility go beyond the remits of law enforcement and the military. My approach is a people’s approach given them a primary role to play. In Counterinsurgency, the people win and the military fights.

How do you go about delivering your training?

We use classroom lectures, practice seminars, workshops. Where required, I source for strategic partners to train for areas where they have the most expertise. The training programs we provide are quite diverse, depending on client needs.

How is your training assessed?

First through participation and in some cases exams. Our training is supported by the Anti-Terrorism Accreditation Board (ATAB). All certifications are issued by the board on a point-based certification system for people that are interested in becoming Certified with ATAB.

What challenges have you encountered in delivering the training and consultancy? What frustrates you about the markets at the moment?

Counter Terrorism is a specialized field – most people assume it is reserved for ex- military or police officers. Breaking the myth was a huge challenge but it has become a strength in my understanding of how problems are resolved in this field. The biggest operational challenge is mostly with larger firms that provide similar training, but we are unique in our focus on Africa.

How would you characterize your success?

The demand for our services is high and this is attributed hugely to the kind of clients we have worked for or with – from UK MOD; Met Police, SO15, and so on. The biggest measurement of success is the fact that African countries are taking security seriously. This has been down to years greater awareness.

What advice can you give to potential clients about your training services?

The best position to be is to have a client who understands the context and structure of their problems, so our solutions become a mirror reflection to it. We also have the ability to launch a pre-assessment to enable a client to understand what the key issues and capabilities they have. Again, it is about our clients understanding their business needs.

You state that defeating terrorism requires multi-stakeholder cooperation. How would you characterize the levels of cooperation, collaboration, and engagement?

I have engaged with lots of different organizations that bring in expertise from different areas to work. There is an appetite for collaboration. but because of the nature of the sensitivity of security, some companies are bound by the non-disclosure agreements. They are not allowed to work with certain organizations on the basis of maybe some level of clearance, so there is a systematic barrier to collaboration between organizations, which is not helpful.

The desire for collaboration is weak. That is one of the areas where criminals and terrorists take advantage of knowing that sister agencies do not collaborate, and do not share information on time or at all. Therefore, it is easy for loopholes to be created or gaps to be left.

One of our key principles is partnership collaboration with like-minded institutions. In security, we prefer partnership to adverse competition. Where there is a need for synergy and collaboration or coordination, we would engage with others to deliver. We do not think it is possible for anyone to ring-fence the security space.

For example, I can secure the expertise from an ex- Metropolitan police officer to deliver a capacity building program in Africa, but we still need to provide a cultural intelligence local framework – culture and skills apply very differently.

We are in an era of global engagement, especially in – counterterrorism, security, or organized crime work. Effectiveness cannot be realized without meaningful collaboration and coordination from multi-agencies. This is an asymmetric era of warfare; the enemy is shaped as a friend – making them invincible. The more we engage and collaborate with each other and the local communities, the more effective our strategy will be.

This is one of the most effective approaches to maintaining the unsigned social contract that exists between the state and the citizens from a security perspective. The people are expected to trust the state for protection and the state expects loyalty from its citizens. But without security, the social contract is bound to collapse. My role, as many in my area of expertise, is to provide a state-centric strategy of maintaining the social contract between the government and those who are being governed. Why? because we know certainly that nothing good comes out of a state of insecurity.

David can be contacted at David.otto@steppedin-stepout.com

or visit https://www.steppedin-stepout.com/ Twitter: @ottotgs

Marshal enables companies to resource and organise diverse Safety, Security & Risk Management capability at scale.

Register with the network to stay informed about opportunities and training services that help advance your career.